Page 30 of Himbo Hitman
He has the fucking audacity to roll his eyes, and like his voice, I’ve clearly been thinking about him too much because they seem familiar too. “And now you’re making me do it again.”
I throw my hands up. “Can you wait a second? My brother’s missing,” I explain, and I don’t know why, but I actually have hope that I can win him over. “How would you feel if your sister went missing?”
Those eyes of his give away too much, but it’s clear he doesn’t like that.
“Yeah, it sucks. And I thought, well, if you had orders to kill me and instead told me to disappear, thatmaybeyou did the same for Colin.”
It’s a long shot, but I’m desperate, and I hold my breath while I wait for him to answer me.
“I haven’t seen a Colin,” he says, and my hopes crash. “I didn’t even know you had a brother.”
I slump back against my desk, fear forgotten as hopelessness tries to take over instead.
The masked man stands and moves closer. “Wish I could help.”
“You’re sure?”
He shrugs. “Positive. My list of names isn’t long. I’m new.”
Finally, my laugh breaks free, and I swear his eyes crease up too. “Yeah. I could have guessed that.”
“Damn. Right where it hurts.”
“I’m sorry, are you telling me that Ihurt your feelings?”
“And not for the first time.”
“You are really bad at this, aren’t you?”
With the hand not holding his gun, he pinches his fingers an inch apart. “I’m calling it a learning curve.”
Then the familiarity vanishes, and he lifts his gun my way.
All of the relaxed air sucks from the room as I stare at that barrel again.
“You don’t have to do this,” I whisper.
“Yeah, I do. You broke our trust.”
“To be fair, you probably shouldn’t be trusting complete strangers at all. Consider this a life lesson.”
“Sorry that I like to see the best in people.”
“Is that before or after you blow open their skulls?” The bottom of his eyes twitch, like he’s cringing at that imagery. “Is that what you want?” I push. “To take me away from my friends and family? To splatter my blood over my desk? Will that make you feel good?”
“I get the feeling it’ll come down to being you or me, and I sort of like where my blood is right now.”
“Funny. I could have said the same. But if you can do it, then do it.” I’m totally fucking bluffing here because if hedoes it, I die. Not a fan of that outcome, so I hurry to continue. “I’m sure you don’t think about all those other people you’ve killed when you’re trying to go to sleep. Your sister must be so proud to have a murderer in the family.”
Again, the grip on his gun tightens when I mention her. It draws my attention past the barrel. Past his hand wrapped tightly around the metal.
To his wrist.
And the bright red plastic strawberry peeking out from under his sleeve.
A happy charm.
My thoughts screech to a sudden halt.
