“But the second was a setup from the beginning. That’s why the dealer didn’t know anything.”
“Yeah, poor guy. Patsy from the start.” Vance shrugged. “And Martinez was a chef’s kiss perfect convenience I couldn’t pass up either. By then, I knew you and Donovan were looking for the leak in the department. I thought I’d try to pin it on Briggson, but Martinez fell into our lap. Dumbass drinking bastard. But for the record, he never actually gave up any useful info to anyone in my organization.”
I had never wanted to punch someone in the face as badly as I did Vance right now. “You piece of shit. He killed himself because of you.”
Vance gave an overtheatrical grimace. “Well, actually…”
It fell into place. Martinez hadn’t killed himself at all. Vance had killed him and made it look like a suicide. Had shown up at the man’s house under the pretense of checking on a down-and-out colleague and “found” him dead.
“Yep.” Vance nodded. “Everything you’re thinking, I’m sure it’s probably right. Couldn’t leave any loose ends, especially when they were so easy to tie up. One suicide note and all of a sudden, the leak issue was fixed for good.”
Son of a bitch.
The night felt like it was closing in on me. Vance had killed Martinez. He would have no problem killing again to save his operation.
“You need another patsy.”
He shrugged. “Not so much a patsy as a distraction, while I get my operation moved out of town. I have no idea how you found out about the warehouse tonight. Do me a solid and tell me, would you?”
“Go fuck yourself.”
Vance walked over to Kayla and put the Glock right up to her temple. She let out a terrified sob. “Oh, come on, Ben. Just satisfy my curiosity.”
I couldn’t stand the terror in her eyes. “A Drift user overheard the plans. Gave it up during questioning today.”
I didn’t mention Briggson or Mia. I was giving this bastard as little usable information as possible.
“Figures. Meant a lot of last-minute changes on my part. Unfortunately, last-minute changes are a big fucking headache. That’s why I needed you both here. A distraction.”
“You shoot us and explain two bodies on a mountain road?”
“No. That would cause way too many questions.” He moved back to the car, set the weapon on the hood within easy reach, and unzipped the pouch, laying it open beside the gun. He pulled out two syringes, preloaded, capped.
“Sedative. Fast-acting. You’ll be out in under a minute.” He set both syringes on the pavement, then straightened and picked the weapon back up in one smooth motion.
“Once that’s in your system, the truck goes through the guardrail.” He nodded toward the void behind me. “It’ll look like an accident. Dark night. Mountain roads. Happens all the time in Colorado.”
I looked at the drop. A hundred feet of nothing, thenrock, then the creek. The sedative would metabolize before anyone found the wreckage. No toxicology flags. No crime scene. Just a tragic accident on a mountain road and a county coroner who’d have no reason to look deeper.
“The whole department is still moving on that warehouse.”
He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. Nothing there. Actually, finding out it was a junkie who gave you the intel is something I can work with. They’re not the most reliable sources of information, sadly. And when that person ODs in the next few days, I’m sure no one will think much about it. My last parting gift before restarting my operation in a different town.”
Fucking son of a bitch.
Vance nodded toward the syringes on the ground between us. “Pick them up.”
Neither Kayla nor I moved.
“Pick them up.” His voice didn’t change, but his eyes shifted to Kayla. “Or I make a few calls and find out where little William is—and make sure he suffers horribly.”
Kayla made a sound. Small, involuntary, like something had been cut inside her.
Every muscle in my body locked down against what it wanted to do. My hands went rigid on the guardrail, and my vision narrowed to the weapon in his hand, because the only thing standing between that threat and a six-year-old asleep with his buddy was the fact that Vance still needed us cooperative.
“I’d rather not. I’d rather the kid and the dog have each other after tonight. Right? He and Jolly love each other. That’s why he went wandering in the woods that day—to find Jolly. They’ll have each other to get through the grief.”
He said it the way you’d describe a severance package.Reasonable. Generous, even. “But that outcome depends entirely on what happens here in the next sixty seconds.”
