He walked back to the door, his shoulders set back and standing up tall at his full six-four height. If he wanted, he could fight me and run. However, we both knew how that would end. I’d been known to take men down twice my size.

Johnny opened the door, keeping his body outside as he shouted inside. “I’m headed out, babe.”

“At this time of night, Johnny?” Her high-pitched voice scraped against my eardrums.

I put my gun away, no longer needing an anchor so I could deal with mild annoyances.

“Don’t start, Linda.”

Johnny stepped back and glanced over his shoulder. Our eyes met briefly before he let the screen door close and headed for the back gate. Footsteps came from inside the suburban home before the back door was slammed open.

“When will you be back?” Linda shouted. Her bright green eyes landed on me, and understanding clicked. Her pink-painted lips pressed together in a fine line. “The boys—”

“Linda, get back in the house,” Johnny snapped.

She looked ready to argue, her pleading eyes never straying from me. “Boys need their father.”

If she thought she was pulling at my heartstrings, she’d be sorely mistaken. I wasn’t sure I even had one.

“Linda, go back in, please.”

She stared at me for a bit longer before she turned to her husband. Heartfelt goodbyes were another thing I didn’t understand about humans. She knew this day was coming. Even if it wasn’t me bringing death to her door, it would be something else. A car crash, a heart attack, anything.

“Johnny.” Linda’s voice broke, and Johnny glanced my way.

I showed nothing, neither caring if he drew this out or hurried it along. Either way, his end was near, and it would be at my hands.

He turned and marched over to her and pulled her taut against him. He was a good foot taller than her. Where Johnny looked as if he was in his mid-forties, Linda still had the youthful look of a twenty-year-old. I was nothing more than an observer. She clung to him, desperation in her eyes as he continued to peek at me.

She whispered to her husband, but it meant nothing. Johnny knew the result. He’d signed the dotted line. And I was there to collect.

Johnny pulled away and cleared his throat. “Get back in the house. I love you.”

Linda sighed and covered her mouth. Tears rolled down her cheeks and disappeared behind her hand. She turned away and hurried into the house. The door slammed shut, and Johnny let out a heavy sigh of his own. He stared at the house for another second before he turned away and headed toward the back gate.

He stopped and looked at me. I knew he would make some kind of demand. They always did.

“My family stays out of this.”

“That’s up to you,” I answered truthfully.

He turned and stared at me. Maybe if I was a child, his hard look would have scared me. But he was nothing more than a man who was used to having power and was now powerless.