Page 40 of Twisted

“Don’t sound too fuckin’ excited,” Rancho teased, his mood decent for once.

“Yousound too fuckin’ excited.”

“Yeah, yeah, good one. I’ll send you the details. Boss man was hired by a shady source for this one. Needs you to take out a target, torture for confession.”

Jaeger nodded, absentmindedly walking to the kitchen and rummaging around for supplies to make Maisie coffee. He knew she took it black with a dash of cream. He wanted to feel guilty for stalking her every move, her every purchase, her every breath post-murderous rampage, but he couldn’t. He was only doing all of this because he…well, he loved her. And now that he’d had her, now that he knew just how explosive their physical connection was, he wasn’t about to let her go.

“Mmm, torture,” Jaeger mused, cradling the phone between ear and shoulder as he filled up the coffee pot with water.

“Yeah, I was eager too, ’til I found out it was a woman.”

Jaeger stilled, ice creeping into his veins as the water ran, his eyes staring wide out the kitchen window and into the buzzing summer afternoon. The air felt electrified, somehow. Charged. There would be a storm later, he thought.

“A woman?” he rasped, shutting off the sink before pouring the water in the tank and turning the pot on to brew.

“Yeah, first for everything, kid.”

“What’s the name?” he asked, holding his breath. He could hear Rancho shuffling around some papers on the other end. Jaeger could picture him in his old green pickup truck, files sprawled on the cushions.

“Got a photo here…and yeah, name is Maisie Jane Walkup-Hale. Damn, she’s a looker. Almost feel bad killin’ off somethin’ like that.”

Jaeger’s grip on the phone tightened enough that he could hear the plastic begin to shatter. The fury he’d stored away after her confession last night was about to be unleashed and doubled. No one would find her. The only person who knew where he lived was Rancho, and by fault that meant Hades knew, too. But he rarely appeared to deal with such petty things.

“Why?” came Jaeger’s voice, just a strangled whisper now.

“Don’t know why, kid, just know my job and my place. Why you sound like someone kneed your balls?”

“Who, Ranch? Who put the hit out? Who hired us?” Jaeger spit as the coffee began to dribble into the pot.

“Kid, you’re askin’ questions you ain’t supposed to—”

“I don’t fuckin’ care!” he roared, gripping the edge of his countertop in one hand. His friend became quiet, a deadly sort of quiet that bespoke his most sinister accomplishments.

“You listen good, kid—”

“Ranch, this is fuckin’ serious for me, alright? I need ya to listen good and close. Who fuckin’ hired us?”

Jaeger’s mind swirled. Carter and Randy being dead, it could simply be the crew they ran with, but he dismissed that thought; they had no knowledge of a man like Hades and those he employed, and they sure as shit didn’t have enough money to pay him for his services. They were all small-time thugs; trafficking drugs and weapons, the occasional human, diverting money into offshore accounts, stealing from the elderly or investors. No, crooks like Randy and Carter couldn’t hope to dream of being in league with someone like Hades, a man so powerful and untouchable, none ever saw him. To this day, only Rancho and Jaeger had any semblance of a relationship with the stoic man. And Hades wasn’t even his real name—no one fucking knew it.

So who had it been?

“Jaeger…we don’t do this, we face boss man. Money’s been paid in full and up front.”

Jaeger sneered, wondering at the price someone had put on his woman.

“How much?”

“Two mil.”

His gut twisted in anguish. Highest amount ever given. Whoever wanted her dead wanted to ensure the best men went after her, meaning if Jaeger didn’t do it, and if he couldn’t convince Ranch not to…then the almighty would ascend from his throne in the depths of hell. Jaeger’s eyes found the landscape outside, but his resolve was steel.

“She’s mine, Ranch.”

And with that, he snapped his phone shut, dropped it to the laminate floors, and crushed it beneath his heel.

13

Maisie

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