Page 149 of Gunner

My man? I swept my gaze over him again. Gunner was the one who’d done this to him? He’d told me he would, but seeing the result of his work left me speechless. My stomach fluttered, and I had to take a deep breath. What Gunner had done to this man was bad enough. I didn’t need to take pleasure from it, yet I couldn’t stop.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.

“Yeah, right, and I wasn’t in the hospital room when you were attacked.”

“Why on earth would you think it’s a good idea to remind me why you’re in this mess in the first place? You tried to end my life.”

He fell silent, clutching the blanket in one hand.

“Keep your hands where I can see them,” I said. I pulled back the hammer of my gun and sat across from him. “Now let’s get to the reason I’m here.”

“Isn’t it to finish off what your man started?” he spat.

“You’ll determine that. I’m here for answers. Answers we couldn’t get out of you at the precinct, but at the police station, we had to abide by the law. Here, it’s just you and me.”

He shuffled back against the sofa. “This how you cops work now?”

“Let’s set the ground rules before we begin,” I said as if he hadn’t spoken. “From now on, I ask the questions, and you answer them, but so we’re clear, I am here because I’ve run out of patience. I’ll get answers out of you any way I can. How far I go depends on you. Why don’t we start?”

“You want to hear my story, you’ll have to listen to it in court with the judge and everybody else.”

“Who hired you to kill the patient at the hospital?”

He shrugged. “No one. He owed me money. When I found out he was alive, I decided to get my pound of flesh.”

“Let’s say I buy that story for a minute, tell me, how did you know about the patient? On paper, he’s dead.”

“Nothing’s ever really a secret.”

“You don’t value your other leg, do you?”

He held his hands up. “You can’t do this. You’re a cop. You’re supposed to—fuck!”

I’d smashed him across the face with the butt of my gun. The impact sent him crashing against the back of the couch. I grabbed him by the front of his shirt.

“That man of mine who ruined your leg is currently in jail for a crime he didn’t commit,” I said calmly. I tapped the cast. “If he cares enough to do this to you for what you did to me, don’t you think I should at least make an effort to do just as much for him?”

His chest rose and fell rapidly, and he kept his eyes locked onto the gun in my hand. “I don’t know.”

“Not good enough.” I shifted the gun to his other knee. “Last chance to give me something useful, or I’ll blow your kneecap out.”

I counted down the seconds in my head. Sweat popped up on his forehead. I lifted my arm.

“Wait!” he cried. “I’ll tell you.”

“Good.” I shifted to my left, putting some space between him and the gun.

Bang!

The loud explosion was followed by a bullet whizzing past me. As the sharp echo of the gunshot reverberated through the room,I instinctively ducked and rolled to the side, away from the open doors where the bullet had originated.

“Get down!” I yelled.

Another bullet flew past my head, and I fired, even though I couldn’t see who it was. I dove behind the couch, my heart pounding and adrenaline surging through my veins. Rapid gunfire pierced the air. There had to be more than one of them.

Fuck.

The couch wasn’t much of a protection. Nothing in the living room was. I had to get the hell out of there.

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