His hand is still on my shoulder. That’s a mistake.
Ducking out from under it, I ask, “Who does know?”
I’m sure he thinks what I’m really asking is: who else do I have to pay off?
“Just me. Unless Desmond started running his mouth to someone else, I was the only one who overheard him this morning.”
Wow. What did he do? Cut out his nooner so he could run here and try to blackmail me immediately?
Big mistake, Wise. Fuckinghuge.
I glance behind me. I left the door open because I was hoping he would leave right away. Now? I purposely close it, then gesture down the stairs.
“Why don’t we take this away from the front?” I ask him. “We can discuss business where no one can overhear us.”
Let him think that Haven is just inside my door, listening. She shouldn’t be; she’s locked in the basement, currently napping. But what he doesn’t know…
“Of course, son. Yeah. I understand.”
He doesn’t—but he will.
“If she did something get herself ruined, I think it would be much better if you took her off the Order’s hands,” he tells me. “But I understand if we can’t come to an agreement. It works for me either way. I’ve always admired the tits on Rog’s girl. If you don’t want her, I’ll be happy to break her in down at the Court, if you know what I mean.”
Oh, Barry… I knowexactlywhat you mean.
Pretending like he hadn’t just signed his death warrant with that comment, I tell him, “This way.”
Together, we move around to the side of the house. I gesture for Wise to take the lead, murmuring that we’d have more privacy in the backyard. Meanwhile, once he turns his back on me, I reach into my pants pocket. I have my pocketknife out and open before we reach the patio.
Once we have, Wise turns to me as though ready to extort me some more. Too slow, asshole. I lunge forward, grabbing his chin, jerking his head back. With my other hand, I slash with my knife, cutting a smile into his throat.
He gasps, then he gurgles, then he clutches his neck before falling to his knees.
Still wearing my charming grin, I kick him in the shoulder until he’s flat on his back, choking on his blood. He jerks, and I wait, and then he dies—and I shake my head.
Dumb fuck. Blackmail me all you want, but he made the biggest mistake in the world by threatening Haven. Worse, he sexualized her. He’s got at least twenty years on her, he was a friend of her father’s, and he was eyeballing her tits.
He’s lucky I didn’t make him suffer first. Later, I’ll wish that I did. For now, I just spit on the bastard before reaching for the phone stuffed in my back pocket.
You know what? Jack can suspect that I have Haven all he wants. If he decides to send his goons to interfere, that’s fine with me. I’m two bodies down, and when it comes to protecting my sweetheart, I’ll kill a thousand more. I swear, I’ll kill each and every person who thinks they can try to take Haven away from me.
Looking at the woods ahead of me, I have the space to bury them, plus a guileless grin that I’ll slap on my face every time I deny knowing what happened to them.
I’m perfectly capable of handling Barry here. But just in case he really isn’t the only one who knows… and just in case Haven is awake and needs me…
I select one of the few contacts in my phone. It dials, and I wait for Dallas to answer.
“Hey, bro. I need a favor…”
Later,I’ll blame that Barry bastard for everything that happens next.
I’ll admit that, as easy andrightas it was to eliminate a threat to my Haven, it threw me off a little. Dallas told me he would be right over to handle my body problem for me. I made another call—this time to Adrian—to fill him in on what happened… and to get him to remind Desmond to keep his mouth shut before I did it for him.
After that, I went back inside. I wasn’t too worried about leaving Wise out back. Just in case, I covered him up with a tarp that’s been moldering away in the barely used shed for years, then hurried for the basement.
I don’t know why I went down there instead of to my private bathroom. I guess I just needed to be close to Haven directly after killing for her. I didn’t even notice that I was covered in blood until I stepped into the basement. Luckily, she was still sleeping, and I rushed to the sink to wash my hands and scrub my pocketknife.
That’s where I made my first mistake. So it didn’t rust, I left it on the drying mat while I left the basement, in favor of going upstairs to wash off the last of the blood in the shower. I did, changing my clothes, and throwing the bloody ones out; the last thing I needed was my laundry service wondering what happened to them.
