Page 2 of The Killer's Payment

Below-the-belt behavior.

I’m too distracted thinking about what a situation like this will do to my reputation to notice what he says next, but I catch one word.

Daughter.

“Fuck did you just say?”

The line goes silent. So silent I’d be thinking we must have gotten disconnected if I hadn’t just been the one responsible for saying the phrasefuck did you just saylike it was a weapon. Clearly, he needs a moment to recover.

“We took his daughter. W-w-we thought it might—”

“Let me guess. Collateral?”

There’s a sigh on the other end of the line, and I’m just annoyed it’s not the scream that accompanies the shattering of kneecaps. Idiots. Fucking idiots.

“So do you want us to… get rid of her?”

Do I want them to get rid of her? Cut her up and hide her parts all over the damn city? They might as well ask if I want to start a decade-long war with the eventual outcome being multiple casualties, and, more importantly, loss of revenue.

What I want are foot soldiers who don’t have to remove their socks to count to twenty—that’s what I want. Men who can be trusted to collect money and who have the brain capacity to recognize the difference between banknotes and little girls.

Since I have none of those things on this particular job, I tell them to bring her here and do it quickly. Then I throw the phone back down on the desk and wait. Seething. So seething, that the only thing stopping me from bashing every one of their brainless skulls in—on sight—is the fact I detest exposing children to violence.

Even if the thought of doing worse to said child’s parent practically gives me a semi.

John O’Rourke.

Just the thought of his name has my jaw clenching and my knuckles turning white. The former friend and wannabe kingpin who fucked me over. Stole from me.

And do you know what the worst thing about being stolen from is? Not the money. I don’t care about the money. It’s the disrespect. The betrayal.

Relationships are everything in this business. Fuck over your enemies, but treat your allies and associates with respect—to say nothing of your friends.

So fucking simple. Simple enough a child could understand, and John O’Rourke is no babe in arms. Unfortunately for him, neither am I.

I’m the best goddamn hit man in the business. Not a street-level enforcer. Not a low-level thug paid to follow orders and pop other small fry when they fail to deliver.

No, I’m the best killer on the east coast, and my services don’t come cheap.

But even when you’re as good at the game as I am, it eventually wears on you unless you’re a goddamn sociopath. And worse, it’s high risk. Other areas of this business have more lucrative rewards.

Which is why I’ve been diversifying, using the wealth I accrued from high-stakes hits to move into less risky ventures. I’m done killing for profit, but I have my reputation to think about. I can’t move on and fully embrace this next stage of my career when there are still loose ends.

And O’Rourke is definitely a loose end.

The prick probably thought he’d gotten away with it. Probably thought himself too big and probably thought the amount too small for me to bother retrieving it.

He’s about to find out exactly how pointlessthoughtscan be.

The security system alerts me to the arrival of the vehicle through which he’s going to pay me back with added interest. I imagine all the things I’d do to a child of his if the child were aheand fully grown. Fuck—at this point I’d take a fully grownshejust as well.

How tempting would it be to fuck her up and send her back to him? Make him feel a fraction of what he inflicted on me?

Drop her off on his doorstep wrapped in a bow.Onlya bow. Maybe some mascara running down her cheeks for that extra little throat punch.

I’m a horrible bastard. There’s no denying it at this point. I’m sick. But since she’s a child, and this is little more than pure fantasy about a woman who doesn’t even exist (yet), I let my imagination run wild as I answer the door.

The pair of idiots attempt another shit-stuttering apology when I answer, but a single look cuts that out immediately. I tell them to hand the brat over and make themselves scarce until I plan our next move. But the second they step aside, I do a double take.

---