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“You’re a fool.”
“You married the love of your life, Gord! You made a beautiful baby girl together, and you were getting ready to make another. And you gave it all away for money?” he takes another step to the right. “Who is the fool? Because you sure look like the clown to me.”
“They’re safe now,” Fuller booms, blind to the blood dribbling along my wrists and the plastic that contorts and stretches as I twist. If I can get my hands free, I can remove the rope readying to take my life. “They’re fed,” he continues. “They have money to pay the bills.”
“And they grieve you! They want you! Not the fucking house. Not a vacation.”
“I did what was best for them!”
“And now I get to be the man in their life,” Drake taunts. “I get to put your baby to bed and read her bedtime stories. I take Violet’s calls late at night when she hears a bump, or a spider has crawled out of the walls. I went to Disney with them last year, and to kindergarten orientation day before that, because they wanted me there.” He peeks at me over Fuller’s shoulder, his eyes darkening with danger. Derangement. Fear. “When Violet finds out what you are, she’s gonna stop grieving you. And she’ll start hating you. That hate will help her move on, so when she marries again, I’ll walk her down that aisle, and I’ll know she chose better the second time around.”
“You’re wrong!” Fuller shouts, emotion making his voice crackle. “No one will love them like I do. No one would die for them. But I will. I did!”
“You did it for you!” Drake snaps. “You did it because you were greedy.”
Tears burn my eyes and make it difficult to see. My breath, catching in my chest as panic grabs a stranglehold on me and my movements become clumsy. I choke out a gasp, drawing Drake’s attention when the temporary floor shifts beneath my feet and wiggles perilously. If it goes, I fall. And if I fall, I’m not sure I’ll get up again. But his distraction, just a single millisecond of time, is all Fuller needs, because he shoves Drake back and raises his weapon.
They stand gun-to-gun, threat-to-threat, and circle while Archer pulls the focus of the others in the room. Henry grows weaker, his wound bleeding, and the red tinge to his face replaced with a sicker green. Grey. Death.
“You have to choose.” Fuller whistles, the sharp sound cutting through the warehouse and stabbing my ear drums. But his action has another dozen men striding through the door. More guns. More danger. Too many men to fight against Drake and Archer’s two. “Join me,” he seethes, wrapping his finger around the trigger of his gun, my stomach almost rebelling at the thought of Drake being shot. My nerves choking me long before a rope could. “Or one of them dies.”
Panicked, Drake’s eyes flick to me and widen. But he doesn’t pale until one of the dozen armed men strides to my platform and places his hand on the single sheet of wood keeping me up.
I still my body. I give up on the restraints around my wrists. I swallow the ball in my throat and hold my breath, though I have no logical reason for doing so.
“If you say no,” Fuller seethes, “she falls. If you say no again,” he flexes his finger on the trigger in warning, “the good old Special Agent in Charge falls. After that, you get to experience the longest four minutes of your fucking life while you watch them die. Then,” he shrugs, the movement of his shoulders visible from behind, “I kill you anyway.”
“Okay.” Drake lowers his gun, stunning me with his move. Stunning Fuller, too. And Archer.
Half bending, slowly, he sets his weapon on the dirt-packed floor and spares a glance for the other cop. “We’re done, Malone.”
“What?” Henry livens up in the face of his son turning against the agency. “Drake!”
“I’m not doing this for money.” Straightening out again, Drake lifts his shoulders and faces his former friend, eye-to-eye. “I’m not doing it for power. But I’ll do what needs to be done to save my family.”
“As will I.” Fuller whistles again, prompting his men to swarm in and relieve Drake and Malone of the weapons strapped to their bodies. “You understand now?” Taking a step back, Fuller angles around so I catch his profile. The movement of his Adam’s apple, and the coloring in his cheeks. His voice catches with raw emotion. With power. With glee. “You understand why I did what I did? Why I had to choose my family over the job?”
“I understand love,” Drake rasps, looking at me, his eyes scouring my face. My body. “I understand doing what you need to do, even if it means going against the rules and making enemies.”
“I didn’t hurt anyone,” Fuller insists. “I killed no one who was innocent.”
“Lombardo?” Archer questions, turning to converse. It’s almost casual. Almost friendly, the way three men would chat. “What about him?”
“Drug dealer. He was pushing powder on your streets. He brought it upon himself.”
“Who is the man in Vallejo’s casket?” Drake questions. “Why him?”
“Fredericks, just a soldier from the club. He was pushing powder too, and if that night went the way we’d planned, he’d have gone away for life anyway.”
“And Doctor Paine?” Archer asks. “He was just a civilian.”
“He was dirty! He was dirtier than most others. He was reporting whatever the fuck he was asked to report, and he was on the take his entire career. In fact,” Fuller sneers dangerously, “if this were going to a grand trial, I’d show proof the Malones have connections to Paine, too. So don’t stand there, all sanctimonious and arrogant, like you think you’re better than me.” He throws his hands in the air and looks to the doors. “Where’s Felix? I want him here too.”
“I’m around.”
I swing toward the doors, the wood slipping beneath my feet and the noose tightening around my neck. But I stop on Felix Malone, relaxed like he’s on his family’s pool patio once more. But today, instead of a cigar, he holds a gun in his hands. Not just a handgun, like the kind Drake taught me to use, but one of the big kinds that shoot a hundred rounds in ten seconds and kills anything in its path. “I don’t take kindly to anyone pointing a pistol at my baby brother.” He cocks his weapon and brings it up to point.
Fuller and all of his men raise theirs in retaliation. Fifteen guns to one. But the one has the power to mow everyone down in a matter of seconds.
