“Wait.” Kole stopped as he was reaching for the door. “What’s a Big Wheel?”
Damn.Gabe shook his head. Sometimes he forgot he was over a decade older than his younger teammate.
His dormant heart stirred when Kole’s most recent question had Elle’s laughter growing even louder. And as he followed her out the door, Gabe wondered how the hell he was going to leave that sound—and her—behind once this was all over.
Chapter 7
“Why the fuck is she still alive?”
Adrian Walker stared out the window to the city below. “Bitch got lucky.”
“Lucky? You’ve tried to kill her twice and have failed miserably both times.”
Taking a slow sip of his whiskey, he turned and faced the man who’d hired him. “Maybe she’s a cat. They do have nine lives, you know.”
“You think this is funny?” The prick slammed his own glass down onto one of the suite’s accent tables.
Adrian shrugged. “It’s a little funny.”
The other man’s clean-shaven face grew beet red. “I told you what needed to happen. I explained how time-sensitive our situation is, and I—”
“You didn’t explain shit.”
Adrian moved toward him. As usual, the chicken shit backed up a half a step.That’s right, tough guy. You should be fucking scared.
“You gave me my mark and said to make it look like an accident. I tried while she was on her bike, but she somehow managed to keep the damn thing on the road. So she gets lucky one damn time, and you hand the job over to your boy, Hall. Behind my back. The guy didn’t even check to see if she was actually fucking dead after he smashed into her car.He’sthe reason she’s still alive. Not me.”
“You said you were the best.” The idiot went back to his glass, swallowing the rest of its contents in a single gulp. “It can’t be that fucking hard. Just toss her down a flight of stairs and be done with it.”
Jesus fucking Christ.Adrian shook his head. “You really are a clueless bastard, aren’t you?”
He slapped his chest. “I took care of the reporter, remember?Idid that.”
“Because you were desperate and lost your shit. Let’s not forget who helped you clean up that mess.”
Unable to admit he’d fucked up by letting his temper flare and pushing the poor reporter a little too hard, the other man bypassed his mistake and moved on.
Jutting his chin, he said, “People fall down the stairs every goddamn day, Walker. It’s a known fact.”
“About a million falls every year, last time I checked,” Adrian agreed. “But do you know how many of those people actuallydiefrom their injuries? Twelve thousand.”
With his pointed nose in the air, the asshole smirked. “Exactly.”
“No, dipshit.Notexactly. Twelve grand is barely a tenth of a percent of a million. So no, throwing someone down a flight of stairs isnotthe most believable way to cover up a murder.”
The man made a ticking sound with his tongue. Obviously disappointed, he shook his head. “All those stories I’ve heard about you. All the rumors and whispers around DC about the great and powerful Adrian Walker. The second my boss came to me with this little problem, I thought…he’s the man I want for this.Walkeris the one who will get the job done.” The asshole chuckled. “What a load of shit.”
Before the man could blink, Adrian threw his glass down and covered the distance between them.
His thick fingers wrapped around the idiot’s throat, and he shoved the mouthy prick against the table. Its marble top dug into the man’s back as the arrogant fuck choked and sputtered, fighting for air Walker refused to give him.
Not until I’m done with him, anyway.
“You listen to me, you stupid fuck.” Adrian felt the man tremble beneath his palm. “Iamthe best. I’ve done things you can’t even imagine. Things that would make the Devil, himself, piss his pants. In fact, I could kill you right now and dispose of your body in a way there wouldn’t be enough left to run a fucking DNA test on your sorry ass. So you might be paying me for this job but don’t mistake that for you being in charge.”
Adrian shoved the guy away and took a step back, continuing on with his version of Murder 101.
“You want someone executed, I’m your guy. But passing a death off as accidental is a lot fucking harder than it looks in the movies. And if she has another accident now, after two failed attempts back-to-back, there’s no way the cops will buy it. They’ll start digging, which is exactly what we don’t want.”
