Page 79 of Petty's Crime

When they finally part, Twister touches my shoulder, then steps forward. He looks Saul straight in the eye.

“You’ve got one chance, buddy. One chance and that’s it. We’ll let you go now, escort you out of Vegas, and you promise to never return or go anywhere near where RoseLyn is. If you do, you won’t like the consequences. Do you understand?”

With part relief, part horror, I listen to Twister revoking the death sentence. My mouth opens. I did not expect this. But Saul, grinning as well as he’s able with his damaged mouth, swiftly agrees.

With a glance toward Red, and receiving a nod in response, Twister goes behind Saul and unties his bindings, letting him drop to the ground and none to gently.

Saul quickly gets steady on his feet, but instead of doing what any sane person would do and racing to the stairs and the freedom that’s within reach, he launches himself toward me and puts his hands around my throat.

But the pressure’s immediately eased as a close-up gunshot makes my ears ring, and now Saul’s dead at my feet.

I sway. Red catches me and twists me away from the man on the floor. I’ve never seen a dead body before and couldn’t have anticipated the shock. One moment, Saul was living and breathing, and now, he’s not.

I couldn’t have predicted my reaction. It’s one thing to wish a man dead, quite another to see it. For a moment, I’m angry that the Devils had put me on the spot. They’d read Saul better than me, and could see he was driven by such a desire to hurt me, that he’d sacrifice the offer of freedom. Or maybe it had been a test, which he’d certainly failed.

Red’s speaking to me, but I still can’t hear properly. Still half-deafened, I’m shaking and listening instead to my inner voice.

I’m not proud of myself. I’d caused a man’s death.

“He was a mad dog who deserved to be put down.” Now the initial ringing is fading, I can make out Red’s words.

“I’m alright.” I push away from him. “I’m alright,” I repeat, mostly to reassure myself. I try to focus on the fact that Saul tried to strangle me, and in the end, it was him or me. At least I now know that he’s no longer able to make my life a misery.

But I just saw a man shot dead.

CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE

RoseLyn

“Let’s get you out of here.” Red puts his arm around my shoulders and leads me away, making sure to keep my back toward the body so I don’t need to see him again.

But even without the evidence of my eyes, the room is tainted with the odours of cordite and blood.

At the top of the stairs, Red pushes me in the direction of his office.

“I’m sorry,” he says earnestly as soon as we enter. “But Saul was never going to leave. You needed to see how there was no other way.” He peers at my neck, moving away my hair. “Did he hurt you?”

As he removes his hand, I finger where Saul’s hands had tightened on me. I’m a bit tender, but I’ll live.

Red continues, “He would have killed you, RoseLyn. He was sick in the head.”

I’m incapable of saying anything. I just mutely go to the seat when he points it out.

He sits in his own chair and steeples his hands together with his eyes expectantly on the door. Seconds later it opens and Twister walks in. He’s carrying something wrapped in a cloth. When he opens it, I see it’s a gun.

Twister holds it out to me.

My brow creases and I look at Red. “Insurance,” he explains. “Take the gun, RoseLyn.”

I tense as what he means falls into place. “I’m not going to say anything.”

“Humour me.” Green eyes pierce me.

I doubt I have any choice. Hoping I never have cause to regret what I’m about to do, I take the gun from the cloth and clasp it firmly in my right hand, then I lay it back down. Twister wraps it in the cloth again and hands it to Red who opens a safe located behind him, and places it inside.

Frowning, not best pleased at this development, I tell them both, “Trust works both ways.”

He raises his chin acknowledging he now has my fingerprints on a weapon that could be used for anything.

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