That’s called breaking your opponent, people.
Sure, it was a bit harsh, considering he’s somewhere under the age of twenty-one, but he did enter my establishment with the intent to harm me. I needed to set the bar high.
“Okay, Jimmy.”
And, by the way, it’s not like I couldn’t have found that information out on my own or anything. I like to hear it from the perp’s mouth, so when push comes to shove, they can’t pull the old it wasn’t me bullshit.
“Wanna tell me what you were planning on doing with that gun?” I nod over toward it still laying on the floor from when he winged it at me a few minutes ago.
He shrugs. “Get some pay back. Get out of Redemption.”
Forget about the pay back.
“Why would you wanna get out of Redemption?”
He shrugs again. This time he doesn’t answer me. He simply stares off at the corner of the office, exuding the angry teenager thing like it’s his job.
He reminds me of a former me. Daring someone to give a shit. Not trusting them even if they did.
I give him a minute while I walk around the desk and think.
The envelope Jim Galley handed me the other night sits on top of the thousand I won racing Donnie. With the additional ten-K I landed from Redemption’s police force, I can afford to give Jimmy some, but not all of it. I’m gonna need to pay a few bills if I want to survive another month.
“You know where you’re going?” I fan the money until it looks like I’ve gotten to about half, then I hand it to the kid.
He looks disgusted knowing where it came from.
“I’m sorry about what happened to your brother.”
“You should be,” he spits as he snatches the cash out of my hand. He opens his mouth to say something else but stops himself.
“What?”
Jimmy shakes his head. “Fuck it.”
“You talk to your mother with that mouth?” The kid laughs at my insinuation and shakes his head at me.
“Don’t have a mother.” The way he says it isn’t enough to tell me whether he’s never had one or recently lost her. Either way… awesome.
“Dad?”
He shakes his head.
“Grandparents? Uncles? Aunts? Godparent?”
Old girlfriend?
A teenaged-type huff answers that one for me.
So now I’m not only dealing with attempted burglary and assault with a deadly weapon, but he’s got no goddamn legal guardian either. Thanks to me.
I don’t need this shit. But I don’t need him thinking I pulled the trigger, either.
“I didn’t kill your brother.”
He spits an unconvinced huff at me. “Then who did?”
I’m not about to tell him my theories. This isn’t something a minor needs to get involved with.
“I don’t know.”
Red and blue lights flash outside as a cruiser passes by, and Jimmy hits the floor. It’s not something that strikes me as odd, I mean, hellooooo, gangbanger, but still, inquiring minds want to know.
“Someone looking for you, kid?”
He checks to make sure the cops have moved along before he stands up again. He wipes his jeans but doesn’t answer me.
“If you’re worried about certain criminals coming after you, don’t. Whatever Donnie did to deserve a bullet had nothing to do with you. It’s over.”
Thomas Flint doesn’t generally hold grudges against family members and friends. It’s some warped version of a code he lives by.
“I’m not running from Flint.” Funny he knows the exact person I’m talking about, though, right?
“Then who?”
And the shrugging with this kid. I know I didn’t shrug this much when I was his age.
“Fine.” I’m done playing Doctor fucking Phil here. “You know what? I don’t really wanna know, anyway. Good luck.”
He doesn’t exactly look at me when he tells me, “He thought you were a good guy, ya know. Said he had a good feeling about you.”
Ouch.
I asked for that, I guess.
“And you would know that how, exactly?”
“I was at the race.” I should have known. Now I’m getting his full attention. “He almost felt bad taking your money.”
Turns out the kid didn’t need to shoot me with that gun. He’s doing a fine job of stabbing me in the chest with his words.
“’Course, that was before you beat him. And then turned him in.”
See what I mean?
“Hey, if you didn’t… you know…”
Murder his brother. That’s what he’s getting at.
“Maybe you could help me.” Now that’s a laugh. He doesn’t even fucking know me. “And figure out what really happened to him. Thomas didn’t have a beef with him. He was getting out. Everyone knew it.”
“Can’t.” I tell him flat out.
“Why?”
“Case is closed, kid. There’s nothing to help with.”
He lets out a bitter sigh. “Maybe you didn’t kill him,” he tells me. “but you made it possible for someone else to. Helping me is the least you could do.”
Is he kidding me with this shit?
Like I need another guilt trip today.