Page 64 of Web of Lies
“What do you mean, she's the job?” He lowers his voice to a hissed whisper. “Not anymore? What do you mean?”
“Why do you care?” I counter. “It's just a job.”
“The fuck it is,” he hisses. “There's only one person on the planet with that flowery fucking name. She's blonde, right? Tall but not too tall? Light eyes? Athletic build? Immune to common goddamn sense when it comes to men?”
I just stare at him, processing the fact that the world could possibly be this small.
“Married to a slimy fuckhead named Adrian?” Conner continues.
“Yes. How do you know her?”
“Fuck you. How is she your fucking job?”
I shake my head. “She's not a job anymore.”
“Yeah, probably because she's dead by now. What was the job?”
“How do you know her?” I'm not telling him anything until I know.
“She's my friend. I mean, she's Regan's best friend. They're like sisters.”
Rage billows, making my skin feel like it’s going to peel back from my skull. “If they're like sisters, why did she let that mother fucker try to starve Larken to death? How did she miss that? It's only completely obvious. What about the drugs? How did she miss that?”
Conner sits down in the chair on the other side of the couch, his offense deflated. “Drugs? What drugs? What do you mean, starving her? Jesus christ. I have to wake up Regan. She's going to freak out.”
I drag my hands down my face and give him the abridged version of the timeline of events since Adrian hired me, watching his face grow more serious with each thing I divulge. I take a breath, shaking my head again, defeat and despair threatening to render me useless. “And now Tabor has her.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah.”
“He hates you.”
I nod. “Hence the urgency.”
He does hate me. I don't think I have ever been hated by anyone as much as Tabor hates me. I'm glad he hates me. I hate him right back. He's an evil son of a bitch. I at least have a few morals, but he doesn't have any. That's why he hates me. I've ruined his shit in the past, one time in particular. And that's why he's got that big X on his face. I put it there to remind him every single day of his life that children are off limits. It won't bring back that little boy, but Tabor will think of me and what I did to him and why I did it every time he looks in a mirror or catches someone staring.
“You have to go,” Conner says. “You need to go now. Do you know where to start looking?”
I force my mind to quiet so I can actually think. Tabor doesn't work with other people. He doesn't build relationships or partnerships. He's cold. Calculated. But he's also arrogant. He considers himself to be the biggest and meanest asshole who ever lived. He's probably right, but that kind of arrogance leaves plenty of room for mistakes and stupidity no matter how calculated a person is. I'm owed favors by a few other people in this area. I'll know where he is by tonight, hopefully sooner.
“Can he stay here?”
“Of course, man. Don't even worry about it.”
I raise my brows. “Your girlfriend won't mind?”
“Listen, Wyatt. We'll be lucky if she doesn't go after Tabor herself after I tell her he's got Larken. She'll take care of this guy out of spite. Actually, I'm going to ask her to take care of him. It's going to be all I can do to keep her from going for Adrian. She hates his ass anyway.”
“Shaun,” I tell him. “That's his name.”
“Okay. You really have to go. The longer he has her …”
“I know.”
Chapter Twenty-four
Larken
