“Relax, my ass. You shot me. You could have killed me,” he said. “Are you even a real pixie? What kind of a pixie shootsa gun?”
The asshole. I forced a smile on my face. “The pink kind.” His mouth opened to say something else, but I didn’t let him. “The same kind that killed your friend last night, too. You remember, don’t you?”
He immediately leaned back in his chair as far as the chain allowed. “I don’t know anything.”
“What were you doing at Dave’s Grill last night, Mr. Sullivan?” I asked, and he pressed his lips together. “Why were you in the back? Do you work for Dave’s Grill?” No answer. “You ran away before the fight even began.”
That seemed to get his interest. He raised a brow. “I didn’trunaway,” he spit.
“But you did—I saw you. Honestly, I thought you were pretty smart to do so. Otherwise, you’d have ended up dead instead of James Hopkins.”
He showed me his gritted teeth and was barely stopping himself from cursing.
“There really is no point in lying to us, Michael,” Hunter said, leaning closer on the table. “He can tell.” He nodded his head toward McKinley. “And the more you lie, the longer you’re stuck here, and the longer your sentence will be when we do catch your friends. So, why don’t you do all of us a favor—including yourself—and just tell us what you know?”
Michael swallowed hard. His eyes moved from me to Hunter to McKinley and back again.
“There’s nothing to be afraid of,” I said, offering him the best smile I could muster. “All I need is a name. Tell me who your friends were.”
“No,” he spit.
“If you don’t, you’re going to be locked up in this building for a long time,” I reminded him.
“If I do, I’ll be dead.”
Well… “Not ifwecatch them first.” I winked.
“All we need are names,” Hunter said. “The ODP is very generous with people who cooperate with us.”
“It’s all up to you, Michael,” I continued. “You can either help yourself or lose your freedom.”
“Bullshit—you don’t have proof!” he suddenly snapped.
As much as I wanted to lean away, I stood my ground.
“Of course, we do. I was there—I saw you, remember? That’s all the proof I’ll need to lock you up,” I said, already not liking where this was headed. Because I’d counted on him being afraid, I had hoped I could get him to relax, to trust me a little bit so he could tell me the names of those two guys from last night.
And he was afraid—terrified even, but not of me or the ODP. Of those same guys I was looking for.
“Look, Michael,” I said, opening the folder to show him the pictures of all the dead bodies that the ODP had found in the past weeks. They weren’t very detailed, but they should have been enough to freak anyone out, at least a little bit. “All these people died of the same thing that you’re on right now.”
It was just a guess—I didn’t know for sure that he was on Crackdown, but if he wasn’t, he would have tried to protect himself—both last night and today. I was just a pixie. I was small, easily underestimated. He would have tried.
And the fact that he pressed his lips together again confirmed that it was an accurate guess.
“You don’t want to end up like them, do you?” I asked, pushing the folder closer to him, but he refused to look at it. “All we’re trying to do is find Crackdown, that’s it. And your friends can help us.Youcan help us.”
“I don’t know anything about Crackdown,” he spit, and both Hunter and I turned to McKinley, even though we already knew he was going to shake his head. Of course Michael knew about Crackdown.
But…
“Why don’t you ask your friend, huh? Instead of chasing me and shooting at me, ask your friend. He was there, too. He’s one of yours.”
Every inch of my body froze instantly, and every alarm in my head turned on.
Oh, God. I should have seen that coming. I should have known that he would mention Dominic—he wasthere, too! He saw him just as well as I did.
“What friend?” Hunter asked, suddenly more curious than he had been since we came in the room.