Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 88293 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88293 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Rage went through me at the momentary pang of pity and that had me striding out of the stairwell as the guy turned to go into his apartment. I reached the door just as he was closing it. His startled eyes lifted to mine just before I used my booted foot to kick the door open, knocking him on his ass. I pulled my gun from my waistband as I strode into the apartment and slammed the door behind me.
“Please-” the man whispered, but his words dropped off when I pointed my gun at him.
“Where is he?” I snarled.
The man put both his hands up. “Wh…Who?” he stammered.
I leaned down and grabbed him by the hair and yanked his head back until he cried out in pain. “Don’t fuck with me,” I ground out.
“Please…please,” he bit out as tears formed in the corners of his eyes.
I released my hold on him and pressed my gun against his forehead. He let out a choked sob, but I didn’t care. I wanted so badly just to pull the trigger. But I couldn’t. Because I didn’t want to spend another day knowing that even one of the two men who’d raped my wife and left her for dead was still breathing.
“You want to play it that way?” I asked calmly as I finally felt the familiar emptiness creep back into my veins.
I hauled the man up so that he was on his knees and then pressed the gun back against his head. “If the next words out of your mouth aren’t his location” – I removed the gun from his head and pressed it against his groin – “this is where the first bullet goes.”
The man was crying silent tears, but he didn’t say anything. He was shaking uncontrollably, but despite his fear, he remained quiet and I noticed that even though he was crying, his eyes looked blank, like he was somewhere else. I ground my jaw in frustration and began searching for anything I could use as a gag. I didn’t have a silencer, but I could come up with creative ways to make the guy talk that didn’t require a gun.
Before I could decide what to do next, I heard a knock on the door behind me.
I slammed my hand down over the man’s mouth and yanked him to his feet. The move seemed to finally snap him out of his daze. “One word…” I warned quietly as I jammed the gun against his temple.
“Mr. Travers,” came a woman’s voice on the other side of the door. She began knocking harder. “Mr. Travers, I know you’re in there. I saw you pull up out front a few minutes ago!” she shouted in irritation.
The man was frozen in place so I shoved him towards the door. I moved to the other side of the door jamb so that the person on the other side wouldn’t see me when he opened it. But I kept my gun pointed at his head.
“Answer it,” I ordered.
He shook his head violently.
“Do it!” I snapped.
“No!” he said in a harsh whisper.
The woman continued knocking. “Mr. Travers, we agreed to nine o’clock, no exceptions!”
“Answer it or I’ll kill her,” I threatened. “Get rid of her or you both die.”
The man finally reached for the door and opened it a crack. “Ms. Parks, I’m sorry-”
I nearly pulled the trigger when the door suddenly opened wider, but it wasn’t the woman who entered. A little boy no more than five or six years old squeezed through the narrow crack in the door. My instincts kicked in and I grabbed him and dragged him to me, covering his mouth with my hand before he could scream. The man at the door gasped, but the woman he was talking to didn’t seem to notice that his attention was no longer on her.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Travers. We had a deal. You want me to watch him longer, you have to pay me for longer!”
I heard footsteps hurry off, but the man staring at me in horror didn’t move or even shut the door. “Please don’t,” he whispered as his eyes fell on the kid who was squirming in my grasp. And that was when I knew I had him.
I kicked the door shut and stepped forward. The man automatically stepped back.
“Where is he?”
“I swear to God, I don’t know who you’re talking about!”
“Your father!” I shouted.
The man was so caught off guard that he lowered his hands. “My…my father?” he stuttered.
The kid was furiously trying to escape me and it was a struggle to maintain my hold on him without hurting him. I also didn’t know what the fuck to do with him – he hadn’t been part of my plan. I hadn’t even once considered the possibility that the younger of my wife’s murderers might be a father. And no way in hell was I hurting a kid…I’d use him to get what I wanted, but I wasn’t so far gone in my hatred that I’d actually follow through with my threats.