Page 172 of A Dirty Business
He frowned at me. “Huh?”
“I heard your call. Who is your boss? Who made the move tonight?”
“Oh, God. Jess. Seriously. Call 911. You don’t want to kill me. I know you don’t. You already killed Bear. That’ll be two of us. They’re going to ask questions, but I can ...” He had to stop, catch his bearings. The room should be spinning for him now. “I can cover for you. I will. I promise. I’ll say whatever you want, but call 911. I’ll tell you everything.”
“You’ll tell me everything now.”
“Jess! Come on!”
“Now, Leo. Before you bleed out.”
“Jess! Now!”
I waited. I was finding that I wasn’t having a moral dilemma here. Not one bit.
“Agh! Come on! Are you serious?! Fine!Fine!I work for Dominic West. Always have. I went in undercover when I was a cop. It’s how I met your dad. How we got close. He was my target, but things got complicated.” He choked off, breathing hard. Harder. He began slumping down. “I ... I ...”
“Why?”
“What do you mean?”
“Dominic was behind the hits tonight, wasn’t he? The ones against Trace and Ashton?”
He moaned. “Jess, I don’t have long.”
“Then tell me everything. Now!”
He raised his head, squinting at me a little before sighing. His head fell back down. “Yes. It was Dominic and Nicolai Worthing.Nicolai’s been trying to push in. He gave your uncle a proposition, but Stephano didn’t bite. But Dominic,hedid. He made the call tonight that everyone was going to go. Everyone. He’d take over the family business, and he’d work with Worthing, let them in on their deals.”
Right. Okay. That was a lot to process, but I’d deal with all of that bullshit later. “Did you kill my dad?”
He nodded, frowning, eyes fluttering like he couldn’t see straight anymore. “Yeah. That was a long time ago. Stephano ordered it, but Dominic’s been holding it over my head the whole time. Said he has evidence on me. Forcing me to keep working for him, giving him information.”
“How?” That word ripped from me.
He drew in a deep breath, then began coughing. Blood was coming up. “D-d-doped up your brother, made him think he killed him. He was all broken up about it, why he didn’t fight the conviction. Said he had to go in, pay penance for you and your mom.”
“Why did he want me dead? Why tonight?”
“His kid wasn’t killed tonight. Couldn’t find him, so he gave me this order to hurt him. Trace is in love with you, but Jess, I didn’t want to do it. I wasn’t going to. I was going to figure something else out. I swear.” Other liquids were seeping down his pants, and he groaned. “Jess, I don’t have long here.”
“Then hurry thefuckup.” Cold. Ruthless. I was out of my body, not recognizing who I was, but she wasn’t fucking around.
“Aghofhygod. Please, Jess! Please.”
“Talk!”
His eyes rolled up, then around. “Oh my god. I’m dying. Everything is going black. Jess. Come on. Please ...” He was whimpering. The life was draining out of him before my eyes.
“What was the plan?”
“Dominic was the one giving information to Worthing, who’s got cops on his payroll. Said he had to make it look like they tried for him, too, had them shoot his own house when he wasn’t there.”
“What does this have to do with Bear? Why was Bear there tonight?”
“I don’t know. I think he was there for me, knew I was coming to kill you tonight. Only thing that makes sense. He knew Dominic West too. Fact, I always thought he was being paid to keep tabs on your mom. Like I was paid to keep tabs on you. It’s why I recruited you to be a PO for me.”
I was sick, all over again.
