Page 59 of Gorgeous Misery

Back in Merc’s working days the Company still had subcontractors. They found Merc at an MIT recruitment weekend. And the moment you say ‘MIT’ to these wide-eyed newkills, their mouths drop open. Ohhhhhhh. They start nodding, getting it. Now it kinda makes sense. He’s not an assassin. He’s a brain who just knows how to fuck with your head and kill you a hundred and twenty-five different ways.

“You still with me, Wendy?”

“Yeah. I’m here.”

“Do you still want to know what I want?”

“Sure. Why not? I mean, since I’ve got you on the phone and all. It’s kind of a big deal, talking to you. If the newkills could see me now…”

“I don’t know what that means. Don’t even care what that means. I’m interested in what you know about Nick Tate.”

“Well, obviously, we’re close. I’m standing in his house talking on his phone.”

“Close… how?”

“All the ways, really. He’s family to me.”

And for some reason this provokes an uneasy silence from the infamous killer on the other end of the landline.

“Merc? Are you still with me?”

“So you’ve known him… how long?”

“Well.” I pause to count. “Pretty much my entire life. You remember the Santa Barbara massacre?”

“I was there.”

“Right. That’s right. I think I knew that. I was there too. But I was only five, so I wasn’t partaking in the killing that night. Obviously. I was on the superyacht. Nick ended up on the yacht too, and… we met. Few years later I was babysitting for him. He didn’t take to single fatherhood immediately and he needed a backup. So I was backup. And then, of course, we’ve done lots of jobs together, so I’ve been his real backup on about… mmmm… lemme think. Maybe… thirty jobs? Lots. I mean, maybe thirty jobs isn’t a lot to someone like you, but I think thirty is kind of a big deal.”

“Anything else?”

“If you want to know if we’re fucking, eh. Sometimes we do that. But I’m not his girlfriend, if that’s what you’re wondering. He’s not my boyfriend. That’s not how we work. We are something much more than that.”

“How do you two work? How important are you to him?”

A chill runs through my body. It’s got to be ninety-five degrees outside and even though the AC is on, the front door is still open, so it’s hot in here.

The chill is a warning.

Something is wrong.

Something is very, very wrong.

CHAPTER TWLEVE - NICK

TODAY

“If you hurt her—”

But the call has dropped. There is nothing on the other end but empty silence.

“Fuck,” I mutter. I’m outside the motel in the parking lot. There are a few people packing up cars, but other than that, there’s no one around.

Where is he?

Somewhere close?

Somewhere far?