My balled up fist at my side shook with fury. “How long have you been in bed with the mafia?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he glowered.
“I’ve seen the pictures, Gordon. I heard the conversation you had with Tommy Gun or whatever his name is. In the back alley? When you were talking about mountains and rivers and shit? Oh, what was it that you said?”
“Don’t,” he warned.
“Ah, I remember. ‘The mountains weren’t as beautiful as I figured they would be, but at least there was a nice lake to jump into every once in a while.’ Jog your memory at all?”
And when his face sank, I knew I had him pinned.
“How long, Gordon?” I asked as my voice cracked.
To this day, I don’t know what possessed him. What came over him. Why he decided to do what he did. But, when I saw him push off his feet and come barreling for me, I pulled the trigger of my gun.
BOOOOOOM!
“Gordon, no!” I exclaimed.
“You stupid bitch. Why the fuck do you always ruin everything?” he growled as he reached out for me.
I pointed the gun at him as he bent forward, trying to knock me off my feet. Then, without thinking I pulled the trigger again.
BOOOOOOM!
“You think you can kill me?” he grunted as he slammed into me.
I started screaming at the top of my lungs. “Let me go! Let me go, you fucking idiot! Help me! Somebody stop him!”
His elbow came down against my forearm, knocking the gun out of my hand. Everything happened so quickly that I didn’t have much time to process anything, but as I watched a hole develop in the ceiling, the crack of the gun echoed off the caverns of my mind.
BOOOOOOM!
“You’re mine, Naomi,” he grunted as he wrapped his arms around me. “Even Tommy knows that you chase after what’s yours.”
I snarled in his face. “You sent that mafia bastard after my scent, didn’t you?”
He chuckled wryly. “And he sent me straight to you. All that code. All that smooth talking. It was for you, Naomi. For you! And you’re just… going to throw it all away? This is how I make my money! This is how I keep you comfortable! And all you are is a selfish fucking bitch.”
He picked me clear up off my feet and I flailed around, trying to throw him off balance. “Ranger! Dutch! Trooper! Help me!”
He groaned as he dragged me toward the door. “In time, you’ll come to forget all about this once I can give you the life you deserve. Once Tommy pays me the money I’m owed for all the shit I do for that bastard.”
I threw my elbow back into his gut, but it didn’t do much. “I’d rather eat lead then ever live a life with you, you traitorous dirty rat!”
He slammed me into the wall next to the opened bedroom door and pressed his lips to the shell of my ear. “Now, I can give you what you’ve finally been screaming at me for, Naomi. I can give you a life of rest. Of shopping. Of relaxation and vacations that make you smile and all the shit you complain about to that useless father of yours that you refuse to put in a home. Endless books along every single wall of our home with the money I’m about to rake in with those asshats. They’re idiots, Naomi. Just a bunch of underground criminals--.”
“He’s the bogeyman of the West Coast, Gordon! You can’t beat him!”
“Well, once I’m done? We’ll have the entire world at our fingertips. I’ll get the promotion I’ve always wanted, they’ll cut my hours at work, and we’ll have more time to spend together. We can travel the world. See all of those places you’ve always wanted to see.”
“What happened to you, Gordon?”
“How’s that sound?”
The desperation in his voice broke my heart. I had no clue when Gordon had turned into that person. A person willing to trade in his moral code for a stack of cash. At least Trooper, Dutch, and Ranger lived by their moral code. Morally gray, at best, but never something they considered compromising.
I trusted them because of that.
