“What in the hell are you talking about?” King asked gently, leaning back and putting his hands on my arms.

“Justin sold you out, King. He went to Larry and told him your plan just before he was killed.”

The fury returned to King’s eyes. “That motherfucker!”

I stared at him, feeling as though I were looking at him from a great distance. “That’s why it took you so long to get Larry in hand,” I offered. “Justin gave up everything he could.”

King shot to his feet and paced around my small office. Suddenly I was struck with the thought that he looked like a panther locked in a cage, dangerous and hungry.

“Larry also said that he thought you were the reason Justin was dead,” I stated.

King stopped moving, turning toward me in slow motion. “What?”

I rose to my feet. “Did you kill Justin?” I asked baldly.

He actually looked surprised by the question. “What?”

“Did you kill Justin?” I repeated.

In a flash, he was across the office and in my face. “What the fuck are you talking about?” he growled. He was so close I could see his pupils contract to pinpoints. “Are you accusing me of murder?”

I didn’t cower. I hadn’t done it before and I’d be damned if I did it now. “You said yourself you’re not a good guy, King. I may not be a criminal mastermind, but I’m pretty sure that bad guys kill traitors.”

He blanched as though I’d slapped him across the face and took a step back. “You really think I killed him,” he muttered.

“No, King, I don’t know. That’s the problem. I don’t have a gut feeling either way because you are so fucking hard to read and you don’t talk to me about this shit. You hide things and you walk away when shit doesn’t go down the way you want it to. You scare me at times.”

“So that makes me a fuckin’ murderer?” he hissed.

“I don’t know, King. Are you?”

“Fuck you, Jena,” he snarled, throwing the same words at me that I’d thrown at him before.

Without another word, he opened the door to my office and charged out. My shaking legs wouldn’t hold me up any longer and I collapsed in my chair.

*     *     *

It wasn’t until I was back at my apartment three hours later that I realized what I’d done. It took the full three hours to calm down from being scared shitless when faced with Larry and downright furious following my confrontation with King.

Once my mind cleared, I understood exactly why King was so enraged. I’d listened to the shit Larry spit out, let it get into my head. I never would have done that with anyone else. If someone had told me when I was dating Justin that he was fucking Katie, I wouldn’t have believed it if it weren’t for the video.

Now, the first time someone had something horrible to say about King, it made me question everything about him. And Larry wasn’t the most reliable source. Just like King, he admitted he wasn’t a good guy.

I was lying on my bed, staring at the ceiling when this realization hit me. Jumping out of bed, I walked into the living room, looking for Tia. She would help me get my head on straight.

When she picked me up from work in my car, I told her I didn’t want to talk about it, that I’d explain everything later. Like the wonderful cousin she was, she accepted that without argument.

My living room was empty when I entered. I glanced around and noticed my car keys were gone and there was a note on the TV. I walked over to it and plucked it off.

Quick liquor run. Figure you’ll need tequila when you tell me what happened.

T

Shit. She wasn’t here to give me advice and I had the gnawing feeling that I needed to take action now, that waiting even another minute would be one minute too late.

I went back into the bedroom for my phone and stared at the screen for a long time, trying to figure out what I should do. Actually, I was trying to get my courage up to call King and apologize. I should have told him what Larry said and discussed it with him instead of freaking out and basically accusing him of murdering someone. I knew I would be extremely pissed off if he’d done the same to me.

As my thumb was about to hit his name in my contact list, I heard the front door open.

“Oh, Tia, thank God you’re here. I think I really fucked up,” I said as I came out of the bedroom.

I stopped short one step outside my bedroom door. My hands fell to my side and terror unlike any I’d ever known flooded my system.

Standing at the other end of the hall was Katie and she had a big black pistol in her hand, pointed straight at me.

“Holy shit,” I whispered.

Katie heard me. I knew because she grinned at me, but it wasn’t a happy smile. It was batshit crazy.

“Hey there, Jena. It’s been a while.”

Now that my shock over seeing the gun in her hand was fading a little, I noticed that she was thinner than usual, her hair stringy and in need of a good brush. Her teeth were a nasty yellow color and her eyes were super shiny. She looked like absolute shit and I realized at the same time that she was completely fucked up on something.

“Uh, yeah, Katie. Long time no see.”

The fear wasn’t easing, but I was beginning to think again, at least a little more clearly. I needed to get away from her and that scary gun or at least call for help. My phone was still in my hand but she didn’t seem to notice.

Her hand was shaky the longer she held the gun up and I wondered if she was still high or if she was coming down. Either way, she was dangerous. I had to remember that.

“Step slowly toward me,” she commanded, backing up a little.

As I did as she said, I fervently wished I had even an ounce of Tia’s skills. I had a feeling my cousin would be able to disarm Katie with very little trouble.

I was careful to keep my right side turned slightly away from Katie so she wouldn’t see my phone. I inched past her, never taking my eyes off her.

“Go sit on the couch,” she instructed me.

I did it, barely managing to keep my phone hidden as I sat down. As soon as I did, Katie came to stand slightly behind me, to the left. I could see her out of the corner of my eye as she pulled her own phone from her pocket. Her head was down and I realized she was texting someone.

If I couldn’t get away from her or get the gun, I needed to call for help. Moving very slowly, I turned my phone slightly up so I could see the edge of the screen. I hit the home key and slid my thumb across the screen to unlock it. King’s name was right beneath the pad of my finger. Pressing the speaker against my leg, I hit the call button and prayed that it wouldn’t go to voicemail.

I chanced a glance over my shoulder and saw she wasn’t even paying attention to me. I shifted experimentally to see if she would notice and her head immediately came up.

Okay, so maybe she was pretending not to watch me, but she was definitely paying attention.

“Sit still,” she snapped before looking back down at her phone.

My eyes rolled down and I could see that the call was connected. I hoped King was still listening and not about to hang up “Why are you doing this, Katie?”

“Doing what, Jena?” she asked with mock sweetness.

“Uh, holding a big handgun to my head?”

“Because I’ve always wanted to see you get what you deserve and now someone is willing to pay me a lot of fucking money to do it myself.”

Her eyes came up briefly and the look in them made a shiver shoot down my spine. Then she went back to her phone.

“What do you think I deserve?” I questioned softly.

“Shut the fuck up, bitch. I have better things to do than answer your questions. Now, where are your car keys, we’re taking a little ride.”

Relief filled me briefly. “My cousin has my car. She had to run to the store.”

“Fuck!” Katie shoved her phone in her pocket. “When is she gonna be back?”

I shrugged. “A couple of hours.” It was a lie, but I wanted to get out of here before Tia came back. In the state she was in now, I didn’t think Katie would hesitate to shoot my cousin.