Page 116 of Fracture
“Yeah. That fucking SWAT guy came.”
“And you ran away? Like a weak fucking piece of shit?”
“I—”
The boss didn’t give him a chance to defend himself. She grabbed Fernando’s gun from his holster and fired three silent rounds into Benjamin’s chest.
Nina squeaked, but she smartly kept quiet.
“Let’s go,” the boss said, stepping over Benjamin’s facedown body and continuing down the hall toward the underground garage that led to a series of tunnels and would get them off the property miles from where the cops thought they had them surrounded.
When they got in the SUV, Nina wiped tears from her cheeks and turned to the boss. “Why did you kill him?”
The boss glared at her. She was becoming more of a nuisance. More… compassionate. There was no space for that. No room for someone who thought what they were doing wasn’t okay.
“He fucked up. He had too many chances, and he fucked them all up. He wouldn’t have died if he’d done his fucking job.”
“You just left him there.”
“Yeah, because the cops will find him. And everyone will know what happens if you don’t do what I said.”
“But—”
“Do you want to be an example? Because I’m happy to make you one, too.”
Nina closed her mouth and turned toward the window.
She better fucking keep her mouth shut.
Lorelei woke up in the hospital the next morning with a weird sense of déjà vu. The pain in her side and shoulder were frighteningly similar to what she felt the last time she was in the hospital. But her ankle didn’t hurt, and it wasn’t as hard to breathe.
“You’re awake,” Vinnie said.
Lorelei smiled. That was the one thing she was happy hadn’t changed. “Hey.”
“Are you okay? Do you need anything? How are you?”
“I love you,” she whispered.
A relieved breath rushed out of him. “Yeah? So you know who I am?”
She stared at him, pretending to be unsure for a second.
His smile faltered, returning when she grinned.
“Yes, Vinnie. I know who you are. I know everything.”
“Everything?”
Lorelei nodded. “Yeah. I think being back there… Memories are flooding back in. Did you get the man who shot me? He was the one who kidnapped me.”
“He’s dead. They found him farther down the tunnel from where you were. It looked like he was trying to get to an underground garage.”
“Garage?” Lorelei breathed. It made sense. That was how they were able to move people and product without anyone noticing.
Vinnie nodded. “There was a network of tunnels that led back to the streets, way outside where we were looking.”
“So we didn’t find the boss?”