Chapter 22
petra
“Go ahead.”
Caitlyn flinched, her eyes wide. “What?”
“Go ahead.” I gestured to the gun. “Take your shot.”
“You…” A storm of confliction emotions played out on her face, and she gripped the gun tighter. “You lied to me.”
“Someone tell you?” I spoke in a weary sigh. The sound of a woman ready to die for no good cause.
“Horizon is your project. You’re going to kill Elaine.”
“I never liked theatrics,” I said. “If you’re going to shoot, then shoot.”
Fire flared in her eyes even as tears sprung into the corners. “Why aren’t you fighting me?”
“Elaine’s… got something about her, I guess,” I sighed. “Hard to feel motivated to kill her.”
“Then don’t. Why are you doing this? Is that… Horizon thing really worth it?”
I shrugged. “Can’t betray the family.”
“You can. You have to. You can betray your family, but you can’t betray your own values.”
“Sorry,” I said. “Think that’s where you and I are different, Cait. Go ahead. Decide if you want to pull that trigger or not.”
She clenched her jaw, tears streaming down her cheeks. She moved her finger to the trigger, her hands shaking as she clutched the gun hard.
It was peaceful, actually, staring down the barrel of a loaded gun.
Nice to know it was finally over. Not the best ending, but far from the worst. Caitlyn was objectively the better person than all of us in this.
Better than dying to some rival mobster who was going to leverage my death for another couple grand he would spend on blow.
“I don’t want to do this,” she choked. “Please don’t make me.”
“You don’t get to choose whether you’re a part of this life, Cait. Seems like the world chose for you. Like it did for me. Like it did for Vera. Make your choice.”
She swallowed hard, her body shaking from her hands to her feet, and finally, with an angry cry, her eyes flashed, and she pulled the trigger.
Even with the silencer on, the crack of the gunshot resounded in the room, and the recoil snapped the gun up high—she missed, the bullet plinking off the wall behind me, and I moved on instinct, lunging in and grabbing the gun from her hand while the recoil threw her off.
She gasped, trying to reach for it, but she was a hundred pounds soaking wet and her legs were already giving out—she collapsed into me, and it was so easy getting the gun away from her and wrenching her around into a hold from behind, my hand over her mouth, that I felt bad doing it.
“Sorry, Cait,” I said. “Kinda liked you, in the end. But we can’t risk the mission now.”
She shouted something muffled against my hand, but I was quick with this kind of thing.
I slipped my shirt and jacket off, wrapping the shirt around her mouth to gag her, fashioning the jacket sleeves into bindings, and I tied her arms behind her back, and I almost shoved her down onto her knees like any hostage before I remembered her legs.
“Easy,” I said, and I scooped her up, carrying her across the room, and I sat her down in the chair facing the window just as Vera came in the room behind me, a gun out. I signaled to her it was clear, and she frowned, looking between me and Caitlyn, the gun on the floor, back to me.
“What’s going on?” she said, closing the door.
“Caitlyn found out about us, somehow,” I said. “Came in here to demand we change course. Got her hands on a 9mm, somehow. And turns out she’s a bad shot.”
“Caitlyn did?” Vera shook her head. “These Whitners… you really don’t know what to expect with them.”
“So?” I said. “What do you think we should do with her?”
She shook her head. “I’ve been wondering the same thing. We can’t just kill her. Glenn doesn’t want extra bodies piling up.”
“Yeah. Besides,” I sighed, gesturing at Caitlyn. “I mean, look at her.”
Vera smiled dryly at me. “Sentimental, Petra?”
“Well, look who’s talking, Wolf.”
She rolled her eyes, but I saw the way she subtly touched her ring with her thumb. What were we going to do if she couldn’t kill Elaine? Would I have to step up and do it?
“For now,” Vera said, “we keep her like this. If she was able to get that information on us that fast… she could be useful.”
Useful. That was all it was in the end, wasn’t it? Just how useful somebody was. I guess I’d just been useful for a bit, too. “Yeah,” I said, looking at Caitlyn’s small frame, quivering in fear, and I tried not to have my heart break at the sight. “Guess so.”