Page 19 of Hard to Kill

“It’s the other way around,” Jimmy said. “I’m the last guy in town you want up in your shit.”

McKenzie had smiled at him.

“Well, maybe not the last guy.”

“You think you’re some kind of badass, Eddie?”

The smirk was back in place. “No,” McKenzie said. “But I know some. Now get your hands off me before I start yelling for security.”

Jimmy did. McKenzie walked out onto Madison, his girlfriend following him.

Jimmy gets to Southampton and cuts through Shinnecock Hills Golf Club; taking North Sea and then Noyac Road, the bay on his left, passing Ferry Road because he’s not going down to the Shelter Island Ferry but into North Haven and the turn on his street.

He loves driving around at this time of night, hardly any other cars out, sometimes going a couple of miles without seeing any headlights or taillights.

As late as it is, he knows it’s still too early in Switzerland to call Jane and tell her about his night. And before she left he promised her, and himself, that he wasn’t going to give her daily updates while she was over there, even though she tells him it will take her mind off the reason she went there in the first place.

As if any update he was going to give her could do that.

He knows he needs to find out more about McKenzie, figure out how much badass he might have behind him, maybe even from Sonny Blum, who might still be in business with Edmund McKenzie’s old man. Who might still be fixing things for the family.

One thing was certain: McKenzie had seemed pretty goddamned sure of himself, after he’d asked how many times Jane and Jimmy might let Rob Jacobson, his old high school pal, get away with murder.

Jimmy parks his car in the driveway, finally ready to sleep, asif driving back out has really driven the adrenaline he was feeling at Bemelmans right out of him.

They’re waiting for him inside the front door, on him in the dark before he can throw the light switch.

A needle goes into the back of his neck then.

The last thing Jimmy hears is a voice behind him in the darkness saying, “Remember what this feels like?”

FIFTEEN

Jimmy

WHEN HE COMES TO, he feels as groggy as he did after Joe Champi—or at least Jimmy always assumed it was Champi—jabbed him at the home of Gregg McCall, the Nassau County DA who’d hired Jane and Jimmy before disappearing for good.

Except it’s my goddamn house this time.

He can see enough, barely, to know they have him in his bedroom at the back of the house. It’s dark enough that he can make out shapes, just not faces. There’s a big guy to his right, the one who’s just said, “Rise and shine.” The woman, smaller, is to Jimmy’s left. Jimmy knows it’s a woman because he hears her say “You must be joking” when the guy asks if she’s sure Jimmy’s wrists are secure enough.

“You want to tell me what this is about,” Jimmy says. “I was hoping to turn in early.”

“And you did.”

“You have a name?” Jimmy says, turning his head just enough to face the guy.

Nothing.

“You and Champi have similar games. The two of you ever work together?”

“Funny story,” the guy says. “We started working togetherwhen we were involved in the same situation. Long time ago. Representing different interests.”

“Whose?”

Nothing.

“Aren’t you going to introduce me to your date?” Jimmy says.

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