Page 61 of Cast in Shadow
He welcomed the focus and the calming effect it had on him.
Have an objective. Achieve it. Move on.
That worked for him. That was how he lived his life. Clean. Simple.
The last few months had been anything but clean or simple. He no longer had a clear objective. He didn’t know what, if any, part he played, going forward.
And it was all because of her.
Being around Aggie had muddied the waters significantly. His feelings for her were complicated enough, but thinking about the last forty-eight hours made his head spin. He’d thought he had a grasp on things, but it’d turned out, he didn’t have a fucking clue.
As he neared the target site, he was pleased with what he discovered. A sequence of freshly dug holes, probably for waste. A decided lack of kindling on the ground around the area. And the faint but unmistakable aromas of wood smoke and roasted rabbit.
This, he could do. This was second nature.
He approached the overhang carefully and without sound and found exactly what he’d come for.
“Sam Higgins.”
The man tending the fire looked up, his eyes wild. He was thinner than the images Zeke had seen, and he was sporting a full beard, but it was the same guy.
Higgins reached for his rifle.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Zeke warned.
Higgins looked at the Sig in Zeke’s hand and stilled.
“Who are you? What do you want?”
“I’m a friend of Aggie’s. What I want is information.”
Higgins narrowed his eyes. “What kind of information?”
Zeke stepped farther in and picked up the rifle, placing it out of Higgins’s reach, then tucked his gun into the back of his pants. Higgins was no threat. The guy looked like a good stiff breeze would knock him over.
“Let’s start with whatever sent a bunch of thugs to grab Aggie out of her bed and beat the shit out of her.”
Higgins dropped his gaze. “Is she okay?”
Regret tinged Higgins’s voice, but what Zeke didn’t hear was surprise or outrage. He closed the distance between them and punched Higgins right in the mouth. Higgins stumbled back, hit the wall of rock, and went down on his ass.
“You knew they would go after her, didn’t you, you fucking weasel?”
“No! I mean ... yeah, I thought they might toss her apartment or something, but I didn’t think they’d hurt her. She wasn’t part of it.”
Zeke reached down, hauled him up by his filthy shirt, and hit him again, sending him back to the ground. “But they didn’t know that, did they? What are they looking for?”
Higgins leaned to the side and spit out a mouthful of blood. “They’ll kill me if I tell you.”
“I’ll kill you if you don’t.”
“It’s complicated!” Higgins whined.
“Then, let me simplify things. I know you and your guys were running shipments of toxic waste to illegal dump sites run by the mob. I know the FBI approached you about being an informant. What I don’t know is why you ghosted and left Aggie in their crosshairs.”
Higgins’s eyes widened. “Who are you?”
“Your worst fucking nightmare if you don’t convince me that you’re worth more alive than you are dead. Start. Talking.”
