“We haven’t abused him.”
“You don’t think so? Drugging and kidnapping don’t constitute abuse to you?”
“Hello?” Colin said. “I’m here. Don’t talk about me like I’m a kid.”
“Sorry, Colin.” He was right. He was a grown man who’d had some shit come down on him. I wasn’t his mother.
“You haven’t been abused,” Dominic said.
I knew what he meant. This was nothing compared to what Colin had endured at Tom Simpson’s hands. I was full of fire, though, and I didn’t feel like playing nice.
So much for my catching-flies-with-honey idea. I just wasn’t cut out for it.
At least Colin hadn’t gotten any puke on his clothes. He’d aimed it all at the floor. Dave sopped it up with a towel and then sprayed disinfectant on the spot.
“I see you have disinfectant. But not an antiemetic?”
“For God’s sake,” Dominic said. “We’re trying our best here.”
“Try harder,” I said through clenched teeth. “You can start by telling me why you think Colin and I needed to be kidnapped—which is a felony, by the way—for our own protection.”
“I don’t know. I’m only given the information I need.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“That’s your prerogative, but there’s nothing more I can tell you. Look. You know me. You’ve had lunch with me.”
“Yeah, I must be a shitty judge of character,” I said. “Not once during lunch did I say to myself, ‘hmm, I think this guy might be a kidnapper.’”
“We have more drugs, you know,” Alex said. “I say let’s knock her unconscious.”
“I wasn’t talking to you,” I said. “You and I never had lunch.”
She rolled her eyes. Again.
“What’s up with her?” I asked Dominic.
“She’s just being herself. It irks her that our clients don’t appreciate what we do for them.”
“Yeah, must be difficult, when your victims don’t appreciate being drugged and abducted.”
“That’s exactly what pisses her off,” Dominic said. “The way you’re being. Right now. I know you don’t get it, but what we do is a means to an end, and we’re paid very well.”
“I’d imagine someone would have to pay you well to break the law. And that someone is apparently my dead father.”
“I have no idea if your father is dead or not.”
“I do. I watched him get shot. It’s a visual I’ll never forget. He’s very much dead.”
“That information hasn’t been shared with me.”
“He is, Dominic. You don’t forget something like that.”
“Whether he is or isn’t doesn’t matter. He put plans in place.”
“How? Who’s calling the shots, then? Why are we in danger?”
“I already told you. I wasn’t given those details.”