The tic near White’s eye twitched again.
Had he expected this? Me arriving alone, not even close to being defeated and broken? Or had he assumed I’d come groveling for my life? If the later, why round up those I care about? Insurance, or to have them witness my humiliation?
“So,” I said, shoving my hands into my hip pockets, “I take it you didn’t have a close relationship with your son?”
The air rattled as every grunt around us snapped their guns on me. Ignoring them, I let out a low chuckle, holding White’s stare. In my right pocket was the only weapon I’d brought in with me—a steel-cased pen, the ideal thing to puncture a throat, a temple, the side of a knee…
White narrowed his eyes, strolling around the table at a steady pace until he stopped behind Fluffy. “You could say that,” he answered, placing his hands on the Marine’s broad shoulders. Fluffy stiffened. If it were just Fluffy and my life on the line right now, I think White would have been shocked at how deadly Gunnery Sergeant Baxter could be, even with his wrists bound behind his back.
“I mean,” I went on, letting contempt thread through the exaggerated confusion in my voice, “the world didn’t even know you had a son after all. Did you keep him a secret for a reason? Or just because Rufie, sorry, Randolph was a vile psychopath?”
The tic in White’s eye went into overdrive.
“What was he?” I asked, not letting him get a word in. “The result of a quick bang with a two-buck hooker? Did the condom break?” I let my lip curl. “Or are you one of those fuckers who insist on never wearing one?”
“I’d suggest you stop talking, Tripwire,” he growled, fingers digging into Fluffy’s shoulders.
To my right, Ronnie let out an almost inaudible groan. I didn’t need to look at her to know she was scrunching up her face, wondering what the fuck I was doing. She trusted me, but she also knew me. Knew me better than anyone.
How soon before she threw up her hands and told me to stop poking the fucking bear?
“Tripwire’s dead, White,” I corrected, holding his stare. “Call me Lucas.”
His eyes narrowed again. “What do you think is going to happen here, Lucas?”
I shrugged. “Thought I’d get to see if Rufie was a chip off the old block or not.”
“Randolph was nothing like me,” White snarled.
I suppressed a smile, even as a wave of charged anticipation rolled through me.
“Well, he definitely was taller,” I said. “Took after his mother? Who was she? Your secretary? Please don’t tell me you’re that cliched?”
The tic near his eye gave it away.
I couldn’t help but laugh, letting my scorn fill the mocking sound. “Oh, boy,” I snorted. “You disappoint me.”
“Utter another word, Pratt,” he ground out, “and I’ll show you what a cliché I am.”
With another snort, I frowned. “Okay, so here’s what I don’t get. If you two weren’t close, what’s with the B-grade performance now? Have you watched too many Quintin Tarantino movies? Or do you have a tiny—”
“I may not have liked my son,” White snapped, giving Fluffy’s shoulders a squeeze, “but that doesn’t mean I’m going to allow some—” he raked a disdainful gaze over me, “—uneducated thug to kill him without retribution.”
“Retribution?” I shot up my eyebrows. “Do you want me to tell you about some of the things your son did while alive?”
White sneered. “Do you want me to tell you how many times I ordered those things to be done? How many I funded?”
My gut clenched. “And there’s the kicker, isn’t it? You might wear a suit, and no doubt sit in a big, fancy air-conditioned office on the top floor of some towering monstrosity of a building, but underneath it all, you’re just as dirty and sordid as your son. Even more so. No wonder you have to have your teeth professionally whitened, what with all the shit that spews from your mouth.”
White’s jaw bunched, and he snapped whoever it was still standing behind me a glare. “Enough. Let’s get this started, shall we?”
“No worries, boss,” a familiar male voice drawled, Australian accent broad and dry.
I spun around, just in time to see Tac raise his fist beside his head, grin wide as he dropped me a quick wink. “Ready?” he asked.
I saw his thumb move. Saw it press down on something small and black and round jutting out from his clenched fist. Saw his grin stretch wider.
And then outside, the world exploded.