AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I laughed, grimly. “They stiffed you, huh? Can’t say I feel terribly sorry for you, under the circumstances.”
Meechum swallowed convulsively, his Adam’s apple bobbing against the unrelenting pressure of my fist. “I don’t suppose you would,” he said tightly.
“You’re telling me you’re useless to me,” I said. “Very unfortunate. For you.”
Meechum squeezed his eyes shut and nodded. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered.
I ground my fist tighter against his throat. “Where do I find Hugh?”
“I have no idea,” Meechum said shakily. “I really don’t.”
I ground my teeth. “Listen carefully, Meechum. I’m not the one ruining your life. But Hugh got mixed up with the people who are ruining mine. So this is the deal. If you can lead me to Hugh, maybe you’ll get a free pass for your part in this shitshow.”
“I genuinely don’t know,” Meechum said, through chattering teeth. “I haven’t heard from him since the day before yesterday, right after, ah…”
“Right after you and Hugh set me up to die,” I said. “Radio silence from him?”
“Yeah. Julia, too. Their phones go to voice mail. I even went to his house, but he wasn’t there.” Meechum began edging sideways, clawing at my hand again. “Since I can’t really be of any more help to you, um, I might as well—”
I tightened my fist on his shirt collar and lifted him off his feet. “Maybe I haven’t made myself clear,” I said. “You fucked up. I could tear you to pieces, but I happen to be busy. Or I will be, anyway, if you help me find Hugh. If you don’t, then I have nothing better to do than make you suffer the tortures of the damned.”
Meechum’s face was pinched and miserable. I didn’t enjoy bullying people, but he deserved to be shit-scared. I’d hurt him if I had to, but I took no pleasure in it, so I put on my meanest face. The one I’d used to keep my siblings in line, back in the day.
“Fuck,” Meechum quavered. “I can’t be sure, but if he hasn’t left the country, he’s probably at his mom’s house, at the lake. He goes there all the time.”
“What lake?”
“Lake Sammamish, in Bellevue. I’ve been there, for weekends, parties.”
“If you’ve been there, you have the GPS coordinates on your phone.”
Meechum dug his phone out of the pocket of his cargo pants, and stabbed at the screen with a trembling finger. “So, this is it, for me,” he quavered. “My life is over.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake. I snatched the phone from his hand, and memorized the coordinates. “Life as you know it, yes,” I told him. “Follow the news from wherever you go. If you hear about me finding and killing the people who kidnapped my brother, then you’re safe from those fuckheads who hired you guys. That’ll be your all-clear.”
“And, uh…what are your odds of doing that?” he asked, hopefully.
“Not great,” I admitted. “But not zero. I will mow those fuckers down like grass, or die trying. But if I do succeed, and you come back to the country? Do not ever try to work in tech again. You got that?”
He blinked. “But…but…it’s the only thing that I—”
“Be a high school math teacher,” I said, “Open a bakery. Repair bicycles. Grow organic marijuana. I don’t give a shit, as long as it’s not in my face. But if I hear about you working anywhere in the tech sector, I will destroy you.”
He nodded frantically. “Yeah. Got it. Absolutely. Understood.”
I placed the phone back in his hand. “Is your plane ticket on that phone?”
“Y-y-yes,” he faltered. “Why?”
“Your enemies will be able to track where you go with it, Meechum,” I said. “Unless this is a brand-new phone, registered with brand new identity, for which you also have a valid passport.”
He looked desperate. “I…I…ah…”
“Never mind.” I didn’t have time to educate a blithering dickhead who had almost gotten me and Kat killed. “They’ll probably be too busy fucking with me to bother fucking with you. You can cling to that hope.”
He looked encouraged. “You think?”
I laughed in his face. “Fuck off, Meechum. You’d better hope we never meet again.” I grabbed the bag in the foyer and shoved it at him. “Now get lost.”
