SO COLD (18+) currently editing

Chapter 47.6

SO COLD

"What a solid plan. Should we kill Chief Michaels, too? Your neighbours? Why don't you write a list and I'll go out and start hacking people's heads off?"

I slid onto the bed. "Hear me out. We get the mayor, we get the names of everyone else in the kill club – or the cult, whatever you wanna call it. If we take out my father's cushiony support, yank out the carpet from under him, he'll be alone. He won't have access to arms, cars, the curtains to hide behind. He'll be out in the open or out in the wild. Whatever'll happen, he won't have anyone to save him when he fucks up. It'll make things difficult for him."

"I'm not convinced," he stood up, walked over to the window, a hand on the wall. "The cops are leaving. It's probably a shift change, except I don't see any other cops coming to take their place."

"We don't even have to kill the mayor, just lock him up someplace. Make people think he's dead. Get the names from him and then go through everyone. It's not something I've just pulled from my ass crack. I've been thinking over it at night. The journalist, AA, or Andrew, whatever his name was, noised around here for my father, you killed him, put him in the town centre on the statue of the horse to mock the mayor, the mayor retaliated by coming down hard on your drug dealers, cops began locking up every college kid who was selling on the street corners, and you lost money. I get that you've handed the drug business over to James but–"

"How do you know that?" he asked sharply.

"Well," I made a face. "I might have accidentally overheard a conversation you had with him. This was when I was locked up in your house. Anyway. Don't you want to put a stop to this once and for all?"

He angled towards me, gaze still outside. "You want to kill your father? I'm down."

"No, not kill him, just trap him."

"How are you so sure you'll get him? What if he doesn't even get into his cage in the first place?"

"I'm not, I don't know how he'll react. He could run to New Mexico or he might hit back harder. It's a risk. It could turn into a major fuck up, but I don't want him to creep in the side-lines, attack whenever he feels like. We need to set bait, and if we're lucky, we'll get a location from one of the idiots from the kill club."

"Hmm," he grunted, "so you're going to be satisfied with him being locked up? He'll die in prison."

"Better than any alternative you have."

"And what of your brother? What makes you think you'll be able to find the balls to face your father? He won't come quietly. There'll be a fight. Are you willing to kill him? To slit his throat, shoot his brains out? If needs be, of course."

"It won't come to that," I said. "And this will give Seth some stability. He won't have to worry when Dad will next show up or what he'll do. Seth would finally be able to feel safe."

He rubbed a hand through his beard. "Still not convinced. The mayor is protected 24/7, if we were to carry out a capture and kill, people would die. His bodyguards, and then him once we're through with getting our info. We won't be able to let him leave like you'd hope, it's too risky. Even if we were to cover up, put a blindfold over him, there's too many probabilities we won't even have thought of. I want to be certain that when the time comes, you'll be ready to kill him."

"Why would I have–?"

His laughter was abrupt, dry. "I don't appreciate how you constantly threaten me that you're going to the cops whenever we argue. It gets on my nerves. I want to be able to trust you without question, to be absolutely certain about your loyalty."