“He’s dead because he was too chicken to kill you earlier,” Harris remarks. “No way you’re mourning someone who wanted you dead.”
“He was still my brother. The shit he did doesn’t erase that overnight.”
“Women,” Harris scoffs darkly. “Too fucking emotional.”
“And yet without thiswoman, you wouldn’t have those diamonds, would you? Sounds like you’re not all you make yourself out to be.”
Harris is silent for a long moment and my heart pounds up into my throat. Did I say too much? Is he gone? If he’s here remotely, maybe he lost signal.
“Those the diamonds?” He finally speaks, and the sound of his voice is enough that a flinch darts through me.
“Yup.”
“How’d you get them?”
My brows twitch. “What?”
“I tracked that fucking car. You’re telling me the people you’re working with just let you walk away with the diamonds?”
“You’re kidding, right?” I scoff. “You’re so fucking stupid.”
“Keep talking, bitch, and I’ll give you another hole to talk through!”
Does that mean he’s here?
“I took the diamonds out of the car after the cops killed Peter, who I thought was you. They swiped the car not long after, but I’d already run. I figure they’d pin it on you and Peter, and I would get away with the diamonds. Luckily, they spent so long on the car that I was never even a suspect.” I pause and force a smirk. “I figured if you really tracked the car, you’d walk right into the cops and end my troubles and get what you deserved. Guess not.”
Harris doesn’t reply, and silence follows for long enough that tension starts to tighten in my calves as I stand there. After a few more long seconds, I take a step back.
“Show me,” Harris barks suddenly. “Show me the diamonds.”
“Alright.” Setting the case on the ground, I lower to my haunches and unlock the claps, then swivel the case toward the house. “See?”
“Look on the porch. You should see a glass of water. Pick it up and throw some of the diamonds in. A handful, not one or two.”
“And what will that prove?” I ask as I step over the case and head toward the porch. My heart races faster and faster as I approach, half expecting the door to fly open and Harris to drag me inside, but nothing happens. I climb the steps and spot the glass sitting near the door.
“Just do it,” comes Harris’s voice, louder now.
Picking up the glass, I glance around the windows and the door, then head back to the case. As per his instructions, I scoop up a handful of the diamonds and trickle them from my palm to the glass. All of them immediately sink to the bottom.
Holding the glass upward, I turn back to the house and grit my teeth to stop my arm from shaking. “See?” I’ve no idea if this is right or not and it suddenly occurs to me that I only have Bradley’s word that these are the real diamonds. If they’re fake, would this weird test show it?
I wait, my heart in my throat, and tense as anything from agreement to a gunshot could follow.
Harris drags on the silence once as if he enjoys toying with me this much, and my shoulder starts to ache by the time he finally speaks again.
“Bring the case to the porch, set it down, and then get the fuck out of here.”
Did I pass? I hope that means I pass. Lowering the glass, I tip it, water and all, into the case and slam the lid shut. Locking it, I obey and carry the case up to the porch, but as I set it down, something stops me from walking away.
I should.
Bradley was so strict in making sure I knew I was to leave as soon as I could, and this is the perfect time for exactly that. Return the diamonds and leave. But I can’t say for sure that Harris is even here and even if Bradley and the others have a plan, why can’t it be as simple as dragging Harris out and killing him right here?
He deserves it.
I should walk away. That’s what was agreed, but I can’t. Staring at the case, my thoughts run over one another. Walking away means I don’t get to take my revenge, and I want that more than anything. I want to be the one who tells Harris he’s lost. I want to see the realization on his face. I want him to know that it was all me who’s taken everything from him, and I want to be the one who holds his life in my hands.
