Crush(50)

“Yeah, I do. You’re smart enough to know, once a killer, always a killer. Extrapolate from there, Silver Spoon.”

I didn’t let him rattle me. “What do you think I can do with this information?”

“Make the motherf*cker pay!” he seethed.

My cough couldn’t disguise my laugh. “You want him to pay? Are you f*cking kidding me? What about you? What about your sins? You’re the one who should pay.”

He was shaking his head. “This isn’t about you, McPherson.”

Now I laughed out loud. “No, it’s not. But for some f*cked-up reason I’m the one who’s here. Why didn’t you just send one of your crew to take care of him, like you did me? Oh wait, that’s right—because you can’t be there to watch, you sick f*ck.” My emotions were taking over. Reel it in, McPherson. Reel it in. The plan is going better than expected. Don’t f*ck it up.

With his hands, he tried to shake the table. “This isn’t about you. Or me. I’m in here; what more do you want?”

Focus. I had to focus. He was right. “I know that,” I seethed. “But like I said, I’m the one who’s here. So tell me, why not use your crew?”

“You really don’t know what’s going on, do you?”

I stared at him flatly, giving nothing away.

“I don’t have a crew left.”

My brows popped. “What the f*ck are you talking about?”

Tommy eased forward. “My father put a hit out on me. As soon as I get out of solitary, I’m a dead man.”

Holy shit!

My worries about Elle’s safety, when it came to Tommy anyway, might just be over. Looked like my plan to remove Tommy from the equation was going to be taken care of courtesy of Patrick Flannigan, f*ck him very much. I should have left right then and there, but I didn’t. “Why would your father put a hit out on you?” I asked, trying not to sound triumphant. I still wasn’t entirely buying what he was feeding me.

“He found out what I was doing. That I was trying to break free of him. And that I’d been using his money as capital to buy drugs. Found out I had a part in losing the two hundred and fifty kilos of coke. Found out I’d f*cked everything up.”

My head was spinning and still back at the lost crew. “So you can’t hurt Elle?”

That sinister laugh was back. “Aren’t you f*cking listening to me? I don’t give a shit about her. I want Lizzy’s death avenged.”

I narrowed my eyes on him. “Then why did you send me the note?”

He laughed. “That note I sent you was just to make sure you ended up finding me. When I sent it Lizzy had gone missing again. At the time, I thought you could help me find her. I didn’t know she was already at the bottom of the f*cking river. You can rest assured your little girlfriend is safe, from me anyway. I promised Lizzy I’d leave her sister and her kid out of this.”

Relief crashed over me.

Could I really trust him, though?

Was he playing a game too?

My jaw twitched. “What about the girl you attacked outside the boutique?”

“She was collateral damage.”

I pushed against the table. “What the f*ck are you talking about?”

“I thought she was Lizzy’s sister. She was wearing the same red hat I’d seen her sister wearing.”

Anger ripped through me. “You just told me you promised Lizzy you wouldn’t hurt her sister. Now you’re telling me you thought it was her when you carved up her skin. Make up your f*cking mind and stop feeding me a line of bullshit.”

“It’s not like that. The night before, Lizzy had gone missing, and I needed to keep you away from her sister in case she was somewhere out there waiting to talk to her. And the only way I could think of to make sure you stayed clear of her sister was to leave my mark.”

I found myself in a haze of needing to know what the f*ck he was talking about. “You have less than three minutes to make any sense out of all this bullshit. After that I’m walking.”

He sucked in a breath. “It all started when Lizzy and I had decided to take off. We were going to grab the kid and leave Boston. Disappear. But in the midst of making out plans, I got this call with an offer I couldn’t turn down.”

“What kind of offer?”

His smile was sly. “One that would make me more powerful than my old man.”

“What kind of offer?” I repeated. Like I cared about his power trip.

“To be a wholesaler for the biggest drug supplier in Boston. Me. To be one step under the top of the cocaine chain. It had the potential to be a f*cking gold mine.”

“Who was the supplier?”

He shook his head.

I rolled my eyes. “Okay, so what happened next?”

“I told Lizzy that we couldn’t leave. That I was going to make so much money it would be worth staying. She agreed and even offered to help me unload the product. We started pushing the coke and just like I thought, were making money hand over fist.”

He said the last part with a pride that nauseated me.

“It wasn’t long before I was able to increase my buys. The supplier was happy. I was happy. I was doing a f*cking great job. But Lizzy wasn’t happy. She still wanted to leave town. She didn’t like her life and she was ready to start over somewhere else. The thing was, I wasn’t.”