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“CASS IS NO ANGEL!” Hauser snarled. “I don’t know how she roped you into all this, but whatever she told you is a lie.”
“That much I can believe,” I said. “But who is she?”
I almost expected him to say she was a secret agent. Or maybe some kind of syndicate killer. The way his henchmen had reacted—
But no. He showed his teeth. “She’s just some whore. I ignore it when she breaks the lease agreement, and she cuts me in on her profits. It was a mutual business arrangement.”
I had a lot of doubts about that, but my goal was to keep him talking, not audit all his bad behavior. I was hoping to leave that to a judge and duly-appointed jury.
There were still some huge gaps in my knowledge, though. And he was feeling chatty. I tried to get that education.
“So you’re not involved with cartels?”
“Cartels? That’s a fancy word.”
“Cass said you deal drugs and traffic women. Derrick talked about the drugs, too.”
“That’s what this is all about? Cass has you busting up my whole operation because I let Derrick move a little meth?”
He made it all sound so mild. Like he was the reasonable one, and I was some kind of jerk for complaining about it.
“I don’t care about your operation. Okay? That’s the truth. Cass burst into my life and dragged me into all of this. I only want out.”
He caught his breath and frowned like I’d said something puzzling. “You mean that?”
I heaved a tired sigh. “With all my heart. I just want out.”
He nodded, “That makes sense. This is no life for a kid like you. Only...”
He dragged it out like he wanted me to ask. I glanced at the door. I strained my ear for any sound of cops in the building. Were they still coming? What was happening outside?
This was the hardest part of any strategy game, when you’d finished your build and committed to the assault, and the enemy’s defenses started tearing you to shreds, and the fog of war hid everything you needed to know.
And all you can ever do at that point is trust the build and chase the plan and hope to Heaven your reinforcements are on the way in some other lane.
Buy time. That was the plan. So I asked the question he wanted. “Only what?”
“Only I offered you free rent and two thousand bucks a month to get out of this, and you kept right on stringing me along for Cass. Or you really want to hurt my operation.”
“I don’t—” I shook my head. Had he really offered me two thousand dollars a month to walk away?
He had.
I gave an honest shrug. “I didn’t have time to think it through.”
“Sure, sure. That makes sense.” He took a step closer, past the corner of the bed. Just out of reach. “That does make sense. Only....”
I gestured with the gun at my hip, warning him, and he smiled in answer. “Only after you got the drop on Derrick,” he said, “you didn’t get out. You retrieved a gun and broke into my personal residence. And you’re the one threatening me right now.”
He had me there.
He knew it. I knew it. He met my gaze, eyebrows raised.
“Well,” he asked at last, “Why are you here?”
“Because...” I was embarrassed to say it, but he had me backed into a corner.
“Yeah?” he asked. “Because what?”
I threw a miserable glance back at Trina, but she was staring at Hauser. And he wouldn’t take the hint.
“What?” he asked.
“Her!” I snapped, gesturing Trina’s way. I did it with the gun, unthinking, and she jerked away so hard her chair almost toppled.
I brought the gun back around to cover Hauser, but he hadn’t moved. His eyes were narrowed, though. He was paying attention.
“Her?” he asked. He sounded genuinely confused. “Her?! She’s nobody.”
“No, I’m nobody. She’s—”
“Cass’s sister?” He remembered that. “She’s not. She’s just some dumb loser who got involved.”
“Again, you’re talking about me.”
He smirked. “That’s cute, kid.”
“Thanks. But she’s not nobody. She’s a detective. I think you’re scared of her.”
He snorted. “Did Cass call her that?”
“Derrick did. He said she brought in the banker.”
Hauser blinked at that. He sighed. “Derrick is an idiot. She’s just some girl.”
“But—”
He raised his hand and spoke over me. “She’s just some girl. Cass ran into her somewhere and told her a sob story. Then this girl wants to be a detective someday, so she tries to save Cass from her terrible life of whoring.”
I glanced at Trina. She looked really angry, but not confused. Not surprised. Not denying.
I shook my head. “But Cass said—”
“Cass lies by habit. Don’t let it shake you, kid.”
“But—”
He took a step closer, one hand out. “She fooled you. She fooled a lot of us. No reason to let it get you killed.”
I leaned forward. “If Trina’s nobody, then let her go.”
He narrowed his eyes. “What?”
“Let her go. Let me go. I’ll give you the gun you wanted all this time—”
Trina kicked me in the ankle. She kept the gesture small so Hauser wouldn’t see it, but she didn’t want me dealing with him.
