Mine to Have (Mine #5)(43)
Author: Cynthia Eden

Now that Tracy was there, he figured folks must be in the next room, too, watching through that one-way mirror on the wall to the left.  He leaned back in the chair and kept his eyes on her.

Tracy didn’t move from the door. “Don’t you want to know who he was visiting at that prison? After all, that is the job he felt was more important. He didn’t come rushing back to see you. I’m the one who flew back down. He was more concerned with what the inmate up there had told him.”

His fingers drummed on the table.  Tracy wouldn’t have the pull to get him a deal. The woman was pretty, a nice piece of ass, and smart. He’d admired her while they worked together. But she didn’t have power right now. I still have power. Power he intended to leverage. If the FBI wanted him to talk, then they’d better get ready to deal.

“He was there to see Luther Bates.”

Gary tensed.  Yeah, he’d admit it, he was still afraid of Luther…even though the guy was in prison.

“Bates killed a man recently. Took out another inmate in the shower.” She shrugged. “So much for his chance at parole.”

Gary had to laugh. “You know better than that.” The right money could make any witness disappear and witnesses in prison were particularly expendable.

Her gaze slid toward the mirror on the left. The one-way mirror. “I went into the prison and talked to Bates, too.”

Sweat slickened his palms so he flattened them on the table. “Did you now?”  He knew better than to show any fear.

“He told me…that you were a dead man.”

Not yet.

She walked toward him. He saw that she had her weapon holstered on her hip.  His gaze rose from that weapon back up to her face.

“You’re going to leave solitaire when you go back to the prison,” Tracy said softly. “You…know that, right? It’s general population time for you. And Bates will have someone waiting there to take you out. Because you didn’t do your job. Not two years ago, and not now.”

“I’m not that easy to eliminate.”  Shit, he needed Vic there. So he’d shot up Saxon, what was the big f**king deal? Saxon was expendable—just muscle they used to infiltrate gangs.

Disposable.

She was near the table. Staring down at him. 

“Victor thinks he can get the hit called off Elizabeth Ward. He worked out some kind of deal with Bates—Bates is actually going to back off, provided Victor carries things through.”       

No. Shit, no. Bates was supposed to have his back.  He’d risked everything for that bastard.  Risked it all…for the payout that wouldn’t be coming.

His laughter was bitter. “She didn’t remember me, did she?”

Tracy’s expression didn’t alter.

“I was so worried Elizabeth Ward would remember meeting me, but she didn’t.” His brows lifted as he gazed up at Tracy. “I went to her parents’ house, I talked to her. That was the way I handled things back then. I got the lay of the land by pretending to be from a security firm.”

Now Tracy was the one to laugh. “That was two years ago! Are you seriously telling me you thought a witness would remember your face from that long ago?” She shook her head. “You know most witnesses can’t ever remember shit.”

No, most couldn’t. Five minutes after they’d met someone, they forgot the person’s face. But there were certain people who were more observant, who actually did recall—

“How much were you being paid? Because I don’t buy this crap about you going after her because you thought she might remember a five minute meeting from two freaking years ago.”

Ah, Tracy.  She was always rather good at cutting to the heart of the matter. “When the three Wards are dead, Bates will pay the million dollar bounty.”

Understanding lit her gaze. “It was an all or nothing deal, huh? Guess you got screwed on it.”

“If Victor and Saxon hadn’t fought to keep her alive—” He broke off. If those two jerks hadn’t been in his way, Elizabeth would be dead. And he’d be rich.  

“You made a mistake,” Tracy said softly as she leaned toward him. “You thought you could take down Victor and Saxon, but you weren’t strong enough to handle them. And now that  Victor talked to Bates, I’m sure he’s learned plenty about you.”

Rage and fear poured through him. Bates had sent him out on plenty of kills.  But if Bates thought he was going to turn on Gary…Think again! Bates wasn’t going to betray him. I’ll betray you first! I know all your secrets, too—and, bastard, I’ve already spilled some of them! Not to the Feds, but to others who’d been willing to pay a premium price…

Like to a man out for his own revenge, a man named Titus Rowe. Both Titus and the guy’s son—Hugh—they were more than eager to collect their pound of flesh. A life for a life. 

Every man had a weakness. And a price.

“I want to see Victor!” Gary demanded and his fisted hands slammed onto the table. “You bring him to me, right now!”

“Told you already,” she murmured. “He’s not here. He sent me back to keep an eye on you.” Her gaze drifted over him. Her voice was a mocking whisper as she said, “I guess a dead man isn’t really his priority.”

His control snapped as the rage took over. After all of those years and everything he’d done, things couldn’t end this way for him. “You bitch! I won’t let you do this to me!” He shot across the table, his hands going right for her throat.  They tumbled back, falling together when their bodies collided.

The bullets hit him before he and Tracy hit the floor. The bullets thudded into his chest and he realized—she’d drawn her gun before he ever touched her.

His hands were still around her throat and his blood was pumping out.

The door flew open and banged against the wall. Footsteps thundered toward them.

He stared into Tracy’s eyes.

“See,” she whispered, her voice so low that only he could hear it. “I told you…you were a dead man.”

Then he realized…She talked to Bates…she—

“One down,” she whispered. “One to go.”

Hard hands grabbed him and pulled him off her. He tried to speak, but he was just coughing up blood.

“I-I didn’t have a choice,” Tracy said, her voice tumbling out with a high, desperate edge as the other officers went to work on him. “He came at me. I-I didn’t have a choice!”