Page 100 of Intent to Kill
Carlos’s eyes were wide and guilty as he plucked the bag from his lap and shrugged. But the movement was too robotic to look real.
“So you know nothing about any of this?” Blake smirked, crossing his arms.
They all shook their heads.
Blake dropped his head and his smile, turning his voice low like a soft caress that itched with the undertone of murder. “Then what’re you all doing together?” He didn’t even blink as he looked them over individually, stopping at Paul.
Dan and Carlos moved only their eyes, like they didn’t dare turn their heads.
Paul kept Blake’s eye contact, just as unflinching. He wasn’t about to let a weakness slip.
“If I recall correctly, Paul, wasn’t it also you who disappeared right after Adam’sdeath,”Blake said, emphasizing the word death in a way that sent shivers down his spine. Fuck. Shit. Fuck.
But despite his body begging him to do otherwise, Paul remained steady.
“Mmm, business in Darton was what you said at the time.” Blake’s smile grew. “But that wasn’t quite true, was it? At least, not according to my friends in Darton.”
Blake was far too close to the truth. To unraveling everything. Paul’s eyes flickered and then dropped to his lap. He tucked his lip under his teeth and took a deep breath.
“Error in judgment, boss. We’re sorry. We thought we could catch up for a beer since it has been so long. We were wrong. We’re so sorry,” Paul said, throwing the words into his lap with such breathless fear that he couldn’t even look Blake in the eye. There was too much on the line for him if Blake found out where he’d really been, and the reasons why.
Blake tested them again, scanning their faces, and wisely this time, Paul made the decision to avoid Blake’s gaze again. It was the test of his power. Whoever looked away first was the slave to the master.
“Don’t let it happen again,” Blake said, standing up from the desk and moving back around to sit in Dan’s chair.
Paul nodded and encouraged the others to stand up and leave with him. They rushed out of the office, Dan’s poor terrified assistant nowhere to be found, and didn’t speak again until they were bolting down the stairwell.
“Phew, we got out of that easy,” Carlos said.
“No, we didn’t,” Paul said. “No, we fucking didn’t. He doesn’t believe a word we said.”
Dan tried to stop, Carlos slamming against him in the process, but Paul pushed him ahead, guiding him down the stairs again. “Run. Move. Keep moving. We need to get the fuck out of here. Before they come for us…or we’re dead.”
18
SKIN OF THE TEETH
MAY 1991
Word from Paul had sent Adam into alarm, enough to call Mercedes down to the bar in the middle of the day. Besides the on-duty bartender, they were alone. They huddled together, shoulders nearly touching as Adam held his jaw in his hands.
“What was so urgent? What did I have to rush down here for?” Mercedes whispered, pushing farther into Adam’s space. Usually her closeness would be a welcome distraction, but this time he just shook his head with his eyes pointed at the bartender.
“Make yourself scarce,” Adam said. The bartender nodded and immediately dropped what he was doing. Not bothering to pack up or even look in their direction, he just strode straight through the front doors and left.
Adam made sure the door was pressed shut and the little bell above it had stopped clanging before he relaxed his shoulders.
“I don’t know, but it had Paul really freaked out,” Adam said. “So much so that he wouldn’t say it over the phone.”
“Nothing good, then,” Mercedes said. “Are they on their way he–”
The little bell crackled, and Dan, Carlos, and Paul came bursting inside, bringing all their chaotic energy rushing in with them. They were wild-eyed, looking simultaneously like they hadn’t slept in days, and like they were more awake than they’d ever been.
Mercedes and Adam opened their circle to face the others.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“Dorian Blake,” Paul said.
