“I’m here on behalf of someone else. Someone that prefers to remain anonymous. They sent me to speak to you. To ask ifyou’d be interested in a job.” He wore a soft smile that made him appear harmless. I wasn’t buying it.
“I don’t accept jobs from anonymous people.” I started to push past him.
“My boss wants to hire you to kill Noah Cunningham.” His words stopped me in my tracks. “He thought you might be up for it.”
Now he had my attention. I turned back to face him. “All right. I’m listening.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
DOM
My parking lot meeting from earlier kept replaying in my head. Someone wanted me to kill Noah. The man had given me some story about Noah being hired to take out his boss’s sister. I didn’t really care about the backstory. It didn’t take much to make me accept the offer.
I didn’t need an excuse or a reason. Maybe all I’d needed was something like this to encourage me to stop holding myself back. I’d wanted to kill Noah for a long time now. Maybe it was my twisted attraction to him that had held me back. Not anymore.
I sat in the passenger seat of the SUV we’d rented under a fake name. We had a big drop tonight. A batch of pharmaceutical goods. We preferred not to use personal vehicles as much as possible. Casper drove. Rebel, Auryn, and Stray sat in the back. Although we didn’t always do drops as a group, big drops like this one required additional manpower for safety.
We were meeting the buyer at the Destiny Church graveyard where we did most of our business. During the drive over, all I could think about was killing Noah.
How would I do it? A gun felt too easy. Too fast. Would I take my time and drag it out? Maybe torture him a little? There were just so many options.
The more I thought about it the more excited I became. I didn’t want to rush this. I needed to take my time and do it right.
Because I didn’t want the other guys to know how preoccupied I was, I made extra effort to engage in conversation. I hadn’t told any of them about this yet. I would. Eventually. For now it was my little secret.
“Motherfucker it’s cold today.” Despite the heat blasting from the SUV vents, Auryn briskly rubbed his hands together. “I don’t want to get out of the warm car.”
Rebel gave him a scrutinizing onceover, adjusting the beanie that made a tuft of his blonde and brown hair peek from beneath it. “Maybe if you wore something more than a hoodie, you wouldn’t be so cold.”
“Dom is only wearing a hoodie,” Auryn said in his defense.
“Yeah but I’m not being a bitch about it,” I chuckled.
“I wasn’t built for this weather. I should live somewhere warmer. Like Florida.” Auryn shoved between the front seats, stretching his arms out to feel the heat blasting from the front vents.
We didn’t have to wait long for the buyers to arrive. Once they parked and two men got out, we all clambered out of the SUV. Casper and I grabbed the duffle bags filled with pharmaceutical drugs, bringing them around to the front of the vehicle. Across from us, the two men also brought bags filled with cash.
Nobody bothered with small talk. We were all there to make an exchange and get out of the cold. While one of the buyers checked the goods in our bags, Rebel checked the money in theirs.
He flipped through a bundle of bills, dropping it back inside before grabbing another one. And another. A frown creased his brow. “Wait a minute. Some of these bills are fake.”
The two men sprang into action. They snatched up the bags of drugs and dove back into their vehicle before peeling away, fishtailing on the snow as they went. We were back in the SUV in a heartbeat racing after them.
If they were smart, they would have turned to head back into town. Instead, they took a left, hitting the road that would lead them out of Wintervale into rural territory. Nobody around for miles.
Even though the roads were slick in places, Casper did a good job catching up with them. I pulled the semi-automatic from my waistband. I was pretty sure I could take out their back tires from the window.
“Should I take the shot?” I asked watching as they managed to put some distance between us.
“We need to get a bit closer,” Rebel said, leaning forward from the back seat. “Casper, try to get closer, but keep enough distance that if they go off the road, we won’t wreck along with them.”
“Yes, please do not crash this fucking thing.” Stray sounded nervous. Not that I could blame him. He and I had been run off the road not that long ago. By Noah and his friends. Just another reason to kill him.
Casper hit the gas, doing his best to shrink the distance between our vehicle and theirs. Rolling down my window, I stuck my arm out, taking careful aim before pulling the trigger. My first shot hit their back passenger tire. Perfect.
To my surprise, they tried to keep going, driving on the rim. I’d hoped the loss of a tire would send them off the road. Practically hanging out the window, I took a second shot at the front passenger tire. That one did it.
Their vehicle went off the road into the ditch, coming to a stop. We were moving too fast to stop quickly. We shot right past them. Casper carefully brought the vehicle to a stop before putting it in reverse. The guys in the other car jumped out, trying to run into a farmer’s field on foot.
