Page 21 of Her Dark Mafia Protector
He doesn’t say a word, so I just keep talking.
“My mother used to make meatloaf when she was still alive. She used to take the ground beef and pound it with a meat mallet,even more than it was already mashed up, until it became so soft that it was practically butter—red, bloody, soft meat. That’s what your face will look like if you make a sound or get up from this desk. Do you understand?”
He nods, but his eyes betray him and glance around the room.
“Oh, and just so you know,” I whisper as I lean down closer to his face. “They call me the Ghost because I will, in fact, haunt you until the very moment of your death if you defy me. And even after that, I will make your afterlife insufferable.”
I straighten my back and give him a stiff pat on the shoulder. I can tell by the look in his eyes that he’s not going to move or make a sound after my words. Then, I make my way toward Hale’s office. When I open the door, I’m greeted with a slew of curse words.
“For fuck’s sake, Dan, I told you not to bother me today. I’m busy withprivatebusiness. Do your fucking job and mind the desk or else I’ll find some other ass-kisser to sit there, and I’ll put you out on patrol.” Hale Monroe is every bit as eloquent as I expected him to be, which is to say,not at all.
“I assumeDanis your intake officer? Pity that he’s tied up right now, but I’ll be sure to relay your message to him,” I say, unfazed.
Hale reaches for his gun, but I’m faster than he is.
It takes me less than a measurable second to round his desk and pull it out of his hand before he can even take the shot. What an inept piece of shit this guy is.
“I would suggest that you don’t try to be an idiot again,” I warn as I take his gun and search him for another.
“What do you want?” he hisses at me.
“Ah, so you know who I am? I have to admit that’s impressive. Most people don’t.”
“I only know who you are because I saw you that night,” he says.
For a second, I’m taken aback.
Then, as if my memory unlocks in real time, I remember seeinganotherperson in the alley that night. It was a blip, only a flitting silhouette of a man, and my focus was on the gunman and onElle. But now this brings everything into full focus—Hale Monroe wasthere.
“I wondered how long it would take before you finally came and confronted me,” he says as if he’s trying to insult my intelligence. “Honestly, I was starting to think that your reputation was just a bunch of hype. All those mafia bosses talk about theGhostas if he’s some sort of mythical legend with supernatural skills. And yet it took youyearsto figure out it was me.”
“Trust me, I’ve had a hunch about you all along,” I say through gritted teeth. “I’ve just been letting you fester and rot before coming to claim the truth from your putrid mouth.”
“A hunch?” he laughs. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I take a seat in the chair across from his desk. This is going to take a few minutes to squeeze out of him. It’s an infection that has been covered up and growing for years now.
“I’m talking about how you had yourwifemurdered,” I say matter-of-factly. “You had the mother of your child killed in front of your twelve-year-old daughter’s eyes. And I’m here to find outwhy.”
Hale squirms a bit in his seat as if he’s going to circle back and deny this now, but it’s too late for denial.
“And before you decide that you’ve suddenly forgotten what you just admitted to by being in that alley that night, let me remind you of something,” I say as I strum my fingers on the surface of his desk between us. “I can kill you and your man outside without blinking an eye or making a sound. I can also wipe your security camera footage clean in a matter of seconds with a quick phone call to a friend. I can make it look like you had a mental breakdown and killed your cop friend before killing yourself, all under the weight of guilt that you’ve carried with you for years over the murder of your wife.Oryou can fess the fuck up before I decide that this isn’t worth my time.”
“What do you want to know?” he asks, spoken like a true coward who wants to save his own ass.
“Tell me why you were in the alley that night.”
His eyes narrow as he glares at me. Hale is furious at the fact that I have the upper hand and that he finally,finallyhas to answer for what he’s done.
“I wanted to see that the job was completed,” he says. “I wanted to be sure that it got donecorrectly.”
“And bycorrectly, you mean you wanted to see for yourself that your wife was killed?”
“Yes.”
“And that your daughter was spared?”
Hale nods. “I had no desire to hurt Elle, neither back then nor now.”
