Page 7 of Pretty Plaything
“Who are you? What do you want?” he blurts out. “Please don’t hurt me! I haven’t done anything!”
“This is very simple, Troy. You give me the recipe for the drug, and I let you go.” The corners of my mouth lift up as I play with my knife in my hands.
I know just how scary the look on my face can get.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, man!”
I pin him with a cold stare. “Do you really want to play that game? I know who you are, and I know you have it. I also know you’re planning to sell it to the Lionettis.”
Troy gapes at me, but his innocent, dumb look returns in place a moment later.
Impressive. I didn’t think he’d be capable of it.
“I don’t have what you want. It’s not here. But I can get it for you,” he says.
He’s fucking lying.
Either he wants me to let him go so he can pull something and lead me straight into a trap, or he’s stalling so that his friends figure out something’s up.
I point my knife at his neck. “I don’t believe you.”
“It’s the truth,” he says.
Too confident.
Another lie.
I pull out my phone. I haven’t come all the way here without carefully preparing my plan. When I find what I need, I turn the screen to Troy.
“Give me the recipe, or they die.” I flash him a smile.
I have photos of his family.
His pretty wife and his three children. I swipe my finger over the screen to show him more.
He thought he had them well hidden away. But, again, his main problem is that he seems to want to have everything he cares about very close to him.
“I have someone ready to take them out right now,” I say. “Tell me what’s more worth to you. Your family, or all the money you’re going to get for that recipe?”
Troy’s perfect mask cracks.
“Please,” he cries. “Please don’t hurt them! I’ll give you whatever you want.”
“The recipe, and I’ll let them live. You have my word.”
“It’s in the drawer in the kitchen.”
I furrow my brow and go check.
The only thing in the drawer is a list of ingredients for a cake and a shopping list. I grab the paper and raise an eyebrow at Troy.
“It’s in code,” he says. “There’s a phone in my room. It has a hidden app to decode the list. You have to use the phone to run the app and then scan the list. It will show you what you need.”
Hmm.
I hurry to get the phone. He may be trying to fool me anyway, so I need to make sure I have what I came here for.
After I follow Troy’s instructions, his app really decodes the list and turns it into something else. But I still have to verify it, in case it’s a really good fake.
