Page 85 of Shai

nothing but grieve. And he’d been good at it too. World class actors had nothing on him. He’d even had me convinced at times. In private, it had been an entirely different matter, but I was the only one who got to see that. Shai’s men saw whatever he wanted them to see.

The car slowed to a stop and I turned my attention back to the matter at

hand as I scanned the dark street. “Which corner?”

Wyatt lifted an arm to point to one on the right-hand side. “Usually that

one.” He paused, finally seeming to find an ounce of belligerence from somewhere. “Shai normally likes to handle this sort of thing himself. He should be here.”

“Yeah, well…” I reached for the door handle. “Times change. You

change with it or you get left behind.”

Taylor shifted, clearly signposting his intention to get out of the car. “Stay.” I made no attempt to soften my delivery of the word. “Both of

you.”

Wyatt frowned. “Shai wouldn’t—”

I gave an exaggerated look around. “Can you see Shai? Is he here?” I

didn’t bother giving him the opportunity to answer. “I thought not. He left this to me. If he’d wanted you to be in charge, he would have left it to you.”

I got out of the car before either man could aggravate me further,

heading for the corner Wyatt had indicated. It would have been all too easy for Wyatt or Taylor to put a bullet in my back. I wasn’t fooling myself that it hadn’t occurred to them. They probably had a story already concocted to explain my unfortunate accident. Despite that knowledge, I refused to give them the satisfaction of looking back, breathing a little easier once I’d put some distance between myself and the car.

The corner was empty when I reached it. That was all I needed—a fucking wasted trip.

“Looking for me?”

The voice came from the mouth of an alleyway. Even knowing that, it took me a while to locate the voice’s origin, mainly because its owner was dressed all in black. The only pale spot was his face, and even that I didn’t pick up on until he turned his head enough to catch the streetlight. “Depends.”

“On what?”

“What’ve you got?”

He looked left and right before slowly making his way toward me, inclining his head in the direction of the parked car I’d just left. “They with you?”

“Yeah! Figured you’d get squirmy if I brought an entourage.”

He nodded, coming to a stop in front of me. “Well, you can’t be too careful.”

He couldn’t have been a day over twenty, the stubble on his chin hinting at him trying to grow a beard and failing miserably. Fucking idiot! I refused to engage with the fact that I’d once been that idiot. That had been another person, and another time. “You’re right. You can’t be too careful. So… what you got?”

He patted his pockets. “I got everything, man…. Zoop, Squeal, Void. You name it, I got it. I can give you a good price as well. You know, introductory offer and all that. I like to treat my first-time customers well. That way, I know they’re gonna come back.”

My mind had stalled on the word “Void,” yearning filling me the same way as it always did whenever it was mentioned. I could almost taste it, could almost feel its cold caress as it filled my bloodstream. I hadn’t touched it since Shai had forced me into going cold turkey, but that didn’t mean I didn’t want to. The craving never seemed to get any easier.

“You all right, man? You’re sweating.”

I refocused to find him peering into my face with undisguised curiosity.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I wiped my sleeve across my forehead, suddenly having zero interest in dragging this out any longer. “You shouldn’t have come to this city. Shai doesn’t take kindly to people operating on his turf.”

He let out a snort. “Shai! Shai can kiss my—” He didn’t get any further as I pulled the gun from my waistband,

pressed it against his gut, and pulled the trigger. For a moment, his expression was one of confusion. It wasn’t until he lowered his hand to his abdomen and his fingers came away wet that he worked out what had happened. He slid slowly down the wall until his ass met the ground, his gaze fastening on the gun in my hand. “Why?”