You gunned down an innocent woman in cold blood.
His stomach pitched.This was surreal and way past the line of anything he’d done before.
Not that he was worried about being caught.Not yet anyway.There was no way they could ID him or the others because of the balaclavas, and all the weapons used had their serial numbers filed off.
When he got out of the shower twenty minutes later, he still had no answers, but at least he was calmer.Calm enough to think clearly and check his phone again.There was one call he’d missed that he couldn’t ignore any longer.He dialed the number, bracing himself for what was coming.
“What the fuck happened?”the angry voice snapped.
“We got the assistant instead of her.”
“Yeah, no shit.How the fuck did you manage that?”
“They look alike.”Dark hair, sunglasses, similar builds, leaving from the same damned house with a bodyguard.How the fuck were any of them supposed to have seen the difference?
A humorless laugh filled the line.“You gotta be shitting me.That’s your answer?That’s all you’ve got?”
“Yeah.”The defensiveness was building.Easy to criticize and call the shots from the sidelines.Fuck this guy.The assistant had looked enough like Becca to convince him and the others it was her.When she’d exited the vehicle, he’d shot her.
“What are you doing to fix it?”
“I can’t fix it.Obviously.”They would have moved Becca to an undisclosed location immediately after the shooting and doubled her security.And her husband was a former Marine, who would be on high alert.They’d lost the critical element of surprise.
“Are you sober?”
He bristled at the derision in that tone.“Yes.”Mostly.Even though he was dying to finish off that bottle and get completely shit-faced right now.
“Listen up.You need to handle this and clean up your mess before this shit show ends up bringing all of us down.”
“I’m aware.I’m on it.”They needed to regroup.Getting anywhere near Becca without raising suspicion now was going to be next to impossible.They’d had their shot, and he’d fucked up.He was going to have to figure out another way now.
A heavy silence filled the line.“I took a huge risk in trusting you with this, and I already regret it.Do I need to remind you what’s at stake here?”Pure rage laced the other man’s voice.
He set his jaw.“No.I said I’m on it.”
“You better be.I don’t care what you have to do, but you better fucking fix this.And just to be clear, this is your last chance.”
He ended the call without responding, fuming at being scolded like a fucking kid.
Battling to rein in his anger, he drew a deep, unsteady breath and pulled up a picture of the real target on his phone.
His anger swelled.Spiraling into pure hatred.
He was going to do to that bitch what she’d done to him.Make her suffer the way he had.
She’d destroyed his entire life.Now he was going to get justice by taking away hers.
****
“You sure you don’twant me to come with you?”Bristol asked.“I can wait in the car.For moral support.”
“I’m sure, but it’s sweet of you to offer,” Cassie said into her phone while she grabbed her black leather jacket from the front hall closet.“I’m a professional, and I’m gonna face this head-on.”
“Then what about TJ going instead?”
He had recently joined CPS as a consultant and might be offered a more full-time position in the future.Cassie wasn’t sure how she felt about that, but it wasn’t her call, and he had to be good at what he did for CPS to offer him the deal.“No, I’m good.”She’d been saying that a lot to people since Tristan had brought her home last night.
Ryder had handled everything he could for her behind the scenes.Now she’d been called into the head office to meet with him and the rest of the management team.This was her situation to handle, and she didn’t want anyone else to be there in case things didn’t go well for her.
