The Cunning Thief (Stolen Hearts #6)(20)

“My friend over here,” he motioned his head toward Gage, “is what we like to call a sharpshooter. That means that if either of you makes one move that makes me think, even just for a second, that you might be a threat, he’s going to put a bullet between your eyes. Not your shoulder, not in your gut, not your leg. Right for the head. He never misses, and he never leaves any survivors. So if you think you can take him, you just let me know right now. Otherwise, we have a few questions for you.”



Once all the perpetrators were on their knees and had their hands held up and placed on the back of their heads, it was time to get started. Tristan looked at his watch. It would only be a few minutes before the police got there. That would be all the time he’d need.

The intimidation act wasn’t Tristan’s favorite thing. It made him feel more like a terrorist than a con artist. But the same thing that made Tristan feel bad about it was what made it effective. This position made the kids think they could be shot in the head at any given time. The little tale he made up on the spot about Gage seemed to keep them well and truly terrified.

“Okay,” he said, taking the lead. “I’m going to ask you a few questions. Every time I think you’re lying to me, you’re going to be punished. Every time I know you’re lying to me, something is going to break. Now, I can break something with my hands. Or I can use a bullet to break bone. It’s my choice, really, and you won’t know which is coming at you until you’re screaming for mercy on the ground. These are your options, and they’re your only options. So you damn well better convince me.” He moved behind one of the guys. They all looked similar. Tristan had an inkling they might be brothers. The youngest barely looked old enough to drive, and the oldest probably wasn’t even in his twenties yet. He definitely wasn’t planning to shoot any of them, but he still wanted them to tell him the truth. He flicked the safety of his gun on before holding it up to the back of one of the kid’s heads. The kid’s arms shook with the effort of holding them up for that long. “Let’s start with you. What’s your name, son?”

“Ummmm...” the kid started in a shaky voice. “Anthony.”

“Well hello there, Anthony. Now, I’m not sure if you know, but this house is owned by a sweet, pretty woman who has basically never done anything wrong in her life.” Tristan saw Gage give him a questioning look, but he didn’t have time to tell Gage where he could stick it. “Now I want you to tell me exactly why you’re here.”

“We... we don’t want to do this. We tried to say no.”

“See, now, I can’t help but realize that’s not an answer.” The kid tensed, and Tristan knew he was preparing himself for a blow. In fact, all the boys tensed. He suddenly got a better read on the situation. Instead of hitting Anthony, he aimed the butt of his gun for the back of one of his brothers’ heads. He measured the blow carefully, so as he brought the butt of the gun down on the brother, it was enough to hurt but was barely a glancing blow. It was enough to make his brother grunt, and Anthony leapt up. Hunter was ready for him, however, and forced him back onto the ground.

“Wait wait wait!” cried Anthony. “I’ll tell you everything. Please, just don’t hurt them anymore.”

Tristan, Hunter, and Gage all exchanged a look. This was not like they’d expected this to go. He broke after one question. Which was good, but also odd. That being said, he wasn’t gonna say no to being told everything. “Start at the beginning.”

“I.... Can I talk to you privately?”

Hunter shook his head, but Tristan was intrigued. He reached down and pulled Anthony up, motioning with his gun where to go. They ended up in an empty room down the hall, and Tristan knocked the door shut. “This had better not be some kind of stupid game,” he warned.

Anthony shook his head fervently. “No, I... I don’t know if you’re going to believe what I’m going to tell you. If you shoot me, I don’t want them to see it.”

Chivalrous. Stupid, but chivalrous. “I don’t have all day.”

“This is my fault. I’ve been bumming cars for about three years now. It’s fine. It’s a life that’s working best for me. But Jimmy, the youngest one, my brother, he’s different. Smarter. He’s supposed to go places. But I guess for some stupid reason he decided to follow in my footsteps. Got picked up by the cops during his first job a few nights back. This cop, though, is really weird about it. Told him he’d wipe the slate clean if we did this one thing.”

“Break in here and kill someone?” accused Tristan.

Anthony’s eyes widened, and he shook his head frantically. “No. God, no. Nothing like that. He told us just to throw a brick through the window. Just a warning or something. Nothing but a brick. Just a fucking brick. It’s an easy one. You know, no choice really there. We did it, and thought it was over. Except this morning at like three o’clock, we got some angry call from the dirty cop telling us that we’re not done yet. That we have more debt to pay. He told us he would book us all on major assault charges if we didn’t come here and scare the shit out of whoever lived here.”

Tristan frowned. “Assault charges? What kind of assault charges?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know if he’s bluffing, or if he was serious. The guy is fucking crazy and I don’t want to take that chance.”