Page 80 of Along for the Ride

“I’m not fucking finished. Here’s what’s going to happen. We’ll take the money and leave your ass alive, and you won’t call the police. If you do, I’ll send someone from fucking prison to find youandyour son. Don’t make me do that.” I tap the tip of the knife on his nose. “Next, you’re going to get off the drugs. I know all your dealers, Ralphie boy, and it would take a whole lot of nothing to get them to lace your next hit with some fentanyl so you can take a nice dirt nap. You wouldn’t be the first celeb we took down.”

His eyes widen with fear, and he almost looks more terrified to live without drugs than to die by my knife. “I can’t go through withdrawal. It will kill me!”

“If she can do it, you can fucking figure it out. These are my terms.”

He closes his eyes and tries to swallow again, but the blade won’t allow it. “Okay, okay,” he chokes out.

I grab him by the back of the neck and lead him to Leana. Shock fills her big blue eyes. Same, girl. “Thank the thief for saving your ass.”

“Thank you! Thank y-you!” he cries.

I roll my eyes.

“Promise you’ll get help,” she says to him.

He nods. “I promise.”

Against everything in my nature, I let him go and he falls to the floor. I can’t even look at Gentry because I have no clue what his expression is. Whether he’s happy or upset, I’ll end up annoyed with him. As we walk toward the door, Gentry calls out a parting shot.

“And change your security code. Jesus, a toddler could have guessed that,” he yells over his shoulder. I fight a smirk because he didn’t guess it.

My good little thief did.

ChapterThirty-Three

Gentry

Ifeel like the world has imploded. The ground beneath us shattered, and everything we knew washed away as it broke apart. Karson turned down a kill. He’s gotta be ill. Actually sick. Maybe even dying. “Come here. Let me check your forehead.” I lean over and reach toward his face, but he smacks my hand away.

“Fuck you,” he says. “It’s her fault.”

“My fault?” Leana asks, genuine surprise coloring her tone. She knows damn well it’s her fault. Neither of us would leave a target alive like that.

But she would.

“Yeah, you had to walk over and look all fucking sad.” Karson waves us off as he quickens his steps to pull ahead of us. It’s a long walk across this damn yard.

“Since when do you care if anyone is sad?” she asks, and I let the retort lift the corners of my mouth.

So mouthy. I love it.

Karson stops and turns around. “Yoursadness is theonlyone that bothers me. Not his. Not mine. Yours.” He looks away. “And I hate it. I don’t know how Gentry juggles feelings and homicidal thoughts in the same body. The same mind. How are you a killer with a conscience, G? It makes no fucking sense to me. I don’t like how it feels, and I don’twantthose feelings. I was doing fine as I was!”

I cock my head at him. He has never beendoingfine. He has never been fine a day in his life.

“Fine-ish!” he snaps before turning away from us again.

I pull Leana into me as we walk. “You know that was incredibly dumb, right?”

She knows. It doesn’t take someone who kills for a living to know that was dumb. That piece of shit might call the police before we even reach our car.

“Then why didn’t you stop it?” she snaps, and I squeeze her sides.

“For one, I was too shocked to stop it. But also, I wouldn’t have let him kill Ralph, anyway. So fucking stupid to do, but it was for you. If we get caught, we fall back on the plan. I’ll put a bullet through your head”—I lean over and kiss her forehead—“and then go out in an exchange of gunfire.”

She pulls away from me just as we get to the SUV.

“We forgot the blanket,” she says as she gets into the back seat.

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