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“Because you were trying to kill me.”
“My job was to burn that lot, not to shoot you. I haven’t even got my gun with me.”
I can see the rifle in the corner of the room but I don’t bother correcting him. Let him believe the lie.
Where’s the Don?” I ask him, stamping out the embers before they catch properly.
He manages a laugh, wincing as he does so. “You don’t know?” he asks. “That’s priceless that is.”
“Tell me or I’ll shoot your balls off, Nicky. Where’s the Don?”
“Clever, smart, genius Enzo Lauria. The man who predicts everything. Never puts a foot wrong. Do you think the Don didn’t know how many seals were out there? That you’d swapped the negatives? Think he’d forget about Sandra and Dwayne? He knew about it all, Enzo. The whole thing. He was just waiting for you to get in here so he could take her from you. Nice piece of ass by all accounts. Might get a taste of her myself one day.”
I walk over to him, pushing my boot into his bullet wound, making him scream in pain. “Where’s he taken her?”
He starts laughing through the pain and I think his brain’s snapped somewhere deep inside. “Where is she?” I roar.
He grins up at me, still giggling. “It’s fucking priceless,” he says, snot bubbling at his nostrils, his eyes bulging with the madness of the dying. The color’s fading from his cheeks.
“You’ve not got long,” I tell him. “You’ve lost too much blood. I can make your last few minutes easy or hard, Nicky. Where is she?”
He’s still giggling. “Taken her to her parents' graves,” he says. “Isn’t that just shit your pants punch in your crotch hilarious? Going to bury her next to them.” He collapses into laughter and I lose it. I grab hold of him, ready to break his neck, and that’s when I realize why he’s laughing.
I get hold of him by the collar and his arm twists in place. His hand falls open to reveal a grenade in his palm, the pin dropping to the ground as he continues to roar with laughter, yelling, “Boom,” at me over and over again.
I make an instant decision. From here through the window is the better option but I could get stuck if he grabs me on the way past, and lose my legs if not my life.
So I leap away from him instead, throwing myself into the safe and pulling the door shut just as the grenade goes off.
The noise is deafening in the confined space. My ears ring as the safe rocks in place, shrapnel dinging the outside of it. It’s over a second later. I’m alive.
I give the door a shove and for a moment I think I’m going to die anyway. It doesn’t move. Have I locked myself up only to suffocate in here? I give it another shove. There’s some movement. It’s half an inch but it does give. I ram my shoulder into it and push with all the force I’ve got.
A lesser man wouldn’t be able to do it but I get another inch and then it’s moving on the battered hinges. One more push and the door falls off, collapsing to the ground as I climb out and stand up.
All that remains of Nicky is a fine mist and a few chunks on the walls. The room is a mess, the safe looking like a metal-eating monster has been gnawing on it. Bits of paper are scattered everywhere like confetti, falling slowly to the ground around me.
I remember where Chloe’s parents were buried. I should do. I helped dig the graves. Back of St. Mary’s Cemetery, the quarter-acre plot the Don bought from the nuns. They didn’t ask any questions, just built the new refectory they needed. He’s had more than a few people interred there, some with headstones, many without. I get the feeling Chloe will be the without type.
Hookers, junkies, enemies. A lot of them are buried in that quarter acre. I need to move fast if I’m going to make sure she isn’t the next one.
I haven’t got my car but that shouldn’t be a problem. There were enough shooters in here. Bound to be some vehicles somewhere outside. I’ll hotwire one and get motoring.
I could drive away somewhere new. Disappear. Forget about this life and start a new one. He’ll think I died in the explosion here. I’m a ghost. I can simply vanish. Start a new life anywhere I want. I’ve got enough money to do it.
Wasn’t that always the dream? Retire without needing to look over my shoulder all the time?
I get to the cars parked around the side and pick the fastest-looking one. The Don’s Cadillac. Getting it started is child’s play and then I slam my foot on the gas, roaring out onto the street.
I come to a T-junction. Left takes me to the airport. I have fake passports and cash stashed in bureau de change safety deposit boxes at every international airport in the country. Any flight I want to anywhere I want to go. Never be heard of again. The old me would have jumped at the chance. Wouldn’t even have this dilemma.
Turn right and I’ll get to the cemetery. Risk my life to save Chloe’s.
The Don took my foster mother away from me. Gave her to Tom Blizzard for him to torture and kill. Kidnapped Imelda. Would have taken Sarah too. Now he’s taken Chloe.
Left or right. Am I the empty-hearted amoral monster? Or am I the flawed damaged human Chloe thinks I can be? Do I want to shut down or open up? Take a risk or play it safe?
I reach the junction and make my decision. As I turn the steering wheel, storm clouds gather above me.
