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“And I’mkind offalling for her.” Gav smiled. “Do I kill her, or do I let her go?”

“There’s no other option?” I asked.

“She knows you’re a killer.”

“I haven’t killed anybody yet,” I said. “What if I let this guy loose?”

Mr. Steadhill looked up hopefully at me, growing silent for the first time in hours. Gav poked his foot again with the scalpel and he yelped.

“Of course not. Kill him. But you can’t keep her here forever. You’ll have to decide whether it’s worth it to you to let her go.”

“I can’t let her go. If the feds see her leave my place, they’ll just track her down and kill her themselves. Or send her to someone else like me, to make her disappear. She’s got her foot in some messy business, here, Gav.”

“You’re telling me.”

“You don’t think I could just keep her here?” I asked, hating the pleading note in my voice.

“It’s tough, keeping a girl locked up. I only lasted what, a week with my hostage? I couldn’t handle it.” He frowned. Blood began to stream down Mr. Steadhill’s foot and onto the floor.

“Damn, I nicked a big blood vessel here.”

I rolled my lab stool over to the medical cabinet and fished around in the drawer.

“I keep thinking that something will come to me. Some idea that will make everything okay.” I pulled out a bottle of superglue and tossed it over to Gav. He caught it and opened it up.

“You wish. If you don’t love her, kill her. Put her out of her misery.”

I frowned. The girl was interesting. It was interesting to touch her. Interesting to talk with her. She’d surprised me with her boldness. I didn’t want to swat her down. It didn’t seem right.

“And if I do love her?”

“Do you?”

“God, no,” I said. “But as a hypothetical.”

“Rien.”

“What?”

“You’ve never lied to me before.” Gav grinned, applying superglue to the cut on Mr. Steadhill’s foot. The blood stopped flowing.

“Who knows, maybe she’ll decide that she can stand to kill this asshole. Then we’re both murderers. Or rather, she’s a murderer.”

“That’s a weak plan.”

“It’s all I’ve got.”

“Pretty weak.”

“You think so?” I scratched my chin. “Why?”

Gav raised his eyebrows at me.

“Seriously, Rien? Here, let me show you what’ll happen.” He mimed picking up a phone. “Hello, police? Hi, some crazy man kidnapped me and tortured me and forced me to kill a guy. Your high up guy at the CIA won’t think twice about cutting you loose if that shit goes public. And like you said, if the feds get to her right away, she’ll be dead in two seconds.”

“Fine. I’ll come up with another plan.”

“Better hurry up before the feds realize this guy’s wife isn’t dead.” Gav was back to cutting, this time around the pinky toe.

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