Ryker
I was so sick of this shit. This was it. My last job. When my business cell rang at six o’clock in the morning, I didn’t want to answer it. I wanted to stay with Hattie. Fortunately for my asshole client, I never quit in the middle of a job before, and I refused to start now. It’d leave the possibility of another enemy, and God knows, after the fallout with Senator Deveron, I had one more enemy than I needed already.
I parked my car one block from the gym where Representative Houser exercised from six to seven thirty every weekday. His routine never varied, which benefited people like me. I always cautioned my clients against being too predictable. It gave bad actors openings to take advantage of you.
I grabbed the black baseball cap from the passenger seat and put it on, pulling the brim down low enough to disguise my features on any cameras. I walked around to the side of the building where Representative Houser exited the building. I didn’t understand why he didn’t use the front door, but I refused to question my luck.
Representative Houser opened the door, his head down staring at his phone. What a jackass. For someone over his head in backroom deals, he should pay more attention to his surroundings. Backroom deals had a way of going bad quickly, at least in my experience.
Before he turned the corner to the parking lot behind the building, I wrapped my arm around his neck from behind him, eliminating the possibility he’d get a good look at my face.
“What the hell?” he yelled, scratching my arm.
“Shut the hell up and listen.” I removed my gun from the holster under my coat and pressed it into the side of his head with my free arm.
“What do you want? My wallet is in my back pocket. Take it and leave me alone. I won’t call the police.”
“I don’t want your fucking wallet.”
He elbowed me in the side, and I rammed him face first into the brick wall. “Try that again, asshole, and you’ll have a lot of explaining to do when you show up at work tomorrow with a black and blue face.” I was tempted to do exactly as I threatened. He wouldn’t be the first member of Congress to make up a story to explain getting the shit beat out of him as a result of his double-dealing.
“Don’t do it. Don’t hurt me,” he said, sniffling like a fucking baby. “Just tell me what you want.”
A dark, bitter laugh escaped my mouth. “I’m definitely going to leave you with a few bruises, but if you cooperate, all of them won’t be on your face.”
“I’ll cooperate.”
“Then, why are you planning to vote for the cyber security bill tomorrow?”
He groaned. “Tell them I’m sorry, but I changed my mind. I can’t help your client. I’m getting too much pressure.”
I grinded my gun against the back of his head and tightened my arm around his throat. “It doesn’t work that way. You took their money.”
“I can’t do it.” He shook his head. “I’m getting squeezed from both sides and I need to go with my conscience.”
“You don’t have a conscience.” I banged his head against the wall again. Blood splattered on my shirt, and the metallic odor flooded my senses. Fucking hell. I’d have to burn this shirt. “You solicited and accepted bribes from both sides.”
“I didn’t,” he protested, spitting a mixture of saliva and blood near my feet. Asshole. “I would never do that.”
I punched him in the kidney. He’d be lucky if he weren’t pissing blood tonight. “Don’t lie.”
“I’m not. I promise. I changed my mind. It’s as simple as that.” He repeatedly nodded, as if his word meant something. It didn’t. He had his head shoved so far up the asshole of corruption, he couldn’t see the truth if it kissed him on his shit-stained lips.
“So the hundred fifty thousand dollars that mysteriously landed in your Cayman Islands account five days ago was just a coincidence?”
“How do you know about that?”
“You accepted a bribe to kill this bill from one of the top cyber security firms that also happens to have one of the most infamous hackers on its payroll. Figure it out, dumbass. A few clicks of his more than capable fingers and he uncovered everything. It took him less than thirty minutes.”
He craned he head to look at me, but I crammed his face into the wall.
“Don’t turn around,” I growled. “Keep your eyes glued to the wall and you’ll be just fine.”
“Okay, okay,” he whispered. “What am I supposed to do? Either way I vote, I’m fucked. You’ll kill me, and I don’t want them as an enemy either.”
“Oh, I won’t kill you.” I lived in the shadows, but I wasn’t a murderer. I only killed in self-defense.
“You won’t?” he said, his body drooping with relief. What a pansy.
“No. I have something far worse planned.”
Tremors wracked his body, but I didn’t have any compassion for him. He tried to play both sides. One bribe wasn’t sufficient. Greedy bastard. “Return their money. Unwind the deal.”
“I can’t. I spent the money.”
“I know you did. I know all about your gambling habit.”
“You do?” he mumbled.
“Yes. I know you have a nice pay to play scheme going. I know you finance a half a million dollar a year gambling addiction by accepting bribes from anyone and everyone. You’ve been bought and sold so many times, you’re worse than a dollar hooker.”
“Only if their interests align with my beliefs.”
“Your capacity for self-denial is almost as pathetic as your inability to control your addiction. What would your constituents think if they found out that while you preached about the need for more laws to stop the erosion of social norms and morals, you couldn’t stop yourself from placing bet after bet all funded in some roundabout way by the American taxpayer?”
“I tried to stop,” he mumbled, snot dripping down his face. It turned my stomach.
“I don’t give a rat’s ass what you tried to do. Save it for the media when I expose you for the piece of shit you are.”
“No. No. I’ll find a way to unwind the bribe. I’ll come up with the money, and I’ll vote against that bill.”
I stood behind him as the seconds ticked by, letting him wonder if I believed him. If I’d allow him to go.
“Fine,” I finally said. “But if you double-cross my client again, or if I even hear a single whisper you plan to vote for that bill, all of your dirty secrets will be on the front page of every major newspaper and website in excruciating detail, and not just your habit of taking bribes to fund your gambling addiction.”
“I don’t have any other secrets.”
“You do…lots of them, and I have the pictures to prove it.” I dropped my arm from his neck and slipped my gun into the holster around my waist. I pulled a rope out of my pocket, looped it around one of his wrists and tied the other end to the dumpster. “Wait here ten minutes and then you can leave.”
When I was back in my car, I dialed the number of my contact at the cyber security firm.
“It’s done.”
“Good. The second half of your money will be wired to your account when the bill dies on the House floor tomorrow.”