“Who?”
My hand reached back into my jeans and wrapped around the handle of my Beretta. I pulled my arm back around and pushed it against her shoulder as her face twisted into terror.
“Do not,” I said, “play any fucking games with me. Tell me how you know Terry Kramer before I put a hole in your head.”
“I didn’t know what he wanted!” she said. “He kept following me and telling me he needed to talk to me. He said I couldn’t tell you about it, or we’d both end up dead. He said if I just told him what you told me, then…then…”
“Then what?” I snarled. “Did he pay you?”
“No!”
“Did you fuck him?” The very idea that Terry, the motherfucking piss-ant wannabe, had his cock in her made me livid.
She didn’t answer, which was answer enough. I leaned forward and slammed my hand against the wall right next to her head.
“Tell me why you did it!” I screamed. “What did you tell him, and why did you do it?”
“He said…he said he’d kill you if I didn’t cooperate!” she finally cried.
“You…you thought he was a threat to me?” What had been a cold snarl escalated into a scream. “That little fuck was somehow a danger to me? Me?”
“He…he….he said–” Her words were too choked to be understandable. “I-I-I thought–”
“I don’t give a fuck what he said!” I screamed back in her face. “There is nothing – nothing – he could hav
e said that would ever, ever make you…make you…”
I couldn’t even say the words.
Like some kind of primordial ooze making its way out of the ocean, Terry chose that moment to walk into the dimly lit room. There was no consideration to my actions. No thought behind them – just movement and quick, practiced muscle memory.
My arm rose.
My gun aimed at his face.
I pulled the trigger.
Bridgett stifled her scream as Terry’s face exploded in blood and his body hit the floor.
“You see how big a fucking threat he is?” I growled as I turned back to her.
My head was spinning. The pit of my stomach felt heavy, and the back of my throat tasted sour. I felt like I was trapped in some never-ending fog, and I couldn’t see in which direction I should go. There was no end or beginning in sight and no answers in any direction.
“You never really said anything to me.” Bridgett’s voice was barely audible. “I didn’t think…I didn’t think what I said to him was a big deal, and he always seemed happy enough with what I had to leave you alone…leave us alone.”
The drowning feeling came over me again, and my eyes burned as I pointed the business end of the Beretta towards Bridgett.
“You fucking betrayed me,” I said.
“No, no!” she cried as she shook her head violently. “Evan – no! I didn’t; I swear! I never meant it like that!”
“But that’s what it was,” I said. “You were right there in my bed listening to shit I said when I was asleep. Then you took what you thought he’d find interesting, and you told him about it.”
“I didn’t think any of it was important,” she whispered through her tears. “I thought if he kept hearing all this stuff that didn’t matter, he’d leave me alone – leave us alone!”
“Us?” I laughed, but there was nothing friendly or amusing about the sound. I tilted my arm up and tapped the side of my head with the barrel of the weapon. “You were delusional from the beginning, weren’t you? Was this your way of getting closer, huh? Be a part of the business, but on the wrong side?”
“No…Evan, I swear!”