Page 31 of Silent Vendetta (Vendetta Duet)

“What was his name?” I asked.

“He claimed it was John, but I think he was lying.”

“How did he pay you?”

“Cash. Half up front, half when she’s dead.”

“Even if the courts found my father was innocent,” Luna pressed, “why would this guy care about it? It’s nearly impossible to try a person for a crime they already found another person guilty of.”

“I don’t think the dude was, like, worried about prison time or whatever. I think, like, he didn’t want his friends and family to know he’d done something.”

Luna’s spine stiffened, but this was awfully convenient.

“And this man supposedly spilled all of this information to you,” I said. “You expect me to believe that?”

“For all I knew, he was a cop, so I had my boys shake him down for some answers until I was satisfied he was legit.”

“If you’re lying, I’ll cut your dick off and feed it to you,” I warned.

“I ain’t lying, man!”

I added one more person to my list. This man, whoever he was, would die, too, but I needed something to find him. A name, a phone number, a description, an address, or a meeting point to get the second part of his money.

“What did he look like?” I said, pacing in front of the bleeding asshole.

“Uh, like, older. Like, dark hair, average height.”

“Skin color,” I pressed.

“Some white dude, man.”

“You have a cell phone number?”

“No, man.”

“Then how were you going to get in touch with him when the job was done?”

The job. The word left a bloody taste in my mouth that anyone would refer to ending Luna’s life as a job.

“I was supposed to leave her body in a public location, so he’d watch for it in the press.”

“And then?”

“And then he’d drop off the rest of the money.”

“Anything else you can give me on this guy? A car, license plate, anything he might’ve dropped?”

“No, man. I swear if I did, I’d give it to you!”

“So that’s all you have?” I snapped.

“It’s everything I got!”

I exchanged the bolt cutters for my favorite knife, irritated that I was having to rush through this. I wished I could savor killing Franco, but if there was somebody else out there who wanted Luna dead. I needed to find him.

Fast.

If I didn’t find this man before the cops returned to check on Luna, he could come after her, and I wouldn’t be able to protect her.

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