Page 116 of Hidden Trial

“Come out from behind there,” Will said.

Antonio scooted forward and groaned as he tried to stand with one hand pressed against his thigh. Peter grabbed his arm and pulled him up, shoving him onto the bed.

“Please.” Antonio’s voice shook. “I need a doctor.”

“No problem,” Will said. “Tell us where Charlotte is, and we’ll get one for you.”

“If I bleed out, you’ll never find her.”

“But you’ll also be dead. Is it that important to you to make Charlie suffer? Wouldn’t you rather get her out of your life and still be alive?” He considered Antonio for a moment. He was a man who craved power over anything. “Or does she have a hold on you? You can’t let her go because she controls you?”

Antonio growled. “It has nothing to do with that. I simply believe it’s important to make people suffer for the trouble they cause.”

“I’m sure she has suffered in the short time you’ve had her,” Peter said. “Wouldn’t you rather live? That’s a lot of blood you’re losing.”

Antonio looked at Will. “You want Charlie? Fine. But I’ll need to make a call first.”

“Why?”

“I left her with a friend. I don’t know what he did with her after that. He could have moved her. She may no longer be in the country.”

Will leapt forward, pressing the barrel of his gun into Antonio’s temple. “If I find out you’ve—”

“Hey,” Peter said. Pulling him back. “We’ll deal with that later. Antonio? You had better hope Charlie is nearby.”

“My phone is in the other room.” He stood and hobbled toward the door. “I left it on the desk by the window.”

“Don’t try anything. We can still kill you.”

Antonio smirked through a grimace of pain. “You know what your problem is?” he said when he reached the desk.

“We’re not the ones with the problem right now,” Will said.

“No?” He scooted around the edge of the desk, reaching for the drawer. “Your problem is you’re too emotionally involved. You’ll get further in life if everyone around you is expendable.”

“That’s a miserable state of existence. I’d rather get emotionally involved than lack any emotion at all.”

“And that’s why you won’t live very long.” His hand plunged into the drawer and he pulled a gun, firing.

Will and Peter both discharged their weapons, and Antonio fell back against the window. He dragged the curtain down as he slipped to the floor.

“You okay?” Peter said, moving to Antonio to check for a pulse. But his open eyes already told them what they needed to know.

Will kept his weapon pointed at Antonio while he stared at the dead man. “It was a reflex.”

“What was?”

“Firing my weapon.”

“Yeah. For both of us. It was us or him.”

“But he’s dead.” Will continued to stare, stunned.

“I know. But we did what we had to.”

“He missed. We could have waited.”

“He missed with the first one. He wouldn’t have missed with the second. We had no choice.”

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