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I hesitated and Eddie’s gaze darkened even in the dim light from the desk lamp. If I gave him the gun, I was dead. I knew it. But it might also be my only chance to get out of there.
“Yeah, man, whatever you need.” I held it out to him, and he snatched it out of my hand, tucking it into his waistband at the front of his jeans. “What are you talking about, Eddie?”
“I knew you were a fucking narc,” he said. “I thought we were boys.”
“We are boys!” I insisted. “Look, we can fix this. Okay? Let me help Kenny and we’ll work this out.”
“No, no, no,” Eddie said, shaking his head. “See, I got my orders.”
“Oh, did the Prince tell you to shoot me?” I asked coldly.
“Fuck that. No, we know about him, too. We’ve ferreted all you rats out. The King and I…we got a plan. G ought to be dead by now. His guards got their orders as soon as you ran out to help this junkie. I was sorry to miss the fun, actually. But I begged to be the one take you out.”
Way more than you think.
Griffin’s guard’s words came back to me, and I allowed myself a small glimmer of hope. Maybe that was code for the fact that all of his guards were on our side? I didn’t know. And it didn’t matter.
I needed to worry about myself. Because Eddie was fucking bonkers, and I was probably seconds away from getting shot and left for dead on the floor next to my best friend.
“I don’t understand,” I said, hoping to keep Eddie talking while I tried to figure a way out. “Why hurt Kenny? He didn’t do anything.”
“He’s important to you,” Eddie said, as if that explained anything.
“But he’s yours,” I insisted.
“He’s never been mine,” Eddie spat. “None of them were. You come in here and you’re the perfect little soldier aren’t you? Because you were trained to be. They teach you that in the academy? How to charm grunts?”
“Man, I really don’t know what the hell you’re on about,” I said, inching toward him, my hands splayed to remind him that I wasn’t armed. “This is you and me.”
“Stop it!” Eddie screamed, raising the gun higher and pointing it at my head. His hand was shaking and I watched the barrel wave left to right in front of my eyes. “No. This ends. Right now.”
I decided that my best option was to come clean. Maybe it would throw him off and I could come up with a plan while he was off kilter.
“How did you figure it out?” I asked.
“You gave yourself away,” he said, smirking at me. I noticed that his arm dipped a little and I exhaled slowly, forcing myself to stay calm. “You and G. That man never touched anyone. Always kept his distance. But you two clicked too fucking fast. Like you knew each other.”
“You said he took toys all the time,” I countered, hoping my face didn’t show the relief I felt. It was one more of Eddie’s lies. Griffin wasn’t actually some kind of predator that burned through cartel members for fun.
Eddie just shrugged, that sick smile still pulling at his mouth.
“You’re so full of shit,” I hissed. “You’re not that smart, Eddie. You wouldn’t have put all of that together on your own.”
“I’m smarter than you ever gave me credit for,” he said smugly, his arm dropping lower again. “You never bought in, Matt. Never took part in the violence.” He shook his head. “I promoted you so I could get you close enough to expose you. To get you to tip your hand. And when you did, it only took one phone call to the King for everything else to fall into place.”
The gun was finally pointed away from me and I took my chance. I exhaled slowly then rushed him. He managed to get his arm back up and fired at me. It felt as if my chest had burst into flames, but we fell through the doorway together, crashing into the hall, both of us bouncing against the metal grate that ran the length of the upper floor.
Suddenly sound exploded around us. Lights flared through the building, and I could hear people shouting downstairs, but Eddie and I were wrestling with the gun in his hand.
I slammed his arm into the railing, and he cried out, his grip on the weapon slackening and I heard it tumble to the floor below. Raising my knee to his groin, I crushed his balls and he screamed, his body instinctively curling in on itself.
I used the distraction to pull the Glock from the back of my jeans and I pressed it into his forehead.
Footsteps thundered up the stairs, but I couldn’t turn from Eddie. My finger was shaking over the trigger, and it was taking every ounce of willpower I possessed not to put a bullet in his head.
“I thought I gave you an order,” Griffin said from behind me.
“Please tell me you brought medics with you,” I said, not moving the barrel from Eddie’s head.
