Page 2 of For a Price

“Nobody dies,” I say firmly. “We’re just holding him for ransom ’til his family pays up… right?”

“No death.”

It’s my one moral hard line.

So I lied earlier.

I’ll do anything for a payday…

Exceptkill someone.

I’m willing to lie, steal, and cheat for the right price, but taking a life is where I draw the line. Every criminal has to have a limit. Mine happens to be ending a life.

If it really came down to it, I’d do what I have to in order to survive. But it’s a dark path I haven’t had to go down.

Yet.

“Finch says the job’s twenty Gs each,” JC says. “Where else you gonna make that kinda money?”

“Damn sure not at Bang Bang. I don’t even get twenty an hour.”

“Seven o’clock,” JC says. “You better be there.”

“Right back at you. If you blow me off, I’m kneeing you in the balls.”

“Your bedroom talk needs work, Kat.” The door dings open with a family of four wandering in. JC clears his throat and quickly goes back to spooning soup into his mouth. “Get out of here. Before anybody sees.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

I do as JC says, getting up from my backward chair at his table and strolling for the door. Both hands in the pocket of my worn leather jacket, I nod my head at the family. As if they can sense I’m up to no good, the foursome merely gapes at me.

I’m not sure what disturbs them more—my lavender curlsormy nose ring.

It’s possible it’s neither.

Maybe they can sense my clothes cover the eleven tattoos decorating my brown skin.

I hit the downtown streets of Northam with no real direction to go in.

I checked out of the Neptune Motel before I came by Wong’s to see JC, which means I’ve technically got nowhere to stay right now.

Not the first time. Definitely won’t be the last.

A nomadic lifestyle is all I’ve ever known. Orphaned at a young age, I have no memory of my life before I lost my family.

I might as well have been born to an alley cat. My name fits.

But once tonight’s job’s finished, I’ll be rolling in cash. Twenty grand to spend as I please. I can finally rent a long-term room—and maybe even see about helping my only real friend in this world, Rosita, get Lucero back. She’s been fighting to get him out of the foster system for months.

With my mind made up, I wander the busy city streets for hours, counting down the minutes ’til tonight’s job.

Kidnap Roman Volkova and hold him for ransom.

CHAPTER 2

Katerina

Seven o’clock comes and goes.

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