Chapter Thirty-Four
ADAM
I must have fallen asleep. I was on my sofa, and on my side. I tried to sit up and hissed out a curse, when my injured ribs protested.
“Motherfucker.” It was dim in the room, the short day easing into night so early this time of year. The light clicked on all of a sudden, the brightness making me blink fast. I heard footsteps approaching me, and then there was a large, intimidating figure in front of me.
Marco.
He sat down opposite me, resting his hands on his knees.
“Evening, Teller.”
Fuck fuck fuck… a billion fucks. I fell asleep, and Marco found me. Because, of course, they’d check my fucking house. Probably watched me come in, and waited me out.
“Well… I guess that’ll teach me to fall asleep, when I’m hiding from you bastards.” I finally pushed myself up, realising that part of the struggle had been due to my hands being tethered in front of me. A fucking cable tie. I tested it, but all it did was cut into my skin.
“If you call being drugged ‘falling asleep’, then yeah, sure.” Marco said gruffly, smoothing the fabric of his dark trousers.
Drugged. I groaned, having a sudden flashback of something sharp jabbing the back of my neck.
“You bastard.” I muttered, and he raised his hands in a shrug.
“Seemed preferable to bludgeoning you. Sorry if you disagree.” He seemed so different. Cold. Unfriendly. Deadly. I’d really fucked up, and there was no way out at this point. He was here to put me down.
“Why worry if you’re here to kill me? Or do you need some kind of information first? Something that needs my common sense?”
Marco snorted. “I’m pretty sure you don’t have any fucking common sense. If you did, I wouldn’t be here right now.”
I stared at him morosely. “It’s a shame they sent you. I mean, it would have been better to be killed by someone I didn’t sometimes like. I mean, you can be a real bell-end at times, but you had your moments.”
He shook his head. “You just don’t learn, do you? This is your chance to plead your case. Don’t you want to live to see another day?”
I leaned my head back on the sofa. “I don’t even fucking care anymore. I can’t live like this, Marco. I can’t be afraid all the time that the next thing I do, is the reason why they have me killed. It’s not a life.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, I get that, mate. What I don’t understand is why you keep pressing your luck. Working for the Bennetts isn’t the nightmare you make it out to be. Jesus… I’ve worked for them nearly fifteen years. You think I’d do that, if it wasn’t worth it?”
I sighed, closing my eyes. “That’s because you’re a bad guy, like them. Of course it seems worth it. I just want a normal life. A home. A job. A woman. I mean, it doesn’t seem like those should be things I don’t ever get, just because I crossed paths with you that day.”
I heard him moving, and I opened my eyes, because even resigned to my fate, I couldn’t not watch as he approached. How would he kill me? A knife? Would he stab me to death? Leave me bleeding on the sofa, my blood soaking into the fabric… or would he choke me with those huge hands? Worse… would he beat me to death? Would I feel blow after blow, until I died in agony?
“Jesus fuck. Just get it over with, Marco, this is torture.” I felt like I’d cry like a fucking baby, if he didn’t hurry up and kill me.
“Adam, I don’t want to fucking kill you. The Bennetts didn’t send me for that.”
I cleared my throat against the fucking lump currently lodged there, and lifted my head to stare at him. He was standing over me, looming like a fucking mountain.
“What?”
He grinned suddenly. “I’m here to… convince you to stay on the job.” What the actual fuck?
My head dropped back against the sofa. I almost wished he’d kill me instead.
“Seriously? Can I choose death instead?”
He dropped down on the sofa beside me. “Well, yeah, of course. Only I don’t really want to kill you, so I’d prefer it if you didn’t. You’re kinda growing on me. Not necessarily always in a good way, but I’d hate to kill you anyway.”
“You son-of-a-bitching jackass. You scared the living fuck out of me.”