He chuckles. “Yeah, yeah.” He glances around the garden, then rubs his palms together before facing me again. “I tried so hard to be Aras’s friend, you know. But he’s so…self-serving that he didn’t give me the time of day – ever,” he says forlornly. “I even went so far as to show up at his underground arena during fight nights, just so I’d get a chance to interact with him, but he’s always so busy surrounded by his audience and boxers that he never reallysawme.” He runs a hand under his nose as he sniffs again.
“Is that why you sold drugs to his betters and boxers – just so you’d get his attention?” I inquire. “Andkeptselling it to them until some of them got so addicted that they fuckingOD’don them?”
The air suddenly grows extremely tight as the mood shifts between us. Timothy whips his head at me, and I get a front-row view of his evident shock. I wait for remorse or guilt to follow it, but when it doesn’t, I scoff.
“I almost pitied you,” I admit in a hiss.
“It was amistake,” he defends himself, breaking into a sweat. “It really was.”
“Yet I don’t see an ounce of regret on your face.”
“I…” He swallows. “All I was trying to do is earn some money so that I could show my dad that I’m not useless or…or a disgrace to the Byron family. I was trying to fuckingredeemmyself in his eyes, and last I checked, that isnota crime.”
“Yeah, but killinginnocentsmost definitely is, Timothy,” I tell him. “And that’s what you did – you killed people that didn’t haveanythingto do with your blind ambition of wanting to impress your monster of a father.”
He looks at me as if he’s seeing me for the first time. “Whoareyou?”
I twist a little on the bench, which results in the slit of my dress to shift inward, in turn revealing my Glock, secured in its holster.
I need to be mindful of my shots, since my gun only has six bullets, two of which I’ve already used on the Goswamis. And despite having refills in my clutch, I doubt Timothy would give me a timeout to actually use them. So, whatever I do, I’ll have to do it with the four remaining bullets.
He scrambles off the bench and falls onto the grass, then starts dragging himself away from me. “Stay back!” he shrieks.
“I am literally still sitting, Timothy.”
His shoulders shake as he starts crying. “What do you want from me?” he whispers, and he looks so much his age right now that it makes me curse the universe for dealing this hand to me. But I can’t let emotions cloud my judgement. Intentional or not,this guy is the reason people are dead right now – people that have loved ones who’ll mourn them for the rest of their lives. And that’s not fair, not by a long shot.
Timothy moves further away from me. “Look, I can p–”
“If you tell me that you can pay me, I swear toGod, Timothy, I’ll make yousufferbefore I end you,” I grit out, then set my clutch on the bench before getting to my feet.
“Fucking stop!” he screams, then sits upright before roughly searching himself. Beads of sweat are now dripping down his face, dampening his shirt. “Where is it?” he asks himself. “Fuck,fuck! Where did I keep it?” He then glares up at me. “You took it, didn’t you?” he asks. “You took it!”
“Tookwhat?” I’m annoyed and agitated now. If someone were to come here and find us like this, things could get messy.
“My gun!” he hisses. “You took my gun!”
I let go of a tired breath as I step close to him, causing him to move back. “And why would I do that?” I pull my Glock out of the holster and wiggle it next to my face. “I already have my own, remember?”
“You want me defenseless,” he says, then starts crying again.
“I want youdead,” I clarify. “Because one way or another, youwillmeet that fate tonight, Timothy. And trust me when I tell you that you donotwant my boyfriend to be the one to give it to you, because that guy – he likes to take his time. He likes to draw things out until the target all but begs for him to end them. Let me be the one to do it, and I promise I’ll make it quick.”
“Who fuckingtalkslike that?” he half-screams, half-pants as he looks me up and down. “Is that what you do – call peopletargetsand ask them nicely to let you kill them? Is that a side hustle of yours? And your boyfriend, who the fuck is he? I’m sure whoever he is, he’s way smarter than you and will be willing to sit down and work out a deal with me.”
I laugh at that. “Do you honestly think Dorran Ledger works out deals with people he’s been paid to kill?” I scratch my temple with the barrel of my gun. “Oh, Timothy; you really are stupid, aren’t you?”
The color has drained from his face as he stares at me. “Do…Dorran Ledger?” His brows crease as he shakes his head. “Who wants me dead so badly that they hired a fuckingcontract killer?”
“Would you believe me if I told you who it was?”
He snorts. “I don’t exactly have a choice but to.”
I work my jaw. “Aras,” I state, then shrug when Timothy continues to stare at me, more perplexed now than shocked.
“Is that how you knew about the ODs?”
“Yup.” I point my gun at him. “For what it’s worth: I’m sorry, kid. I want to say you don’t deserve this, but we both know you do.”
