He gasps for breath and reaches for something which I have to assume would detonate the bomb Jesse is wearing, until he realizes Jesse has taken the opportunity to rush up to us and gather Whitaker’s gun. It makes him hesitate, but I know he’ll hit it when it finally sinks in that he’s going to die anyway, so I hold his arms tightly, refusing to let him grab it.
“You tried to ruin my life,” Jesse says while the man’s breaths become more ragged. His eyes are going wild and the limbs I hold are already growing weak.
He tries to say something, but his speech is slurred as he wobbles backwards and then hits the ground on his back. I don’t know much about venom, but whatever Jesse gave me was apparently enough to kill the man in minutes, and I’d made sure to aim it toward the artery in his leg.
Whitaker thrashes while I stare down at him, his eyes fixated on me before they grow vacant.
Honestly, it’s quite the uneventful end to such a miserable man.
“I wish he’d suffered a bit more as he died,” Jesse says, almost like he’s reading my mind. Then he lets out a laugh. “That sounds so fucked up. What is wrong with me?”
I take the gun from his hand and shoot the man right in the head before looking up at Jesse. “Let’s get the bomb squad in here… and don’t let them find out what really killed him. Got it?”
“You’re calling it in?” Jesse asks, looking surprised.
“Yes.”
“What if it comes back on us?”
“It won’t,” I say as I pull my phone out from where Wilcox had tucked it into his pants and call Michaels.
“This is Sgt. Michaels.”
“Where the fuck are you?” I hiss.
“We’re searching the premises… there’s nothing here,” Michaels says while I begin checking out the setup on Jesse. I know better than to touch it without a professional here.
“We’reatthe premises and you’re not here. What the hell are you talking about? Wilcox was working for Whitaker. He put a bomb on Jesse. I need a bomb squad out here… Whitaker and Wilcox are both dead.”
Michaels is silent for a moment. “What… do you mean?” he asks through what sounds like gritted teeth.
“I had second thoughts about missing Whitaker’s arrest, and I went to the location Richard wrote down. Did Richard change the address before I grabbed it? Did he tamper with it? What address do you have? Because I’m on County Road 93.”
“Fucking hell. We’re heading there now.”
“I can explain in detail later, but there was a disagreement between Whitaker and Wilcox, so Whitaker shot Wilcox. That gave me enough time to get the gun Whitaker had sitting out, and I killed him before he could detonate the bomb. Fuck… What a fucking mess.”
“You can say that again,” Michaels says before I hang up.
Jesse takes a deep breath, like it’s the first time he’s tried to breathe since we got here. Then his eyes catch mine.
“Don’t cry. I don’t like tears,” I warn him.
“I’m trying not to,” he mutters. “I don’t know what fucking magic you just pulled, but… it was almost too damn simple.”
I nod slowly. “Yeah. It went significantly better than I thought it would.”
“Thank you. I left the hospital and met up with Lacey because she brought me the syringe. I was determined to end this. And as she pulled away, Wilcox nearly knocked me unconscious, then he put the bomb on me. I was supposed to call you and tell you to meet me here, but I couldn’t get myself to. I just… thought I’d rather fucking blow up than let him kill you too. But I should have known you wouldn’t die that easily.”
“You should have,” I say. “How did Lacey get the venom?”
“She worked at a reptile facility for a long while. It’s how she ended up at the zoo since they have connections with the zoo. The owner there really liked her and taught her a few things over the ten years she worked there. I don’t know whether she got the venom I used today from there or the zoo, but we can’t let anyone know it’s what killed him.”
“I’m aware,” I say as I hear sirens in the distance.
“You’re such a good person, Liam.”
“And that is where you’re wrong,” I retort before Michaels rushes in, not giving a fuck about the bomb. He’s the only one who does, though, forcing the others to stay back until the bomb squad arrives.
