Page 43 of Hunt

“Who?” Gunner barked, before Ronan could answer, my nephew added. “It better not be that fucking Shaun. I knocked out his tooth. I can knock out his fucking brain too.”

“She’s keeping it close to her chest because she worried about what you’d do,” Ronan told him. “But she said she went to the basement under the science library to look for you. Yet I thought you told her you would be away, so I don’t entirely believe her.”

“So, you want to get the girl who you think is a liar and colluding with the Larsson police and is possibly Annika the snitch to beourmole?” I questioned his sanity at this point.

“Yeah,” Ronan replied confidently. “Think about it. It’s the perfect plan. Ask her to snoop on the staff for us, then she’ll think we trust her. You know that saying, Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”

I directed my stare to Gunner, who knew the girl better than anyone. “Would it work?”

Gunner cocked his eyebrows and nodded. “Yep.”

I took another pull of my cigar and blew the smoke out as I weighed up the information just given to me. Who was fooling whom here? “Alright,” I finally said to Ronan after several moments of deliberation. “Contact our lawyer and fill him in on what’s going on. We won’t agree to two million until we discover who was involved in his... little dilemma.” I rubbed the back of my neck with my hand.

Ronan nodded as he took notes on his phone. “Regardless, it occurred on our property, so we’re responsible.”

“I’m not disputing that,” I explained flatly. “And I’m not opposed to compensating him for his grievances, but I’m fairly certain he wouldn’t want his wife to know about his little fetishes with our girls, and considering that he makes toys for children for a living, I doubt that’s information he’d like released into the public.”

Ronan nodded in agreement. “We need time.”

“Exactly,” I sighed, as the alcohol and tobacco were finally starting to relax my body muscles, and I was beginning to see the situation from a different angle. “And ah…let’s put the girl to the test. Ask her to come into my office when she turns up for work tomorrow.”

“Sure,” Ronan agreed, yet Gunner wasn’t so sure, but he’d go along with it anyway. I suspected he was more interested in avenging Shaun for harassing the girl.

“Gunner,” I asserted in a firm tone. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

“Did he hurt her?” he asked Ronan.

“Don’t worry about it,” Ronan replied. “It’s all under control.”

“Gunner,” I stubbed out my cigar in the ashtray. “Don’t draw attention to yourself, now we know the Larsson police are lingering like a bad smell.”

“I won’t,” he grumbled in a bad mood, which was his default setting.

“Keep your nose clean, Gunner,” I pressed.

“I will,” he snarled as if I didn’t entirely trust that he could control his urges, which was true.

I glanced at Ronan before he turned and walked back up to his office. We knew what Gunner was like; he was his father’s son.

17

Ispotted the back of his head walking through a crowd toward his classroom and followed him as sadistic thoughts stirred in my mind. Yeah, I know Mikky didn’t want me to make a scene and cause a fuss, attract attention from the wrong people, but I’d become a master at quietly assassinating my prey. Since we're in the same class, I was going in his direction anyway.

There were about twenty students between me and him, so I kept my eyes fixed on his head to ensure that if he decided not to go to class, I’d follow him wherever he went, and hopefully, I could get him on his own.

As the herd of students approached a narrow path between a tall brick building and a greenspace with a large weeping willow tree growing from the center, twenty students had to file in sets of two to fit on the path, like sheep herded along a thin bridge.

Even though I kept my gaze on his fat head, something urged me to look toward the tree when I caught someone standing there. To my delight, it was Riley Laws shooting me a dark scowl as if she knew exactly what I was doing.

“Riley,” I said to her, pretending I was oblivious to her glare, which was warning me to stay away from Shaun. “Fancy meeting you here?”

She walked alongside me, which I liked, but was getting in my way. “Where are you going?” she asked suspiciously.

“Class,” I replied honestly.

She stretched her neck to look past the students ahead, but wouldn’t see my target as well as I would. “Is Shaun in your class?”

“Yes, he is,” I mocked.

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