“It is generous. You are a weapon, Kail Stone. One that we don’t quite understand. We are being generous. The contract has more clauses but will be given to you to read and sign, before you leave this building.”
Before we will be allowed to leave. That’s the subtext.
“Hailey? We can read the fine print first.” I peer around her so I can see her face.
“But my father?”
The bewilderment evident in the shaking of her head and her trembling mouth slays me. How did I forget her father?
“We don’t have much choice, Kail, but the murders…” She raises her voice. “I just don’t see how you can simply wave your wand and say the deaths of Esau and this Niamh and my father… My father was murdered by him! How can that meannothing. Sir.” Thatsirdrips with loathing.
Gregory sighs and tucks his hands into his pants pockets. “I understand. I do. I can cover up the murders. It’s within my purview, but Clay Skinner is not on the agenda. He has some sway. You understand where I am going, Miss Tarrant?”
“I understand that Clay needs to watch his back. One day, karma will happen.”
Gregory only arches an eyebrow.
Smug assurance reasserts itself on Clay. He lets out a long breath, and nods at his desk. “Shall I tidy up here and get my things?”
“Fuck no, Clay. You’re still an idiot. Wait over there.” Gregory goes to the desk as he says this, indicating the door with one arm. His bodyguards follow him like weaponized sheep.
The smugness has dropped a notch, but as Clay wanders to the door, he deliberately curves our way after passing the bodyguards. He pauses before us to say quietly, “Keep that pussy warm for me.”
As he turns away, I strain and again feel the ungiving steel around my wrists. “Don’t go anywhere, Hailey.”
I take a long stride and hear Gregory shout, “Don’t!”
Skinner spins and backpedals. “I will get you if you—” His back hits the wall. “Priority two! Priority two!”
Does he think I’m going to headbutt him?
I heave and force my muscles past the point where flesh will tear. Steel rips through wrist muscle, bone, and cartilage. Chunks splatter onto the floor as I drive my freed arm forward. A riot of pain follows, screaming into my shoulder and beyond. Too late, for I’ve punched into this prick’s chest, spearing through ribs, chest, and heart with the fractured ends of my arm bones. The wall shudders then cracks. I wrench loose from the wall and start to retrieve my arm, smiling as he gapes at me.
“Priority two? You thought that would work? You willnevertouch Hailey, you wanking great excuse for a prick.” A little flowery, but it will do.
His flesh clings to my forearm as I suck it from the huge wound. I have to shake my arm to get free of him.
“Thatwas also for Esau and Simon and Niamh.”
Blood gushes from the hole as Skinner slides down the wall to die blubbering and wheezing. He gasps a final moist sigh before toppling sideways and getting a face full of floor.
The cuff still hanging off my other arm bumps against my thigh.
I turn to Gregory, and find his guards are a couple of feet behind me, their guns trained on me. “That is justice, sir. Fixed your last problem, Mister Gregory. You said you can do the others easily. Cover up this killing too.”
His shoulders drop and he frowns, eyerolls. “Put away those guns. Well, this job is already a pain in the ass. Sign the damn papers, you two.”
“Thanks.” I remember to pick up my lost hand from the floor and squash it onto the stump, which hurts, but I neededto try. I can sense my flesh trying to latch onto what used to be a part of me, as if little microscopic feelers are making grabby fingers, but it unsticks. No surprises there. As usual, I’m bleeding as much as an anemic ant. “Got any of that duct tape, Hailey?”
“We can find some. His desk, maybe?”
I tuck the hand into my tracksuit pocket.
When I reach her, she smiles up at me, and this is how I know, absolutely, that she is the one for me. “Forever, babe.” And I kiss her on the lips and feel her ass with only one hand, since the severed one is misbehaving.
This day has picked up immensely since I woke from the sedation, but I feel I’ve missed something vital. Some unknown unfinished business is poking me. After fastening my hand to my wrist stump using duct tape found in the receptionist’s desk, we exit to the outside corridor together.
People carry past us a stretcher bearing Clay’s body.
