Page 112 of When He Plays

He unlocked the safe. His fingers curled around the gun even as the soft tread of approaching footsteps grew louder and louder and⁠—

“He’s still on the floor,” he heard a familiar voice say. “I’m cutting the feed on the camera now. Gonna remove the whole thing. Then, yeah, I’ll damn well make sure he’s dead. When they find him, the cops can say it’s some crime of passion bullshit. He’s just wearing a towel. No, no, he’s not moving. She really shot him.”

More steps. Rustles. A few clicks.

“Camera is unconnected,” that traitorous voice said. “You need to deposit that hundred grand into my account immediately, understand me? I want my payment and all previous debts cancelled. Hello? Hello? Dammit, are you there? You had better not have hung up on⁠—”

Logan rolled, and he came up with his gun aimed at his target. “Don’t worry, I’m still here. Even if he hung up on your sorry ass.”

And Evans McCall, his VP of Security, gaped at him, a small, black device—a camera?— clutched in his left hand and his phone held in the right.

Logan nodded. “Figured the jackass had gotten assistance from someone who worked for me. After all, not like it’s easy to get past my security in order to put a video surveillance camera in my bedroom.” He stood to his full height. Amazingly, the towel stayed in place. “Unless, of course, you’re basically in charge of my security. Then it would be easy to hide a camera, wouldn’t it?”

“I just—he just—” Evans broke off. “Sir, I got in a lot of debt. I bet too heavily on the matches that Morris ran. I-I was in deep. All he wanted…it was just a camera in here. Not like it was a big deal.”

“It’s a big deal to me. Because, see, I was supposed to die.”

Evans wet his lips. “You…you can put the gun down.” A weak smile. “I’m not armed. Just holding my phone.” The smile turned into a grimace. “And a camera.”

“Evans…” Logan sighed out his name. “You know me. Do you think I give a shit about you being armed or not?”

The light from the lamp fell heavily on Evans, and Logan knew the fool was going to reach for a hidden weapon even before Evans dropped his phone to the floor and grabbed under his suit coat for a⁠—

Logan fired.

Boom.

A shot that hit Evans in his reaching hand. His right hand. Evans screamed. He also dropped the camera. It shattered when it hit the floor. His now free left hand tried to grab for this still holstered weapon.

Sighing, Logan shot him in that hand, too.

Evans howled with pain. He also fell to his knees.

Logan closed in. “There are still plenty of places left for me to shoot,” he noted. “How fortunate because I’m in the mood for a bit of torture. I get that way when people try to kill me. A personality quirk, I suppose.”

Evans whimpered.

“I always worried you didn’t have enough field experience for this job.” True story. He had worried about that very thing. “But you were good with tech, so I let you stay. That came back to bite me in the ass, didn’t it? Note to self, never ignore your instincts again.”

“Please…please…I was just in too deep! Morris—Morris wasn’t in charge of the matches! Someone else was. Morris worked for him. I-I had to tell Morris about your late-night runs. I had to set you up that night…”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Logan’s jaw locked. “Now you’ve confessing that you tried to kill me then, too? You and Morris? Honestly, Evans, you’re just making me want to hurt you all the more.”

“It wasn’t my choice! He said if I didn’t pay my debt, I’d be dead! Then…then…he told me…if I gave him enough intel, if I put the camera in here…the debt would be gone. He’d pay me more and⁠—”

Logan placed his gun against his VP’s chest.

Evan’s stopped talking.

“Who moved Harper’s body?” Time to cut to the chase. He had places to be. A wife to follow.

“I—”

“I want to pull the trigger.” He wanted it so very badly. “You cooperating is the only thing stopping me from doing it.”

His prey’s breath shuddered in and out. His hands kept bleeding.

“You know who did it, don’t you?” Logan pushed. “You’re involved in this mess all the way up to your debt-ridden eyeballs.”