Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 78487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
I waited in the shadows. The invisible man. Ready to make my move as soon as the black Cadillac pulled into the empty alleyway.
I’d watched my mark for days, so I knew he’d be here at this time, in that car, waiting for the gates to open.
When I was given a mark, I was told two things—their first name and the crime they committed against the De Kysa.
Anything else was left for me to work out.
So I stalked my marks, taking note of their patterns, habits, and where they would be at their most vulnerable. Then I executed the hit.
I only knew this guy as Graham. He used to be a bookkeeper for the De Kysa family until he decided to steal from them. The moment Vinnie De Kysa learned of his betrayal and where he was hiding, Graham’s name was added to my hit list.
I knew this guy came here every Thursday to buy fresh snapper off the trawler for his wife. Tonight was date night. His wife liked seafood. Snapper was her favorite. I knew everything.
I also knew there was no CCTV or any kind of surveillance around this part of the wharf.
To be honest, I wasn’t sure about this hit. Usually, the men I killed were involved in human trafficking or had murdered, hurt, or maimed an innocent person. But this guy was a white-collar criminal. He didn’t hurt anyone. Just took what didn’t belong to him, and it didn’t sit well with me that I’d be ending his life over it.
But Vinnie did me a solid when he used his connections to find out the names of the three men who raped and murdered Belle, so I owed him this.
When it was time, I strode up to the car and reefed open the door. I never worried if it was locked or unlocked. If it were locked, my Glock would have it open within seconds.
The mark was startled and froze as I slid into the passenger seat.
“Hi, Graham,” I said calmly.
Because of my size, I was a foreboding presence. But the black gloves and balaclava took me from intimidating to terrifying.
Graham looked like he was going to shit himself.
“Who are you?” His wide eyes dropped to the gun in my hand. “W-what do you w-want? W-why are you in my c-car?”
I pointed the gun at his head. “Guess.”
“I-I don’t k-know why.”
“I can give you eight million reasons why.”
That told him exactly who I was and why I was there.
If it were possible, his face grew paler.
“Let me guess, right about now you’re wishing you didn’t steal eight million dollars from Vinnie De Kysa.”
He closed his eyes and started to sob.
“Come on, Graham, you must’ve realized Vinnie wasn’t going to roll over and let you fuck him up the ass by stealing all that cash from him, did you?”
“I h-had to do it.”
“No! What you had to do was not steal his money. That was legit your one job… protecting his assets.”
“I m-made a mistake.”
“You bet you did.”
I pressed the gun barrel against his temple, and he winced.
“Please, not in front of my kid.”
My eyes darted to the back seat, and all kinds of alarms went off inside my head when I saw a damn kid sitting in the car seat staring back at me with big doe eyes. He couldn’t be more than two years old.
Dammit! Why didn’t I look in the back seat before I climbed in?
Because in the two weeks I’d been watching him, he had never brought his kid with him.
Wait! Did he somehow know today was the day?
Is that what this is about?
Did he know I was coming, so he brought his kid with him as a shield?
I turned away from the kid to glare at my mark ready to drag him outside the car and off him right there on the wharf for putting his kid in harm’s way.
But I didn’t.
Because after watching him for two weeks, I instinctively knew that wasn’t the case. This schmuck might be an opportunistic thief, but he wasn’t about to risk his kid’s life.
This was just dumb luck.
Or bad luck.
Depended which side of the gun you were on.
“Please, let me get my kid home, and then I’ll go anywhere you want.”
I looked at the kid again.
Fuck.
Now the little guy was sucking in his lower lip. Any minute and he was going to start crying.
Double fuck.
I looked away to refocus and pressed the barrel of my gun to Graham’s temple. He yelped, and it set the kid off. He started hollering in his car seat, and damn if I didn’t feel an overwhelming urge to comfort the little guy.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I took in a frustrated breath. “How much of the money is left?”
“A-all of it.”
Hating myself for what I was about to do because it meant I was going to have to smooth this shit over with Vinnie somehow, I said, “Then today is your lucky day, Graham, because I’m giving you a second chance. Do you understand? You’re going to get that eight million dollars, and you’re going to give it back to Vinnie De Kysa. Every last penny.”