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Dax nudged me with his knee. “He’s not even going to remember this when he sobers up. If the cops aren’t interested in you, we could just leave.”

That would have probably been the smarter plan. But all I could think about was it all happening again. Just when I thought my life was on track, it all coming back to bite me. Liam had said he’d heard things. Rumblings from within the police department.

Somebody suspected me.

And besides all that, this asshole had kept me locked in a box until he’d delivered me to Matish for more of the same. He was as corrupt as they came, so I wasn’t going to feel bad about what we did next.

“Who do you owe money to?” I asked the man.

He shrugged. “Dunno. Everyone.”

“Explains why you took a bribe from Matish.”

“He paid well for you.”

“Yeah, I bet he did. You going to leave me alone now?”

The hungover man laughed. “Sure. Sure.”

I rocked back on my heels. “You don’t sound sure.”

“You’re the Lynx Killer, right? It’s only a matter of time before you’re back behind bars. Hopefully, I can find someone else willing to pay me to let you out.” He laughed like there was actually something funny about what he’d said. “The boss was pissed about letting you go the first time, but I got so much dirt on him, I do what I want.”

I raised an eyebrow. “That so?”

He nodded, which seemed like an effort while he was still lying on his back on the dirty carpet. “They want you bad. You should probably run away, little Lynx Killer. Run far, far away.” His voice had that singsong quality of someone who was still five sheets to the wind. “’Cause we gonna getcha!” He snapped his teeth in my direction.

I flinched back.

Even though his voice was slurred and he was no danger to me in his current state, his words had the power to strike fear inside me. Fear that Liam had been right, the cops were brewing something, and I was just walking along, going about my life with no idea it was all going to crumble in on me.

That terrified me.

I leaned into the man’s face. “I’m going to need you and your cop buddies to forget about the fact I exist.”

“No can do. You’re top of the list.”

“Then make it so I’m not.”

The man laughed at me. “Why would I do that?”

“You’ve got all the dirt on your boss. Use it.”

He laughed his foul alcohol breath into my face. “Yeah. Sure. I’ll do that for you out of the goodness of my heart. Pay me and I’ll consider it.”

I looked over at Dax.

He shrugged. “How much do you want?”

“A million dollars.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, and I want to fly to the moon.”

“Two million ’cause I don’t like your smart-ass attitude.”

That red haze of anger teetered at the edge of my subconscious. I tried to suck in some deep breaths, but it didn’t do much to help. “Or, I could just kill you right here, right now.” I leaned down and lowered my voice to a whisper. “Since I am the Lynx Killer after all.”

That finally got through Rivera’s thick skull. He shifted onto his side, trying to scramble away from me.