Page 57 of Accepted Precedent
I take a deep breath in through my nose and sigh it out slowly. “If I tell you, you can’t say anything to Andrew—to anyone.”
“I promise.” She nods and takes my hand, squeezing it once. I trust her with my life, but if Mickey finds out I shared anythingwith her, he’d have no problem ensuring I never see my sister again.
“There’s a man running for office who the Gallaghers needed to, um, disappear today.”
“Disappear? Like…” She glances down at the gun and gasps. “No! You’re not going to kill anyone.”
“Yes, I am. There are a lot of moving pieces, but trust me, this has to happen.”
“Nothinghas tohappen,” she deadpans. “For fuck’s sake, you don’t have to murder a man to ensure he loses an election. What if you get caught? You’re willing to go to jail?”
“I don’t have time to argue with you about this. If you’re so worried, come be my lookout so I don’t end up in an orange jumpsuit.”
Evie throws on a pair of tennis shoes without socks and grumbles, “You fucking owe me for this one.”
I’m genuinely surprised she’s willing to help. We’ve always looked out for each other, but asking her to assist me with getting away with murder is new territory for us. Once she grabs her phone, we powerwalk to the stairwell and rush down the two floors and to my room. I let her in and check the time—I have five minutes, maybe seven.
“Okay, here’s the plan. You need to leave this door open a crack so I can run inside if I need to. I’m going to knock on his door and ask to use their phone. If the mistress is there with him like she was last night, I’ll have to kill her too.”
“Are you sure this is the best idea?” She chews on her lip. “Maybe we could just talk to him? Or just have Mickey threaten him? Why does he have to die?”
“I don’t have time to go through what’s been done already. We’ve tried it the easy way.” I take a deep breath, hold it, then slowly blow it out, repeating three times. “Okay. I’m going in.”
It’s been years since I’ve shot a gun, and my hands are a little shaky. I check twice that it’s loaded and the safety is off. I’ll have only a minute or so to do this, and there is no room for error.
I hug Evie, and she squeezes me tighter. Then I turn off the lantern and step out, keeping the door slightly ajar.
I didn’t think this through…
Hiding the gun behind my back, I knock on the door. There’s rustling on the other side, then he opens it. It’s a shame I have to kill him—he’s quite attractive and has the most sinfully gorgeous blue eyes. If he wasn’t supposed to die tonight, I’d ask him to have a drink with me downstairs.
He rubs the sleep from his eyes. “Can I help you?”
“Hi, yes, I’m just across the way, and it looks like there’s a power outage. My cellphone is dead, and the hotel phone isn’t working. Can I use your phone?”
He glances behind him into the room, then replies, “Uh, sure. One second. Let me grab it.”
Shit. This isn’t going to work. I keep the door wide open as he walks further in. With his back turned to me, it’s now or never.
I lift the gun, aim for the back of his head, and shoot. There’s a groan and a thump as his body crumples to the ground. I turnon the flashlight on my phone to check the damage and confirm I don’t need to take a second shot. Thankfully, he’s alone.
Now what?
Think, Kristin! Think!
I begin talking myself through it, “In case Ned can’t get to us, I need this to look like someone broke in. Maybe he was mugged? Yes. Mugged. Okay, this could work…”
Rushing to the bathroom, I locate a washcloth and use it to remove the wallet from his back pocket. Tucking the gun under my arm, I sift through it in search of his keycard in case we need to come back in here.
“Damn, it’s not here.”
I don’t have time to find it and have to hope Ned will have a way to enter without a card. I knock over a lamp and trash can, dumping out its contents, then slip out of the room. I make it back into mine right as the lights turn back on.
That was a close one.
“Fuck, I need a drink.”
“Kristin!” Evie screeches, and I cover her mouth with my hand.
