Page 43 of The Reluctant Hero

“I could lure him in, andtheycould kill him instead.”

“No,” Manny glares at me. “They will set you up, and no guard in a prison is going to let you take a magazine to bed for self-defense, dumbass.”

“Harsh,” I pout, crossing my arms.

“What are we doing?” Manny insists with a glare.

“Hiding?” I ask hopefully, fresh out of other ideas.

Manny straightens and eyes my huddled form with a scowl.

“Fuckthat. He’s used to the doormat version of you. Give him therealyou. You just hit a scary motherfucker with a magazine, Jeff. In front of his henchmen! If that kind of shit doesn’t scare Loser into a divorce, I don’t know what will. You’re seriously psychotic.”

“I guess?” I cringe and shuffle to the door without much hope of coming back unscathed. Manny keeps pace beside me to keep up the pep-talk.

“You can do this without murder, I know it. Just let him have it and kick him in the dick.”

“Why won’t he justdivorceme already?” I whine in petulant fury.

“That’s it, Jeff. Get pissed!” Manny encourages with an excited grin. “I can’t wait to see this. Give me the magazine.”

I’m passing it over to him when the scruffy guy speaks.

“I’ll take care of it.”

I look back at him as a deadly serious look takes over his face. His handsome features become blank with resolve. Whatever he’s thinking about isn’t healthy for him, that’s for sure.

“I was kidding about being happy in prison. You know that, right?”

“They’ll never find his body,” he assures me with calm confidence.

“That’s not better,” I tell him with a bewildered frown. “The wife is always the first suspect, and my anger issues won’t help that cause. Not to mention the party I’ll throw afterward. There will be signs.”

That seems to stifle his violent urge quickly and frustrate him. At least his expression has come back.

“Thanks for the offer, though,” I add lamely. “It was really sweet of you.”

His head tilts as a brow rises in disbelief. But his lips curl up in a smirk.

“Uh,” Manny eyes them warily.

“It’s fine, Manny,” I wave him off with a defeated sigh. “I’ll actually talk to the fucker like an adult. You’ll be safer with the mafia guys. Just stay here.”

“Uh,” his tone gets shaky as his eyes widen. “I was joking about the funeral thing but not the I never saw you guys.”

“We are notmafia,” Matthias grits out from clenched teeth. I ignore him as another thought hits me.

“Maybe this will be a good thing? Maybe he’s serving me paperwork!” I gasp in excitement. “He’s the kind of jackass that would want to serve them personally. Should I act sad about it? You know, so he’ll be all smug and leave really fast?”

“Jeff! Get pissed off!” Manny smacks me in the arm with the magazine.

“Ow!” I jerk back and cup my bicep. “That hurt!”

“Good! Channel that and attack!” He spins me to the door and gives me a shove. The door slams shut behind me, but Manny adds one more thing. “Go full rabid honey badger on him!”

“I am not a badger,” I snap back and then stand in the hallway with no idea what I’m doing.

For once, it’s quiet. It has an ominous feel to it that I don’t like at all. That feeling of doom is suddenly back. I want to turn around and bang on my apartment door. Maybe if I whine enough, Manny will let me back in. I changed my mind.

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