Outlaws by Matt Rogers (phonics books TXT) 📕

She looked back over her shoulder, evidently having come up empty-handed. ‘You heard the elevator, too, right?’

King nodded.

She said, ‘He changed his mind, then. He’s gone.’

A reflexive twitch hammered home.

King said, ‘Or it wasn’t him.’

He crossed to the kitchen island, ripped a Sig Sauer handgun from an unremarkable drawer previously locked with a fingerprint scanner, and stormed straight past her.

‘Jason,’ she said.

He barrelled out into the hallway, opting for offence over defence, and there he froze.

Gun raised.

Mind sharp.

The seconds ticked by.

They turned to minutes.

Nothing.

Then something buzzed in Violetta’s pocket, back inside the penthouse.

King turned back to her, lowering his guard, and saw her staring guardedly at the illuminated screen of her phone.

She looked up.

‘It’s him,’ she said.

33

At street level, concealed amidst the pedestrians on the sidewalk outside his tower, Slater pressed the phone to his ear.

Violetta answered and said, ‘Got cold feet?’

‘How do I know you’re not going to put a bullet in my head when I step through the doorway?’

‘There’s no one here. It’s just me. And King.’

‘That’s what I’m worried about.’

‘He’s not a threat to you.’

Slater turned his emotions to steel. ‘I know that. That’s not my worry. I’ve fought him twice. I won both times. But I don’t want him as my enemy. Neither of us deserve to be enemies.’

‘You’re paranoid,’ Violetta said. ‘He doesn’t even know what I’m going to tell you.’

‘Come downstairs.’

‘You need to come back here eventually. Why bother drawing this out?’

‘I sure don’t.’

‘You didn’t leave with a bag. Earlier tonight.’

‘I don’t need a bag.’

He thought he heard her give a soft grunt of understanding. ‘You’ve never needed anything but the clothes on your back, right?’

‘Right.’

‘It’s impressive,’ she said. ‘But we need to talk upstairs. Trust me.’

‘Don’t take it personally if I don’t trust you right now.’

She said, ‘So it’s a stalemate, then?’

‘Staten Island,’ he said. ‘The St. George neighbourhood. I’ll meet you there.’

She made to respond, as if she was going to say, No way. Then she paused, and instead said, ‘Why there?’

‘Because it’s dodgy as hell, and you don’t know your way around it, so anyone you scramble to send will stand out like they’ve got a flashing light above their head.’

She drew in air, a sharp inhalation. ‘Will, I can’t.’

‘I’m telling you to. Or I’m gone.’

She fell quiet for a solid ten seconds. He didn’t fill the silence with unnecessary chatter. He let her think.

Then she said, ‘Alright. Fine. You’ve forced my hand.’

‘And what hand might that be?’

‘I called you up here to do you a favour and give you an explanation. But, frankly, there’s no time left.’

He tensed up.

She said, ‘So I’m going to have to tell you over the phone. Because I just got word that they’re here.’

‘Who’s here?’

‘My employers.’

‘Who are they?’

‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘That’s the honest truth. But they’re not happy.’

‘I didn’t expect them to be.’

‘They want to speak to you.’

‘So give them my number.’

‘No,’ she said. ‘Not like that.’

Slater sensed foreign movement behind him, and whirled out of instinct, hand flying to the concealed Glock at his waist. Ready to rip the gun free and engage in a shootout in the middle of civilised Manhattan, if that’s what it came to.

But the reality wasn’t as immediately threatening. An unmarked black Navigator — a big no-nonsense SUV — had whispered to the kerb out the front of his building.

The rear door swung open from the inside.

Exposing a dark, gaping hole.

Through the phone, Violetta said, ‘Get in.’

‘And if I don’t?’

‘Then it’s out of my hands.’

He stood motionless, the phone pressed to his ear. Civilians flowed past, oblivious to the standoff unfolding nearby.

She said, ‘I’m trying to help you, Will. I told you to trust me. But don’t trust them. Not for a moment.’

He said, ‘Am I going to make it out of this alive?’

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘They only want to talk.’

‘Is that what they told you?’

She went quiet.

He said, ‘You said it yourself. You don’t know who they are.’

He stared into the shadows of the Navigator’s interior.

He said, ‘So really, you have no idea what they’ll do.’

She said, ‘Go with them, Will.’

‘Do I have another choice?’

‘Not anymore.’

His insides crumbled.

She said, ‘They have eyes on you now. You’re in their crosshairs. Get in the car.’

He hung up.

She couldn’t help him anymore.

The dark rear seats beckoned.

He could run left or right. But they’d hit him. No question.

And, realistically, he’d only endanger innocent lives.

Checkmate.

He stepped down off the sidewalk and got in the car.

34

King said, ‘They won’t kill him.’

Violetta had lowered the phone seconds earlier, distraught. She seemed genuinely affected by Slater’s predicament. He could tell she wanted the best for him.

She said, ‘How can you know that?’

‘Because if they do, I’ll be angry,’ he said. ‘Beyond angry. And they know how close we are. It won’t be worth felling us both.’

‘They couldn’t fell you both if they tried.’

‘Exactly.’

Violetta paused, looking past him, out the window. Ruminating.

She said, ‘You’d do that for him?’

‘Why wouldn’t I?’

‘You two aren’t happy with each other. I can tell.’

‘Which is nonsense, in the big picture. He’s my closest ally. We’re going to disagree. In fact, we do it all the time. But what we have runs beneath that. That’s why I went to Moscow. That’s why I went alone. For him.’

Her face fell.

Out of nowhere.

Like she’d just realised something else.

‘What?’ he said.

‘There’s something else I came to talk about. It’s urgent.’

‘As urgent as this?’

She nodded.

He sighed. ‘If it has to do with work…’

‘It does.’

‘Violetta,’ he said. ‘Slater’s life is hanging in the balance. You think I care about—?’

‘You should,’ she said. ‘Slater should be a separate issue entirely. Especially seeing what I’m about to tell you came from your own tip.’

‘My tip?’

‘Donati Group,’ she said. ‘What you told us to investigate. We investigated. We found something.’

He froze. ‘Really? I thought that’d be the last thing on your mind.’

‘The world doesn’t stop because Will Slater has a midlife crisis.’

‘I know,’ he said. ‘But I thought you might have been preoccupied.’

‘This has nothing to do with me,’ she said. ‘I’m only in this state because