I stopped and looked down at the pristine bar.
“Pretty sure even the health inspector would say you’re cleaning too much.”
“Shut up.”
Sighing, he set his mug down. “Are we gonna talk about what happened?”
“Nope.”
“Because I have a feeling we haven’t seen the end of that job.”
“Please! That man raped and murdered my wife!”
I squeezed my eyes closed and tried to drown out the pleas of the man I was supposed to kill.
Supposed to.
Never actually did it.
Why? Because Archer called it. My head wasn’t right. One slice was all it took to make me want to vomit. I held it together, but the moment the man started babbling, all I could think about was how Josie would see me.
Blood on my hands, taking the life of a man who had done nothing more than defend his family. And for what? Because the man in charge wasn’t too happy about the fact that his rapist brother had been killed.
“What do you want me to say?” I snapped, not wanting to discuss this.
“Hey, you know I had your back in there,” he hissed under his breath. “Not that I particularly like having a target on my back, but you said you had things under control!”
“I know!” When a few heads turned my way, I lowered my voice. “I know what I said.”
“So, what the fuck happened?”
I didn’t really have to tell him. He already knew. The inevitable happened, and there was no getting away from it now.
I’d let my personal feelings get in the way of the job. And that would kill any man in my position.
“Look, I took care of it. I called off the hit and let him know it was my decision.”
“And you think that’s the end of it?” he huffed.
“It’s gonna have to be.”
“Think again, JR. This was personal to him, and you blew him off.”
“Because it wasn’t?—”
“It doesn’t matter,” he snapped, keeping his voice low. “Good or bad, he called in a favor because of what happened on the last job. And you don’t walk away from favors. They’re not actually something you can turn down.”
I knew that. Fuck, I knew that. But when I was in that room, I couldn’t do it. If I had, how the hell would I ever look at Josie again?
My eyes drifted to her again, and this time, I knew Archer wasn’t going to let it go.
“Make it count, man. You made the decision not to pull the trigger. Don’t make me regret backing you. I swear to God, if this comes back to bite us and you haven’t made things right with her, I’ll kill you myself.”
He tossed some money down on the bar and walked out. Just when I got rid of one nuisance, three more appeared at the bar. All three of them pissed, and all three of them were glaring at me.
“What?”
Of course, it was Michael who chose to speak up. He hated me the most. “I see you didn’t take my advice.”
