“Precisely.”
“Bullshit, you were going to kill him anyway.”
“You doubt my word? I said your sister would be unharmed if you arrived on time and she is unharmed. I will give you my word that, if you don’t do what I want, I will harm her, harm her a lot. Do you doubt my word on that?”
“No, I believe you. What do you want? Do you want me to kill Stone now?”
“Yes. I think it would be easy for you. He trusts you.”
“And then my sister and I are free to go?”
“You’ll have murdered a federal witness, so ‘free’ might be too strong of a word, but no.”
“No?”
“Mal let me down in a big way. I need you to kill him too.”
“I’d have to find him first and that won’t be easy.”
“No, it will be really easy. Shall we go to the next bedroom?”
“Why?”
“It’s a surprise. Don’t worry, my man will watch your sister while you're gone.”
“What man?”
“He’d rather you don’t see him since, for this to work, I have to let you leave here alive. This way.”
Margot walked across the hall to a smaller bedroom. Duct taped to a folding chair on the far side of the room was Mal. Like Melanie, his mouth was taped shut.
“See, he wasn’t so hard to find after all. Once the Racers gave him up, I knew he’d come to visit Manny and his boys for an explanation. Especially after they tipped off Brantley and he shot up his brother. He should have known we’d be waiting for him.”
Mal looked up at her with sad eyes. He looked resigned to his fate. Margot had a feeling the sadness was for her.
Margot stared at Mal for a second, unsure what to do.
“Well, get to it,” The Cowboy told her.
“What am I supposed to do? Beat him to death?”
“You were a fighter, weren’t you? MMA from what I understand. Choke him out.”
“You want me to choke him while he’s tied to the chair?”
“Yeah.”
When Margot didn’t move, The Cowboy raised the gun in his hand and shot Mal in the foot. Her analysis of the suppressor was correct. It still made some noise, but it wasn’t enough to draw the kind of attention she needed.
Mal wanted to scream out, but the gag kept him from doing so. He tried to squirm out of the tape, but he was in there tight. All he managed to do was knock the chair over.
“What the hell did you do that for?” Margot asked.
“To show you how this is going to go down. You can either choke him out or I can keep shooting him places that hurt but don’t kill until he bleeds out. If I have to do that then I’m going to do the same to your sister. You’ll get to watch both of them die a slow painful death and then I’m going to do the same to you.”
“I do this and I kill Dean Stone and then my sister and I walk away?”
“I think I already told you that, Margot. I don’t like to repeat myself,” The Cowboy said as he raised the gun again.
“Don’t shoot him,” Margot said quickly, “I’ve got this.”
Mal was thrashing around but with his arms and legs taped to the chair, he wasn’t making any progress except on the gag. Margot noticed he was rubbing his face on the carpet and he’d managed to catch a corner. She wasn’t sure what good this would do either of them.
“Hurry up,” The Cowboy told her.
Margot stepped over Mal and knelt behind him.
“Make sure to do it all the way. If you let go and he’s still breathing, the next bullet is going into Melanie.”
Margot wished he hadn’t said that since that was exactly what she had been thinking of doing.
Mal moved the tape on his mouth enough to say, “It’s okay.”
Margot wanted to tell him it wasn’t.
“I was dead the day I didn’t kill Stone. I’d rather go this way.”
“If I have to ask you again…” The Cowboy warned as he pointed toward the bedroom where Melanie was tied up.
Margot knelt down and wrapped her arm around Mal’s neck. Despite what he had said, he was still struggling, but there wasn’t much he could do. She wrapped her legs around his chest and began to squeeze both his neck and rib cage.
“You don’t look like you're trying very hard.”
Margot put more pressure on his neck. The way she had him constricted, he wouldn’t be conscious much longer.
Mal whispered, “I killed his man and he didn’t check my boot either.”
Margot didn’t know what he meant by ‘either’ but she had good idea what he kept in his boot.
“What did he say?” The Cowboy asked.
Mal was going to sleep already, so Margot said, “He said he loved me.”
“That’s not what I heard.”
Mal dropped into unconsciousness. Margot loosened her grip. She hoped The Cowboy didn’t notice.
“You’re going to have to take my word for it. He’s out.”
“He’s sleeping. I want him dead.”
Margot let go.
“I said, I want him dead.”
“He is,” Margot said as she unwrapped her legs and moved so she was on her knees, “check for yourself.”
“I can see him breathing. You should have believed me when I said I was going to shoot your sister.”
“Wait,” Margot told him as she pointed to his bloody foot. “I’ll prove it. Sleeper hold or not, I squeeze his foot he’s going to jump if he’s alive.”
“If he jumps, you still have to kill him and I’m still blowing a hole in Melanie's foot. Maybe you should choke him some more to be sure.”
“He won’t jump.”
Margot reached for his foot with her left hand while
