Page 85 of Hard to Kill

“That’s not true,” I say quietly, trying to dial things down. “And if you want to tell people that you fired me, I’ll back your story.”

“Nobody will believe me,” he says.

“You’re the one always telling me that you could sell an oil slick if you had to.”

He leans across the table now, trying to get himself under control. Hands clasped in front of him. He even manages a thin smile.

Suddenly he’s negotiating with me. It seems to help him get his bearings.

“You want more money?” he says. “Done.”

“Rob,” I say. “It’s not about money.” Now I’m the one shaking my head, eyes closed. “You’re not listening to me. This is about my life, not yours.”

“And you just now arrived at that conclusion?”

He pounds the table again, less forcefully than before.

Voice rising again.

“This isn’t fair!”

Like he’s a little boy not getting his way.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “I really am.”

“No,” he says, “you’re not.”

We stare at each other, clearly having reached an impasse. But something has changed in his eyes. A look appears in themthat I’ve seen before, one that’s made me think, and more than once, that he could have done it. A weird light in them, the clearing before the storm.

I need to end this.

“I’ve made up my mind.”

“Unmake it.”

“You’re making this harder than it needs to be.”

He barks out an unpleasant-sounding laugh. “Wait. I’m the one making things harder than they need to be?”

I stand up. “I’ll call you later and explain the process to you, with the judge and the court and all that.”

But as I come around the table, he’s standing, too, and grabbing me by the arm.

I look at him, then down at his hand before calmly removing it.

“Don’t,” I say quietly.

He’s still between me and the patio doors. The odd light still in his eyes somehow darkening the color of his pupils.

“Nobody walks away from me,” he says before finally getting out of my way.

SIXTY-NINE

Jimmy

JIMMY NEEDS INFORMATION, AND in a hurry, about Anthony Licata, ex-partner to Joe Champi. Letting the game come to him has never been his strength so he goes to the city to work his friends in the department and their friends.

He can now connect Licata, wherever the hell he is, to the late Dave Wolk. Whose lady friend might have turned her gun on him. Or she was really Licata’s lady friend, the one who slapped Jimmy that night when they had him tied up at his house.