Page 53 of Hitch
But then the woman stumbles forward with a pistol in her hands, a gunshot barely missing my head. She pulls back the hammer again, her gait uneven as she tries to fix her aim this time. I drop Michael and grab my own pistol. When it comes to the paid-girlfriend, there’s no reason to draw it out. She’s just caught in the middle of this. But I can’t let her live.
I shoot her in the head.
She falls back, the red dot in her forehead spilling with blood.
“Fuck, fuck,fuck,” Michael chokes, tears spilling down his cheeks. “Is this all for Reggie?”
I put my boot on his skull, shoving him back down to the ground.
“You ought to learn to respect someone as special as her,” I growl. I aim my gun at his forehead, pulling back the hammer once again, ready to make the little bitch beg for mercy.
“S-she’s playing you, man!” he says.
My world goes still, his words caught in my ears. He’s trembling, full of fear, like he should be, and it takes me a second to really imagine him as Reggie’s sugar daddy. She’s so fearless compared to him. He’s already crying and I’ve barely even touched him.
“Y-you’re the one she’s spying on, right?” he stutters. “W-when she stole from me, s-she had me call my employees to set up hidden cameras on her purse.” A vein in his forehead throbs in panic. “I don’t know if she’s stealing from you too, but she’s not as good as she seems. She’s not the victim here.”
I clench my jaw. That’s damn right.
As much as Reggie likes torun,she’s never been a victim. My woman always knows exactly how much she can get away with.
I steady myself, shifting my weight to my boot, crushing him against the floor. I wanted to draw this out, to make him experience every second of it, but I won’t tolerate another word. Not if he’s talking poorly about my girl.
“No,” I say. “She’s not the victim. But neither are you.”
I pull the trigger, shooting him in the neck. He wheezes, his eyelids flapping like baby bird wings, and as the blood spills out, painting his skin like a fresh beet, his eyes go still, and that fog finally settles me.
Sed’s death didn’t do anything for me, but Michael’s will do just fine for now.
A puddle of blood mucks the floor. I find bleach and a rag under the sink. Unfortunately, Michael is the kind of person whowillbe missed. I have to be careful about this.
After cleaning up the bodies, I move onto the surveillance cameras. It takes a while, but I finally figure out how to erase the footage from the last forty-eight hours and make it seem like the cameras have been having problems for a few days now. Then I pack a suitcase, throwing in a bunch of miscellaneous clothes for the both of them. In the paid-girlfriend’s lingerie dresser, there’s ten grand bundled up and tucked away, like she’s saving it for a rainy day. I chuckle. She blamed my girl for stealing from her sugar daddy when she was the one who was stealing all along.
Once the suitcases are packed up, I use Michael’s computer to buy two plane tickets to Europe. As far as the police are concerned, they eloped. Or maybe they got caught up with some bad people over there. Reggie mentioned the sugar daddy liked drugs. Drugs can lead you to unsavory types, like myself.
But as I pull the tarp over the back of the truck bed, Michael’s words come back to me:She’s playing you!
It was a last-minute attempt to live, something he said to save himself. But something about it sticks out to me.
Did Michael say that for my benefit? To save me? A man like him, victim to her games?
I don’t doubt he’s right. Reggie is just the type of person to spy—to blackmail me.It’s part of why I respect her. The girl knows to look out for herself. She even said she’d kill me if she had to. It’s why I’ve got this fixation with making things right for her. The woman deserves it.
But even as I drive away, cleaning my hands of Michael and his paid-girlfriend’s murder, his words keep repeating in my mind.
I have to confront her about this.
If I stop giving her money, then there’s no reason for her to keep me in this blackmail limbo. We’ll have to part ways, and she’ll have to make her final decision to turn me in, or cut me open and get more money.
And I’ll be forced to decide if I really ought to kill her.
Chapter18
Reggie
I claspthe flash drive in my hand, holding it like a grenade. There’s not much footage, but there’s enough to make it the final blow that destroys Grainswept Fields. I kept avoiding it, but when I called Michael to check in and make sure Duane didn’t kill him, he didn’t answer the phone, and a knot grew in the pit of my stomach.
Duane has probably killed a lot of people. And Michael may be another person added to his list.
