Page 70 of Beautiful Revenge

“You’re right. But you have to leave some time.”

He bows his head, clearly trying to think of a way out of this.

“I’m curious,” I say, “why did you send a hitman after me anyway?”

“Because you didn’t do the job I hired you to do.”

“I know. But why send the hitman to steal my wife?”

All the color in Jack’s face drains away. “What? What are you talking about? I only sent him to kill you, nothing else. I didn’t even know you were married.”

So, that fucker stole Aria just because he could.

“You wanted me to kill your wife and baby. How am I the bad guy?”

“Because you kill people for a living,” he hisses. “This shouldn’t have been any different.”

“You never told me you had a baby. Did you really want your daughter to die?”

“No,” he admits, rubbing at his tired eyes. “Just my wife. But I knew I couldn’t get my baby away from my wife without it looking suspicious.”

“So… what was your plan then? I kill Sarah, leave the baby, and…”

“And I would raise my daughter on my own.”

“I’m curious, did this new hitman you hired kill Sarah?”

“Yes.”

I wait a moment. “And did he kill your daughter?”

Jack’s face crumbles as he cries. It causes people to look at us. Fucking great. “He wasn’t supposed to. I even specified not to but…”

“But he still did it anyway. Don’t you want this man dead? I can kill him for you. You don’t even have to pay me. Just give me his name.”

“I don’t trust you. You backed out of our deal.”

“Call it a change of profession. I know I backed out but I’m going to kill this other hitman for what he did to my wife. So just give me his name, Jack, and I’ll let you go. I won’t ever bother you again. We can just pretend that none of this ever happened.”

“How do I know you won’t just come and kill me?”

“You don’t,” I admit. “But what other choice do you have?”

“Send another hitman to finish the job.”

“True. But clearly, your new hitman couldn’t kill me. What’s to say another one can do the job better? You should know something about me, Jack, and it’s this: I’m incredibly hard to kill. I just want my wife back. Tell me the hitman’s name.”

He drops his head to the bar and cries harder. “This isn’t fair.”

“What isn’t fair,” I say into his ear so no one else can hear, “is getting your newborn baby killed because you wanted your wife’s money. What kind of asshole does that? I could go to the police. Give them your name. Make them look at you as a suspect, if they’re not already. You’ll go to jail, Jack, and then you’ll have nothing. Men in jail don’t appreciate baby killers. If I could offer one piece of advice it’s this: don’t drop the soap, Jack.”

His sob draws more eyes to us. “I don’t want that.”

“And I can help you. I can make sure the police don’t look your way. Just tell me the name. That’s all I need. Just a name. I can do the rest.”

Finally, he pulls himself together. Annoying fucker. “Ok. But you have to promise to protect me.”

Fuck no. “Yes,” I lie. What Jack doesn’t know won’t hurt him. “The name.”

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