Page 73 of Tamed Enemy
It takes Collins a minute, but he finally gets his words back. “And him.” His chin juts toward me. “Tarasov especially wanted to know about him. He paid extra for information.”
“Anything special?” Best asks mildly.
Collins is back to trying to please Best. He wants to follow the rules. He wants to make everything right. “Nothing important,” he says. “Where he traveled. When.” He swallows hard, then whines, “No one was supposed to get hurt.”
“Did you tell him when Mr. Wolf returned home after Independence Day?”
Collins nods.
“I’ll need you to say that out loud, son.”
“Yes.”
“Did you tell him about Mr. Wolf’s trip to Idaho?”
There’s a long pause, but Collins finally says, “Yes.”
“Did you tell him about Ms. Lynch visiting her grandmother across the street, prior to the teargas attack?”
Collins delays his answer, as if doing so can change the past. But he has to say, “Yes.”
“Did you tell Tarasov about Mr. Wolf and Ms. Lynch traveling to New York?”
We wait even longer, but Collins eventually manages to whisper, “Yes.”
“Did you tell them specifically where Mr. Wolf and Ms. Lynch would be? At Kynk?”
Collins slumps in his chair, eyes closed, chest rising and falling rapidly.
Best leans in. “We’re almost finished, son. Did you tell them Mr. Wolf and Ms. Lynch would be at Kynk?”
Collins sobs.
Kate is waiting. I’m waiting. Best is waiting. One of the uniformed men snorts in disgust. Someone else mutters, “Fucking pussy.”
Best shakes his head with a mild frown, moving even closer to his disgraced man. “Son?”
Collins says, “I thought Tarasov would just call. Maybe scare them a little, the way he had before. I never thought he’d show up there himself. I didn’t know he’d go inside. I had no way of knowing he’d make the cunt?—”
Best’s fist darts between Collins legs. He punches first, then grabs a handful and twists.
Collins’ scream is louder than I thought he could manage. Kate’s eyes narrow as a dark stain spreads over the man’s crotch.
Collins finally forces out a whisper. “That’s whathecalled her.”
Best says, “I understand.” He rises from his chair.
“Wh— What are you going to do to me?”
“What Ishoulddo is hand you back to Seal Team Six. I’d love to find out how they would treat a man willing to sell out his brothers. His friends. His clients.”
“Yes,” Collins says, shot full of new energy. For the first time in days, he glimpses an escape hatch. “Send me to them,” he begs. “Let me explain. I’ll tell them everything. They can decide what to do with me.”
Best says, “That’s what Ishoulddo. But you’ve already taken too much of my fucking time.”
He reaches under his jacket and comes out with a sleek black pistol. He shoves the muzzle against Collins’ ear and fires.
The noise is deafening in the confines of the garage. I jump in surprise. Kate lets loose a single word, something in Irish, but I can guess at the meaning. The spray of brains and blood stops just short of the edge of the tarp.
