“Don’t do it, Stas! Don’t let the bitch go or you’ll regret it!” Carmine yelled, scrambling up from the floor, his round face beet red. “She’ll run right to the cops. No loose ends, Stas. We fucking agreed!”
Teddy gritted her teeth and held up the gun, wanting nothing more than to shoot Carmine’s eyeballs out. All her anger, all her helplessness over the situation with Dennis rose like a hot air balloon and exploded inside her, taking her by surprise.
She didn’t know where it came from. She didn’t know why she wasn’t able to contain it, but she was mad as hell, and she wasn’t acting any longer when she belted out, “Shut up, you mealy-mouthed partner killer! You killed your partner because he found out about Stas greasing your palms, didn’t he?”
Carmine’s face became a mask of fury as he shuffled from foot to foot. “Fuck you, you dumb cunt!”
Teddy lifted the gun higher, aiming between his eyes with no interference from Stas. “That’s what you did, didn’t you, you prick! He found out what you were doing at that car dealership. He caught you sticking your hand in the pot, and then you and your filthy friend Andre took him out with Stas’s approval because he was going to fuck you right up the ass, wasn’t he? He’d ruin your career, your wife and children would have to hide in shame. And then you covered it all up, you coward! How’d you do it, Cop Killer?” she seethed. “Did you whisper in someone’s ear at the department, tell them maybe Mauricio was unstable? Or did you drop hints he might have disappeared because he was unsavory? You stupid bitch. You’re just someone’s little paid bitch!”
Carmine shook with anger, every vein in his neck bulging, his bloodshot eyes blasting arrows of pure hatred her way. “He was gonna goddamn snitch! I tried to do him a favor by bringin’ him into the mix. His kid gettin’ ready to go off to college was killin’ him on a cop’s salary. He needed the fucking money! I told him I could help. I gave Stas my word Mauricio was good for it. But he fucking blew it. He fucking blew it all with his whining about truth and justice! So I took him out. Yeah, I did! It happened so fast, he didn’t know what hit his snitch ass!”
Teddy fought to keep her horror on the inside, to keep from visibly shaking.
Stas sighed as though bored with the retelling of old kills. “It is true, malutka. He took my gun right from the waist of my jeans and pow-pow.” He made a pretend gun of his thumb and forefinger and aimed it at Carmine. “We were all very surprised with our Carmine’s behavior. He is, as you say, a dirty cop killer.”
“On his order! I did it because he told me to do it! He’s the one who told me to find Vitali, too. He said find Vitali or die!” Carmine wailed. “Don’t know why the fuck he had Andre follow me when I damn well had it covered.”
Stas scoffed his disapproval of Carmine. “Trust, you idiot! I cannot trust that you will do as you say! You are useless!”
Carmine hitched his jaw in fake Toni’s direction before his desperate gaze fell back on Stas. “This all started with you and your nosy girlfriend!” he screeched. “Damn shame that bitch showed up at the dealership right after I got the fuck out of there or I’da killed her right then, too. No loose ends!”
Pretend like you don’t care. Pretend like you don’t care.
Teddy squared her shoulders. “I don’t give a shit who you killed, you fucking baby! I’m warning you, stay the hell out of my damn way! If you don’t agree to this, too, I’ll shoot your damn dick off!”
“Fuck youuu!” he screamed, spit flying from between his thick lips.
“Enough!” Stas bellowed the order, his eyes like granite. Then he snapped his fingers and Bogdan was by his side again. He flicked his hand at Carmine. “Take him elsewhere. Now.”
Her chest heaved and her heart crashed against her ribs as she tried to catch her breath. But Stas wasn’t done taunting her.
“Ahhh, my malutka. You are so feisty. If I had more time, I would take you to my apartment. We would share vodka, maybe a kiss or two…a cuddle, yes?”
Teddy kept her eye on the prize, refusing to allow him to egg her on. “Do we have a deal or not? I give you the Vitalis, give you my word I’ll never rat on you about that bitch’s partner, and you let me split free and clear. Deal?”
Just as Stas opened his mouth to answer, someone else burst through the door of the bar, taking everyone by surprise—even Stas’s goons.
Teddy didn’t have time to turn around before a large hand had wrapped itself around her hair and yanked her backward, making her lose her grip on the gun.
Her gun fell to the floor, skidding across the sticky surface until it hit something she couldn’t see for the tight hold this person had on her hair.
Stas’s thugs, though sluggish to react, were up and at the ready, their guns cocked, their war faces on.
Teddy reached upward to try to get away, but that was when she felt the barrel end of a gun jammed between her shoulder blades.
And then a very familiar voice spoke, a haunting nightmare from her past.
“Hi, honey! I’m home!” her ex-husband, Dennis, crooned in her ear.
Chapter 15