Page 30 of Judgment Day

“I plan to seek and obtain her approval very soon. So, whatever is bothering you, don’t stress over it. I’ll be able to share the burden with you soon. You don’t have to distance yourself from me. I’m okay with you not telling me what’s going on. I may not be able to help you with the problem, but I can hold you while you process it.”

He pulled her close again to do just that.

“I love you,” she whispered against his chest. “And I’ll tell you everything when I can, if I can. I just... I don’t like keeping things from you. It doesn’t feel right.”

Scar smiled. “It doesn’t feel right knowing that you’re keeping things from me. But I understand.”

“What if...” she started, then went silent.

“What if what?” he asked.

“Nothing. I’ll tell you about it when I can. Let’s talk about something else to take my mind off my agency.”

He wanted to know what she’d been about to say. But she was already feeling low. His job was to lift her up, not push her even lower.

“Thereissomething I want to talk to you about,” he told her. But it’s not going to brighten your day.”

She stepped away from him again. It was the same action as before, but this time it didn’t feel like she was distancing herself from him.

“Did something new happen in the Letisha case?” she asked.

“No. But the judge has contacted me.”

Exa sighed. Her expression turned murderous. “That rat bastard!” she yelled. “What the fuck did he want?”

She’s back.He loved it when she looked ready to kill.

“You,” Scar told her. “He wants you.”

“He’ll get me soon. Just not in the way he wants.”

“He wants you now. And he’s ready to do anything to get you. I’m afraid we’ll have to act before he does.”

“I’m not ready to deal with him yet,” she complained.

“I know. But ready or not, we have to take him out.” Scar steered her over to the bed. “Sit down.” He pulled out his phone, pulled up the judge’s texts, and then handed it to her. “Read these while I get the other stuff.”

As she read the texts, he pulled out his laptop and brought it to the bed. He laid across the bed behind her and placed the laptop in front of him. He pulled up the correspondences between him and the judge, along with the contract he’d signed.

“These texts are so stupid,” Exa said as she turned to lie beside him. “Is he really threatening to send goons after us?”

“Yup,” Scar said.

“How does that work again?” she asked. “I’m hoping we can find a way around it.”

He showed her the contract and explained how and why the contracts worked. If a hitman failed to complete his assigned task, he would be required to return the money he’d been paid back to the client.

Unlike with the Dark Net, the judge’s contract didn’t have a kill clause. On Dark Net assignments, if a hitman tried to cheat a client and take part of the payout without completing the job, he himself would become a target, and a hit would be put out on him.

This contract came with a different clause. If Scar tried to skip out with the judge’s money and not complete the task, assassins would be sent after him. The money the judge had planned to pay him would go to the killer who managed to kill Scar.

So, instead of one person being hired to come after him, any and everyone who was looking to make some money would start hunting him. The first to complete the task would get the bounty.

“Fuck him and his goons,” Exa stated. “He can send however many he wants after me. I’ll send them back to him one body part at a time.”

“Normally, I’d be okay with you butchering them one by one and sending them back to him, but we can’t have that kind of attention on us while we’re trying to save Letisha. To avoid that, we have no choice but to go after the judge. We can’t have hired killers thwarting our rescue attempt of Letisha.”

“You’re right,” she said. “We don’t have time to fight two separate battles on two separate fronts. But he’s only given you a week to turn me over to him.”

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