Shay pulled her 9mm from her shoulder holster and neatly pointed it right at the center of his forehead, still calmly looking at him. “A few questions. Question one is easy. How?”
Peyton swallowed hard and set his phone down carefully on the armrest of the nearest chair. “Easy. I put a liquid tracker on you. Very hard to wash off, lasts for days.”
“Question two is not going to be easy. Tell me why I shouldn’t put a fucking bullet into your forehead and end my detection problem. You’re good at what you do… clearly, but I have to wonder if you’re an asset or a liability.”
Peyton swallowed again, taking several slow deep breaths as he locked eyes with Shay. He could feel the seconds passing. “I’ve got a dead man’s switch.”
“A dead man’s switch. You’re rigged?”
“If I don’t regularly check in online at a particular server that I control and enter a code, then information goes out across the web to some very particular locations. Multiple receivers. Among other things, it reveals you aren’t dead. It’ll also give the location of this warehouse and number three.” Peyton licked his upper lip. His mouth felt dry.
Shay held the gun steady. Never break your own rules especially when they get you this far. Fuck me, I broke it when I pulled him off the street. Trust no one past an anonymous meeting place. “Question three. Why?”
“To make a point.”
“What’s your point? That I can’t trust you because you’ll try to fuck me the first chance you’ll get?” She felt an ache and a grief in the center of her chest that she hadn’t felt in a very long time. It hurt all the more to know that someone had gotten through her defenses, at last, and was just another cheap imitation of a human being.
Peyton shook his head. “That I never forgot who you are. It’s always right here, first thought.” He tapped his forehead. “I have leverage, too. Even as a walking dead man.” He pointed at Shay, angry. “You don’t think much of me. I know, we joke around a little more every day, you put me on your payroll, but you think I’m chickenshit. I tried to tell you, I can fight back, too.” His voice was defiant. He was doing his best to stand up straighter.
“I can change the locations. I guarantee you that after this I’ll be doing sweeps every time I’m done talking with you.”
“You change locations, I’ll find it again eventually. I’m an information guy. That’s why you saved me, remember?” Peyton held up his hands. “I realized I have to show you I have claws, too. I knew I needed a way to make sure you wouldn’t see me as fallout if something went south. More convenient to let me die if an enemy got too close. I mean, that’s part of the risk, right? I needed to make it worth your while to not only teach me but protect me… even over an artifact.”
“That’s asking a lot.” Her eyes were shining at the sting of the betrayal and the knowledge that she was the one who set it in motion. Her instincts to protect herself made Peyton look for a failsafe.
“I was sitting around here after you ordered me not to go to my own father’s funeral like I was a second-rate bonded troll. Got under my skin. I’m not your fucking pet. Gave me time to think, though. I figure there must be eight or nine more warehouses like this one to find, so best to start now.”
“This leaves us in an awkward place.” Shay kept her breathing steady, her finger still brushing against the trigger.
“We’ve never really left that phase. You need to decide if you can work with someone you can respect instead of something you can control.” His chest was rising and falling, and his heart was pounding. Peyton knew this was the critical mass. Either Shay would put away her gun and listen or pull the trigger. He calculated the odds when he went searching for the warehouse. Fifty-fifty. It could easily go either way, but a confrontation just like this was going to happen at some point.
Better to see it coming.
“There was a kill a few years ago that said something to me just before I shot him.” Shay turned to the side, still pointing the gun at Peyton’s head.
“That doesn’t sound encouraging.” Peyton wondered if his family would ever know he lived another month after his first death.
“He said, faith can’t happen without a gap of information. You have to go first without knowing the outcome, especially when the information is lacking and the potential consequences are a bitch.”
“Shit, is that what got him killed?” Peyton’s voice cracked but he stayed where he was, refusing to run or look for a weapon. Both would be pointless if Shay made up her mind to shoot. Besides, first rule when faced with a skilled predator. Never run, it only gets them excited.
“No, choices he made years ago led to that bullet. By the time he and I met it was over, one way or the other. He knew it too.”
Peyton pressed forward with the argument he worked out when he was searching for the warehouse. The words tumbled out of him. “The way I see it, if you really want a different life than being a hired killer till the day your consequences catch up with you…” Peyton dug his fingernails into the palm of his hand, determined not to let the fear show on his face. “Then you have to make a different choice today. You trust me not to fuck up and lead a mercenary back here or sell you out and I’ll keep your
