Page 169 of Intent to Kill
“He’s really dead.” Carlos joined Adam on his other side.
“He’s really dead,” Adam said.
Blake’s skin had gone pale from blood loss, his eyes turning milky.
Carlos leaned down and pressed his fingers to Blake’s throat, then held his ears at Blake’s mouth.
“What the hell are you doing?” Dan said.
“People in the city have a habit of rising from the dead. I’m not taking any chances, bro,” Carlos said.
Adam smiled.
“We need to get going,” Paul said, frowning in the direction of the approaching sirens.
Adam saw his friends nod to each other as they started a jog for the edge of the hedge maze, Paul helping Mercedes with his arm at her waist.
But Adam was frozen. For a minute, he stood over Dorian Blake for just a while longer.
He. Had. Killed. Dorian. Blake.
And just like he thought, it was like the hand that had been fisting his neck for five fucking years had finally let go.
Closing his eyes, Adam looked to the sky and sucked in a deep breath. He wanted to memorize this moment, the smell, the taste, the sounds... Too bad he could only kill Blake once.
“Let’s go!” Paul called, the rest of his team already disappearing into the maze.
Snapping out of it, Adam whipped his head to his friends and let himself smile at Blake once more before taking off and running away into the night.
28
THE NEW KING
JULY 1991
“Let’s wrap this shit up. I’ve got places to fucking be,” Dan said, rubbing his hands together as if he were about to devour a fine meal—not identify the body of Dorian Blake.
“Let’s take a look.” Police Captain Stevens nodded his head to the nervous morgue technician. Their gloved fingers trembled over the zip of the black body bag that laid on a metal slab.
With a sharp rip, the bag pulled half open, revealing the body. Underground in the morgue, the only light was the fluorescents overhead.
Dan, joined by Captain Stevens and Judge Temple, leaned in to take a closer look.
Yep. It was definitely Dorian Blake.
Dan scrunched his face and turned back to his company. “What’s it gonna take to get me a death certificate?”
“What are we trying to rush this through for?” Judge Temple sighed.
“My client here needs his assets unfrozen so they can be released to his fiancée.” Dan folded his arms.
Judge Temple’s lips curled up in a cruel smile. “His fiancée? All of Dorian Blake’s associates mysteriously disappear or die, and she comes out of it alive? Interesting.”
“She was seriously injured in the incident as well.” Dan smiled back.
“Okay, let’s just pretend that isn’t suspicious...Blake’s succession plan was T.B., then Yani, then Antonio. Regardless of their deaths–”
Judge Temple stopped speaking when Dan pulled out a shiny piece of paper. The document Dan had waited days for, and had only managed to get on the very day that they murdere—that Blake died.
