A Dirty Business (Kings of New York #1)(113)

There was a window open, and I paused, right underneath it.

“—no! They’re here. Yes. She’s here. No. I don’t know. He got there before me. He was probably there to stop me. Who the fuck knows. I’m aware, boss!”

Boss.

He was there to stop him? “He” as in Bear?

The air was suddenly sweltering around me. My body began moving, weaving.

Stop. I felt impending doom coming on, but no. No way. I shoved that shit down. I had a job to do.

“It’s not my fault that everything was fucked. Bobby fucked up too. Your kid never took the ‘Mom is alive’ bait. That whole idea was for nothing. Now this tonight? You made a move tonight, and nothing happened. Killing Jess makes no sense. Yeah. Okay. I’ll do it. I know! I know. I’ll do it, but I gotta figure something out to say to her mom. The job was never for me to kill them both—because I already killed the dad! He was my best friend.”

I was wheeling.

Leo was the mole.

He—I gripped my gun tighter, making sure I wouldn’t drop it.

“Okay. Okay! I’ll take care of it. I’ll take care of it. Say I got word and need to show her something. She’ll go with me. She trusts me, always has. Yeah, yeah. We’ll deal with her mom later on. Fine.” He began cursing to himself, moving around the garage. A door opened, shut, but it wasn’t his.

I eased back, waiting, but—I had a different idea.

Fuck this. I was done.

Done.

I opened the door, stepped inside.

He froze, then started to bring his gun back up.

I shot at it. Not him. His hand. He dropped his gun but started to fumble around. He had a carton of milk in his other hand but threw it at me as he swooped down, grabbing for the gun with that hand.

I stepped aside, dodged the milk, and as soon as he touched the gun, I shot at that one too.

“Aaghh! Why are you doing this? Stop, Jess!”

He was bleeding from both hands. He had no other options, except—he considered barging at me. I raised my gun. “Don’t do it.” I said it softly, calm. I was locked down. My heart was pumping. I could hear it going fast, but it was like it was outside of my body. “I’ll put you down.”

I would. He knew it, looking at me. I knew that he knew it.

I raised the gun to his forehead. “Sit. Down.”

He looked around, groaning as he kept bleeding out, but he moved to the red couch behind him. It was a piece-of-shit couch, moved out here for when he liked to have beers with his buds. I thought the color of it fit the theme perfectly tonight.

I’d never liked it before. I loved it now.

He lowered himself, grimacing from the pain. “Jess. I’m going to bleed out. Call an ambulance.”

“You suspended me. Right?” I was taunting him.

“Oh, come on. Jess! Please!” He tried to raise his hands up.

“I’m sure that’ll help with the bleeding.”

“Come on. I’m going to die if you don’t call for help.” He was panting now. Sweat broke out over his face. He’d be woozy soon.

“Who’s your boss?”

He frowned at me. “Huh?”

“I heard your call. Who is your boss? Who made the move tonight?”

“Oh, God. Jess. Seriously. Call 911. You don’t want to kill me. I know you don’t. You already killed Bear. That’ll be two of us. They’re going to ask questions, but I can . . .” He had to stop, catch his bearings. The room should be spinning for him now. “I can cover for you. I will. I promise. I’ll say whatever you want, but call 911. I’ll tell you everything.”

“You’ll tell me everything now.”

“Jess! Come on!”

“Now, Leo. Before you bleed out.”

“Jess! Now!”

I waited. I was finding that I wasn’t having a moral dilemma here. Not one bit.

“Agh! Come on! Are you serious?! Fine! Fine! I work for Dominic West. Always have. I went in undercover when I was a cop. It’s how I met your dad. How we got close. He was my target, but things got complicated.” He choked off, breathing hard. Harder. He began slumping down. “I . . . I . . .”

“Why?”

“What do you mean?”

“Dominic was behind the hits tonight, wasn’t he? The ones against Trace and Ashton?”

He moaned. “Jess, I don’t have long.”

“Then tell me everything. Now!”

He raised his head, squinting at me a little before sighing. His head fell back down. “Yes. It was Dominic and Nicolai Worthing. Nicolai’s been trying to push in. He gave your uncle a proposition, but Stephano didn’t bite. But Dominic, he did. He made the call tonight that everyone was going to go. Everyone. He’d take over the family business, and he’d work with Worthing, let them in on their deals.”

Right. Okay. That was a lot to process, but I’d deal with all of that bullshit later. “Did you kill my dad?”

He nodded, frowning, eyes fluttering like he couldn’t see straight anymore. “Yeah. That was a long time ago. Stephano ordered it, but Dominic’s been holding it over my head the whole time. Said he has evidence on me. Forcing me to keep working for him, giving him information.”

“How?” That word ripped from me.