Page 82 of Consumed By the Mafia

Ahead of them, the other SUVs lit up as their engines rolled over.

“Don’t you think the lead car will do that?” Dale asked.

Abigail held her breath as she finished her message.Dale Morrow is here.It was all she knew for sure to say, or was yet brave enough to say, so she hit send. “The order was to all of us, so I’m complying.” She cleared her screen, locked the phone, and redocked it in the interest of playing things cool. At least she didn’t have it set for messages to pop up on the lock screen.

Dale clicked his seatbelt into place. “Always such a good girl,” he teased.

Abigail buckled herself in and started the SUV, a few seconds delayed in following the other two out. It wasn’t a big deal. The much bigger issue was that of her passenger.

“So, how goes undercover work?” Dale asked as they slowly made their way through the airport terminal.

Abigail held tight to the steering wheel and kept her eyes forward. “You know I’m not authorized to tell you that.” She regretted ever having told him, or their boss back in Arkansas, that she had been approached for reassignment at all. Let alone that it involved undercover work. “How’s Arkansas?”

Dale chuckled. “Pretty much the same. And of course you can tell me. Isn’t your big case why a whole bunch of us have been called in? This is gonna be plastered all over the internet come sunrise.”

That really isn’t the part I want to think about, thank you.“I’m not cleared to debrief you,” she said. “You know what you know regarding why we need reinforcements, and Agent Albert will do the debriefing himself once everyone’s on site. But yes, I can confirm this is connected to my ‘big case.’”

“So,” Dale said, “Newark FBI thinks they’ve got the goods. The real question is, who are they jumping tonight?” He shifted in his seat, propping an elbow on the ledge of his side window and facing her blatantly.

Abigail frowned. “I’ve told you—”

“Were you agood girl, Abs? Did you keep your nose clean and hand over all the dirt you could find on Dante De Salvo and his family?”

She made a point of furrowing her brow and angled a sideways glare his way, but he kept going.

“Or did they flip you, and get you to turn all this excitement onto Mr. Coughlan?”

Mister … Coughlan?Her blood ran cold and Abigail’s foot inadvertently came off the gas, her eyes widening. “What did you just say?” It was the wrong question, but it was the only one her brain could formulate.

Cold, polished metal pressed into her cheek as she started to turn her head and her body seized. Dale’s voice was almost foreign when he spoke again. “Keep driving, Abs. We’re going to take a detour, but we aren’t pulling away just yet. Let’s wait until traffic gets a little thicker.”

She obediently returned her foot to the gas pedal, her heart thundering in her ears. “What the hell is this, Dale?” she asked, her voice practically a whisper. “We’re on the same side!” They weren’t, obviously, but she was still trying to make it seem like she was all-in. She needed tonight’s arrests to stick. Which meant they needed tohappen.

Dale chuckled and dragged the barrel of his gun down, behind the curve of her shoulder blade and forward again, until it was pressed into her side. Between her ribs. “We really aren’t, unfortunately. I liked you, Abs, I really did. I wish you’d never been stuck with this shit assignment. I knew Mr. Coughlan would slit your throat before he’d let the fuckin’ feds take those De Salvo dogs off the streets—he wants their blood himself, you understand. But I hoped, since you always had an issue with pulling the trigger, that you’d drag your feet a little too much and the case would get bungled. Long enough, at least, that I wouldn’t have to do something drastic.”

Abigail scoffed as everything clicked together. “You leaked the information about my identity and got my apartment ransacked?”

“Mr. Coughlan was gonna offer you a deal,” Dale said. “You’re Irish, he’d fold you in, same as he did me. But you bit the hand he held out.”

She really wanted to punch him. Square in his asshole face. If she weren’t driving on a busier-than-usual road, in the dark, she would have risked it, gun be damned. Who the hell cared if he shot her. “You son of a bitch. Who cares if grandparents I never evenmetcame from Ireland? That doesn’t mean I want in on some criminal organization!”

“See,” Dale said as if they were having a casual chat, “that’s because you don’t understand. It’s a legacy, and we should be proud of it.”

“Oh myfuckinggod.” Abigail spotted a sign for an upcoming off-ramp that would take them to an area of town less likely to be busy this time of night. He was liable to shoot her if she took it, and if he shot her at his current angle, she wasn’t likely to survive.

On the other hand, Dalewasstill sitting off-center in his seat.

“You know what, Dale?” Abigail held her hands perfectly still, only even flicking her eyes in Dale’s direction lest she tip him off to her terrible decision. There was no choice that didn’t hurt in some form. A little personal injury on the job was to be expected, right?Come to think of it, he’s the one who always said that.She drew a breath. “Screw you.” Then she spun the wheel, letting the SUV twist in the direction of the unpopular off-ramp before moving her foot to pump the brake and spinning the wheel again.

Dale started shouting, immediately throwing himself wholly back onto his seat as the SUV’s balance tipped. “What thefuck? What the fuck are you doing, Abigail?” He swung the gun around toward her again. “Fucking stop this nonsense right now!”

She felt the overcorrected vehicle drop a tire into the shoulder of the road. Felt the vehicle pitch. So she shot out one arm and kept the wheel moving with the other, hoping to throw off Dale’s trajectory as he squeezed the trigger.

The cabin of the SUV exploded with the single gunshot, deafening her so thoroughly she couldn’t even see. But she felt when the SUV finally rolled.

Everything hurt after that. Her ears started ringing, her body burned and ached in too many places to identify any single one. She felt like she’d lost time. She was dazed, disoriented, her body heavy and mind foggy. Was Ryoma okay?

Abigail felt her chest pinch.No.That wasn’t right.He’s not here.He hadn’t been with her this time. That was the other accident, the previous one.Then, why…?

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