Page 21 of The #2 Guy

“What’s the passcode?” I ask Rog. He shrugs.

“It’s going be like this then?”

I turn to Johnny. “Beg.”

“Excuse me?”

“Beg me to forgive you for being pigheaded and refusing to listen to me.”

“Never.”

He’s beautiful. Bloodied. Bruised and broken. But his eyes are all defiant fire as he refuses me.

“Fine.” I move past him over to the part of the basement where coils of rope lay. Roger never tied me up with them because their presence was threat enough. I grab one, attaching it to the ties at my love’s wrist. “Get up. You’re my captive now.” I tug my end of the rope, but he refuses to budge. My eyes flit over to Roger. “Help me get him home and I won’t tell your wife how you kept me prisoner right under her nose.” His nostrils flair.

“Don’t you fucking dare, Rog.” Johnny warns.

“Fine. I figure I owe ya’. I do what I do. Chose the life I live but keeping you down here never did sit right with me.”

I cut Roger loose. He forces John on his feet, back up the stairs and into the truck I parked down the road. “I’ll handle everything here. Don’t ever come back.” Rog stares at me intently, I nod, swallowing hard, still in denial at just how far I went tonight.

“I don’t plan on it.”

“You can’t go back to the Inn. It’ll be crawling with Feds if your brother got a lock on the call. Yeah, Johnny told me how you ratted on him again. I want no part of this mess. I’m out. But I will give you a safe place to hole out since you saved my ass back there.”

He opens the passenger door, taking paper and pen out of the glove box to scribble something down before handing it to me. “Go there. It’s a small cabin in the middle of the woods. Off the-grid.”

I nod, feeling numb. “Thanks.”

He grunts a response.

“Get in the back.” I order Johnny.

“No fucking way.”

“If you don’t. You’ll get caught.”

“Because of you.”

I roll my eyes. “I’m cold, tired. My wrist hurts like a bitch and I just killed for you. Can we call it even?”

“Not even close.”

“Help me turn him around.”

“Hands off,” Johnny growls, turning to get into the back of the truck himself.

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