“What is that?” Jonah asked.
“I don’t know, but I think we’re about to find out.”
Cas typed in the A-list name that correlated with the name on the B-list and waited. A strange circular cursor popped up, and then a folder appeared. Cas gave a victory whoop as he double-clicked the file and it began to open, spilling additional file after file onto the screen.
“Gotcha, bitch,” Cas muttered to himself.
Jonah watched over Cas’s shoulder as he clicked the first file name, his smile slipping away as the image appeared. Cas’s gaze slipped to Jonah’s. “What is that?”
Jonah stared at the picture of the youngish girl perched on the much older man’s knee. “Blackmail,” he muttered, his face contorting into a mask of fury.
Cas looked back at the image. At first glance, it didn’t appear that malicious. Clive Gordon would hardly be the first wealthy man who had a much younger girlfriend. But when Cas looked closer, he realized it wasn’t her age that spooked him. It was a series of small things. The girl wasn’t just thin, she was brittle, like a stiff wind could take her down. She stared at the floor, unsmiling. Bruises marred her arms and thighs. “What is this, Jonah?” Cas said again, still hoping for an answer that wouldn’t make him sick.
Jonah didn’t answer. They both sat in silence as they clicked on the files, each image seemingly more horrific than the last. It went on for years. Same man, different girls, different locations, all with the same hungry, desperate look to them.
24
Jonah
“This place is creepy as fuck.” Cas gave a dramatic shudder as Jonah keyed in a code on the pad near the metal fire door.
“Sorry. If I’d had just an hour more to plan, I’d have put up some tinsel and twinkle lights for you and had the punchbowl waiting.” The warehouse was a plain, cinder block facade in Barrow Heights, flanked by more of the same. A single-story monotony of unremarkable cement meant to bore curious eyes into looking elsewhere. Jonah found it rather familiar and comfortable, actually.
“I do love a good murder party,” Cas deadpanned and cast a nervous glance back at the alleyway as he stepped through the door Jonah opened.
“There are cameras everywhere here. It’s safe. For us, at least.” Once inside, Jonah pulled the door tight until the lock clicked, then slid a metal bar into place across the door.
Jonah slowed his pace down the hallway to allow Cas to look around, though there wasn’t much to see. More cinder block—this time, painted a deep navy—a few closed doors, fluorescent lighting that washed everything out.
“So, people can just rent this out to…to murder people?”
“Or interrogate them. And no, that’s not exactly how it works. There are just a few of us who use it. Sadie, Madi, two others I can’t name. Guy who owns it is retired. Madi trained with him. We pay him a fee. For everyone else, it’s a corporate storage facility. Buncha old papers and files companies are waiting to discard after the IRS period of limitations runs out. Or office equipment.”
“He’s a retired assassin? Is there a 401k plan for that specifically? A gold watch for dedicated service?”
Jonah’s laughter rang out loudly. “He’s a rarity. Usually, the gold watch version of a send-off in this business is a quick death.”
At the second-to-last door, unmarked like all the others, Jonah stopped and turned toward Cas, nearly cracking a smile at how Cas stopped short, too, almost like a shadow. He’d have gotten pissed if Jonah said that, though, which only threatened the corners of Jonah’s mouth further. All of it—Cas’s expectant expression right now, the way he’d been splayed on Jonah’s bed this morning, like he’d always belonged there, his snarky quips and moments of insecurity—made Jonah want to get this over with quickly. He’d start taking fewer jobs once they got this sorted, spend more time with Cas. If Cas agreed to stay, that was. He’d never responded to Jonah’s request, after all. “You can wait out here if you want.”
“Are you kidding me?” Cas’s eyes sparked with anger. “No way I’m staying out here. I’m going in. I’m not a fucking kid.”
“You sound like one right now,” Jonah countered. “And I don’t think you’re a goddamn kid, otherwise I wouldn’t be fucking you. Jesus. The reason I’m suggesting it is because there’s a difference between watching something happen from a distance and seeing it close up.”
Cas cocked his head and fixed Jonah with the most vacuous expression he was probably capable of mustering. “Oh, yeah. You know what, you’re totally right. It’s almost like I didn’t witness some overlarge Turk get gunned down before my eyeswhileI was also being shot at. Or that that Russian fucker didn’t rip open my side with a knife bigger than even your dick, which I then stapled togethermyselfin a fucking cab.”
He had a point, but Jonah’s smile broke loose anyway, which only made Cas narrow his eyes to mean little slits Jonah found sexy as hell. He caught Cas by the shoulder and leaned in, planting a quick, possessive kiss on that smart mouth. “You really did a shit job on those staples, though,” he murmured low in Cas’s ear before flicking the lobe with his tongue and drawing back.
Cas’s hand pressed against Jonah’s chest, at first, like he was warding him off, then changing direction and clutching the fabric of his shirt before releasing as Jonah stepped back. “Eh, they did the trick. Besides, it got you naked in front of me. In a roundabout way.”
“It did.” Jonah hovered his finger over the keypad. “Ready?” When Cas nodded, he punched the code in and put his hand on the doorknob. “We stay back. Madi and Sadie will do the talking.”
“Got it. See, I can be obedient. It’s just more fun when I’m not.”
Jonah couldn’t argue with that and didn’t dare, considering what they were about to walk into.
He pushed the door open. The room was cool and dim. Track lights in the ceiling trained a pool of orangey-yellow light onto the man sitting in a chair, wrists bound behind him. His back was to Jonah and Cas, his head slumped on his chest. Nearby, Sadie and Madigan leaned against the wall next to each other.
Cas poked Jonah in the bicep and pointed at a mirror that ran along the right side of the room. “People watch?” he whispered.
