Teo watches me closely while he thinks about the situation at hand. “That would be rather foolish of me, then, wouldn’t it? Tell me what you’d like in exchange for the death of my father.”
“The risk is significant. Raul is an influential man in the underworld. He’s raised multiple killers, many of whom I have to assume would be very displeased if I killed him. And correct me if I’m wrong, but you have another brother who has quite a bit of pull in the family. My life would be at risk if anyone found out it was me who did it.”
“Then make sure no one does,” he says.
I smile at him. “If it was so easy to ‘make sure no one does,’ would you not have done it yourself? Killing your father without raising suspicion would be quite the task. Let the boy go. Give me three days to assess the situation and I will let you know my price.”
“No. I’m not letting the boy go.”
“Feel free to keep Sophia in his place,” I say.
“I think you’re misunderstanding the situation. This isn’t a choice. I’m offering to give you something in exchange for killing my father. That is your only choice.”
“There’s always more than one choice.”
I can tell he’s getting irritated with me, but that’s fine. I’m simply giving the others time to find Cam. My only purpose in this room is to distract Teo until the phone in my pocket vibrates two times. Then I will make my escape, hopefully with a dash of car chase so I can whip out my newest ballad.
“Do you not understand this situation at all?” he asks.
I guess I don’t when I’m over here questioning whether the murder song or the car chase song will be more appropriate for this situation. I wave those thoughts away and return to my “bad guy who definitely has this handled and isn’t just stalling” routine. “Do you think this is my first day? I might be a retired hitman, but I know far more about how this world works than you do. Let’s start over. I feel like we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I would like to introduce you to my baby, Calliope. She’s sweet, isn’t she? She’s sleeping right now.”
He glances down at the grenade launcher and scowls. How could anyone wear that look when looking at my precious Calliope?
“Very sweet,” he chokes out.
“And this is some random lady who tried poisoning me with her cookies,” I say as I wave toward Sophia, who’s been sitting quietly until now.
“I did not trypoisoningyou. They were good cookies!” she protests.
“And your hired men harassed my son, which is really… such a big no. I should deny ever dreaming of helping you for that alone.”
Teo bows his head, and I can’t tell whether he’s repenting or I’ve finally pissed him off. I soon get my answer when his head snaps up and he glowers at me. “You’re starting to waste my time.”
“I know what will fix this. Would you like to hear the story of me meeting the greatest man alive? Envision this… Dark night, hitman waiting, PI scuttling?—”
And that’s when I hear gunfire. I slide forward, moving so quickly that no one in the room can react before I have Teo in my hands, gun to his head.
I don’t know who would be shooting outside of the room, but I really didn’t plan for my crew to get caught up in gunfire. It makes me anxious, especially knowing that Jackson is out there. “Teo, this really doesn’t look good for you. Do you know what happens when you fuck with someone better than you? You get to hear the full saga of The Fence.”
“What the fuck are you going on about?” he asks.
“Tell your men to drop their weapons, then to get on the ground and spread their arms and legs like they’re making snow angels.”
He lets out some kind of growling noise of severe dissatisfaction. I mean, come on, did he really think this would be so simple? And when he’s done growling like a feral animal who just got his bone stolen, he nods at his men.
“Drop them.”
The moment they do, Sophia takes them. One man is hesitant to go down, so she slams the butt of his gun into the side of his face and then hooks his leg before dropping him to the ground.
“Snow angels, my friends. Bring back your inner child,” I call as I start toward the door with Teo urged along by my gun. “Sophia, guard my back with your body. I want the bullet to go through you before it reaches me.”
“You are such a gentleman,” she says.
“Thank you. Teo, how many people do you have in this place? I’m sure it’s packed full knowing I was going to be here tonight.”
“More than you can handle.”
“Possibly,” I say while I hurry him toward the door. “And where is the boy?”
