Page 24 of Intent to Kill
Carlos went to the window and lit up a cigarette, while Dan and Paul examined the papers along the walls, running their fingers along the texts.
“Well,” Mercedes said, throwing dirty clothes off a stained polyester chair and sitting down. “You’re looking certifiable. What did you bring us here for?”
“He said he had a plan,” Paul said absent-mindedly, still raking over the walls.
“Oh, you have a plan?” she teased, lying back in the chair. Her hair flicked over the back and rippled like a wave in the water, testing all his self-control.
“I do, and the plan is simple.”
“Go on, then,” Mercedes smiled.
“Kill Dorian Blake.”
The room went still and silent.
Even the background noise from the street seemed to disappear, as if the whole world stopped to catch its breath when those three fatal words were uttered. As if anyone would ever be stupid enough to say that phrase out loud.
Carlos lost his cigarette out the window while Dan fumbled a stack of papers he was holding right into the sink. The two friends exchanged a glance and then slowly looked toward Adam in unison, but Paul and Mercedes were already glaring at him.
They looked at him like he’d suggested they all sprout wings and fly to the moon, and honestly, that would be just as likely as ever successfully carrying out his revenge plan.
“Whoa, I thought we were just going to find a way to get you back in without dying?” Dan mumbled.
All eyes were on Adam, but his eyes were on Mercedes. Her expression was vacant, head down and staring with narrowed eyes, the same hard look she’d been giving him all day.
“You want to fucking kill Dorian Blake?” said Carlos. “You’re madder than you used to be. Paul, did you know about this?”
Paul drew a sharp breath and scrubbed his hands over his face.
“You did!” Dan sprinted toward Paul, placing an accusatory finger on his chest and pushing him back with it. “You knew about this when you talked us into coming here.”
Adam let his crew argue among themselves, allowing Paul to take the lead in turning Dan and Carlos around, because he knew they eventually would. Selling them on the plan was never going to be a problem.
Mercedes was the full focus of Adam’s attention in that moment. To him, it felt like a turning point. Sure, she’d kept all his secrets, but how far would she go for her new fiancé? Which one was it going to be? Did she love Dorian Blake? Or did she want him gone just as badly as Adam did?
“Yeah, okay. I did know,” Paul said.
“What the fuck?” Carlos said. “Even talking about this puts our heads on the chopping block!”
“Our heads were in jeopardy as soon as we agreed to come here…and let’s face it, working for Blake has our necks moments away from the guillotine as it is,” Paul said. “And our balls werealreadysnipped.”
The friends continued arguing in what seemed like background noise to Adam. He watched as Mercedes’s breath heaved from her chest, her body growing stiffer, her brown eyes growing blacker.
Adam could only make out the brief sounds of Paul turning his friends in his favor. Whether they wanted to or not, the only way to take down Dorian Blake, and ensure he stayed down forever, was to take him out.
Mercedes would have to wait.
Adam turned back to his friends. “Blake has this city now because I fucked it up and underestimated him the first time. Dorian Blake has to die. That’s how we secure our future.”
Carlos and Dan exchanged a look, an eyes-only conversation passing between them. They had to realize that with how deep this rivalry now ran, between Adam and Blake, only one could live.
“Fine,” Carlos said. “I see it. I see your point. In that case, let’s just have Mercedes slit his throat while he’s sleeping, hey?” Carlos looked to Mercedes with an easy grin.
“No!” Paul shouted. “We have to make sure we’re in a prime position to take that spot when he goes down. There’s always a next in line. T.B., Yani, Antonio. Somebody else will just take his place…and quickly.”
“They will have to die, too,” Adam said.
“Blake has leads in all the legal systems. Lawyers, cops, feds, all of us on his books,” Dan reminded them, pacing around the room manically, drifting between bursts of fear and bursts of psychotic excitement.