I didn’t want him thinking she was a risk. I tried to hide my reaction to the little kick and press on. “—all this time. And we all three disappear in the commotion. You won’t even owe me any envelopes full of cash.”
Now he frowned, confused for real. “You’re doing all of this for her? Really?”
I felt a blush touch my neck and shoulders. “No! No. But I’ve been trapped in unfair places before. I want to bring her out.”
He considered me for a while. He wasn’t bartering now. He wasn’t playful. He measured me like a snake considering a very large egg. Like was I really worth the pain of eating? He could do it, but would he regret it?
While he pondered, I listened to the conflict outside and tried to separate out the sounds. Multiple gunshots rang out again. Were Hauser’s guys battling the cops now? Were cops fighting cops? Was there a helicopter overhead?
How much of our strategy was working? I was deep in the fog of war, but the fight felt balanced here. One on one, I could face Hauser.
He seemed happy to stand up here and chat with me. Almost like he was the one buying time.
It hit me then. Of course he was. He’d said Derrick called to tell him I hit him with a soda bottle. He thought he had a dragon coming to save him.
“Derrick?” I asked. Tired, frustrated, I let some of my attitude touch my voice. “You’re still expecting Derrick to come deal with us?”
He smiled. “You and the girl can be a murder-suicide. I’ll explain it all to the cops.”
“You’d need more than cops to buy that story. You’re going to have to deal with a district attorney—”
He nodded. “I’ve got two D. A.s and a judge working on my side. I can still handle this.”
But there was sweat on his forehead, now. And his eyes kept darting back toward the door behind him. He was worried.
I was winning.
It was unsettling.
“I don’t think Derrick’s coming,” I told Hauser. “Maybe Cass got him. Maybe he ran away, same as her. But I think it’s just me and you here. And the cops are closing in.”
He measured me some more. Then he sighed, “What’s your offer?”
“You’ve heard it. I give you the gun. Trina and I walk out the front door.”
“And then testify against me to the cops?”
I raised my chin. “I thought you had two D. A.s and a judge. What are you scared of?”
He didn’t like that. He stiffened and stood up straighter. “I’m not scared of you little —s!”
“Then let us go.” I lowered the barrel of the gun to point at the ground and extended the weapon to him, open-palmed. “Let us go, and it can all be over.”
Trina kicked me again. Harder this time. And when I tried to ignore her, she twisted in her seat and kicked my ankle so hard the leg went out from under me.
I screamed in pain, and yes, it was falsetto. And yes, I hurled the gun away recklessly as I tried to catch my fall. And no, I didn’t end it gracefully. I barked my good shin on the corner of the footboard, toppled over that, and landed sprawled on my back looking up at Trina.
She had the gag almost out of her mouth, and she was working furiously to get it free, jerking her head and working her jaw like a dying fish. I lunged up to pull it off, and the knotted rags fell against her chest like a gross necklace.
“You dummy!” she shouted, and she made it sound a lot worse than —. “Don’t give him the gun! Don’t let him get away! He killed an accountant in front of me.”
“Banker.” I said it automatically, and automatically felt bad for correcting her.
I felt even worse because Hauser said it in unison.
Trina glared at me. “He killed him! In front of me! With that gun! You think he’s going to let us go?”
I struggled back up to my feet, getting my bearings, and there was Hauser by his suitcase. Snapping it closed. Putting it away.
He had the gun in his hand. He still had the brown paper bag covering the grip. Protecting his fingerprints, now. And he no longer seemed nervous. He seemed purposeful. He turned his back to us long enough to push the door closed. And lock it.
“Mr. Hauser—” I started, trying to reason with him, but he brought the gun up to point it at me, and I couldn’t play cool the way Hauser had. Even knowing it wasn’t loaded, I felt cold panic wash over me the moment the gun aimed my way.
He wasn’t focused on me, though. He was focused on Trina. “She’s right,” he said. “She has to die.”
He swung the gun to point at her, and I noticed a few things. The safety was off. The slide was closed. And Ben had never told me for sure how he solved that problem.
Hauser was aiming at Trina and he meant to kill her now. Then he’d finish me off and sell the incident as a murder-suicide, just like he’d said.
Fear flooded through me, then. And shame. And a lot of anger. After all the strategy, he was just going to shoot us?
But I’d been winning!
I charged him.
I couldn’t just let him shoot an innocent girl. Not with the gun I had brought him. I didn’t have a plan. I didn’t expect to win. But I couldn’t go down without a fight.
I charged him, and he was surprised. I saw it in his eyes. Right before he shot me.
Turns out, the gun was loaded.