Page 144 of Hell and High Water

“Fine. So you killed my father. And three other members of the Sinful, from what we can tell.”

“That tracks. I wasn’t sure at the time who they were. But it makes sense. The same person hired me for those three.”

“And who was that?”

“What’s it worth to you?” Alaya grins, blood staining her front teeth from a split lip. Her voice is nails on a chalkboard to me now.

“This is a fucking waste of time. She’s just toying with us!” I explode, pacing the room.

“Gav,” Hellena clips, her tone sharp. “We need to know.”

“You really should listen to her and cool it, Gavvy.”

“I need to cool it?” I take a step back toward her.

“Yeah. ’Cause I let a lot of my anger toward you slide to be here.”

“Oh, how magnanimous of you, Alaya.”

“You left me to die and you disappeared, Gavin! You didn't even bother looking to see if I survived. I was alone in that hospital for months!” All the humor in her voice is gone, replaced by anguish. Bitterness. “And I did it by the skin of my teeth.”

“Damon forced me to leave you, Alaya. He said he saw your corpse.”

“Sure. Blame Damon. Is that why you let him die?”

“What?”

Her wicked grin is back.

“You could have gotten in touch with him. Tracked him down. Even after you two became estranged. He was a stone’s throw away from you for years, and you didn’t bother looking. You could have stopped me from killing him.”

I gape at her for several seconds, unable to reconcile the concept.

“He… I…”

Alaya smiles, her eyes full of grief. “I’m sorry. That’s not fair. But you see where I’m coming from? Old wounds make it hard to see clearly.”

“Piss poor excuse for shooting me,” Hellena spouts off, glaring at Alaya.

“Ha! Wear your badge proud, Hell. You’re part of the club now. That just leaves tall, dark, and manscaped for me to?—”

“If you try to shoot me, I’ll end you, witch,” Evan snips.

“Speaking of shootings, back to the point, please.” Hell takes a breath. “Who hired you?”

“Same fella, all four times.”

“And are you going to tell us who that is?”

“Only if you ask the million-dollar question first!”

The gears in my head are turning faster, the pieces finally falling into place. “Why didn’t you kill Rachelle if she was your target? You’ve never missed a hit in your entire life, Alaya.”

“Bingo! Jock itch to jokers, I thought you’d never ask. See, something felt off about this last hit. So I did some digging. Turns out that someone had a vendetta against Rachelle.”

“Who?!” we all shout simultaneously.

Alaya looks like she might burst with the smug satisfaction of being the center of attention. “The same slimy piece of shit the Sinful ordered to hire me to take out the other three. Only this time, he was acting on his own.”

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