10. Quinn
QUINN
“ T hanks,” I say to Mercer. He owes me but something tells me after this, I’ll be owing him.
He’s been out longer than me and he dresses like a different man. A suit with an air of a mission about him. But the deadliness, the control, the drive and carefully meted out hunger is the same.
If anyone can get her to safety and give her a chance at a new life, it’s him.
“No problem, Quinn.” His gaze flicks to the new car where an unmoving Hellie sits. “It’ll be like she died.”
“Thanks.”
“You know, you could be a fucking martyr and take that car you drove her in, or…”
I look at him. “They won’t stop looking for her if I go.”
He sighs. “I’m a prick, and this will mean you owe me big. But right now, I can use favors like that.”
Everything in me stills.
“Remember that asshole in prison who died?”
I frown and he smiles slowly.
“It’s easy if you know how. You deal in death and destruction differently to me.
I like a more subtle approach, the right weapon.
I can make it like that. Like you got into trouble, orchestrate a situation where you both are incinerated in that car, with the phones.
Take the car in a different direction, make it that the remains found are close to yours, and the rest?
Dental records? I can make it all go away. ”
“It’s not a guarantee?—”
“It’s close. But…your decision. There’s more risk if you go with the girl, but…” He shrugs. “You have to decide if the risk is worth it.”