Reaper looked over at me, eyes wide and rubbing his ears. Shocked, maybe? “Damn, boss. I thought I was going to kill him.”

“You take too long,” I said flatly and shook my head. Putting the gun back in its holster, I turned on my heel to walk away and shake off my frustration.

Fallon was connected to something; I could feel it. The puzzle pieces felt like they fit together somehow, and I was scrambling to catch up with the others who saw more than I did. She’s the Montgomery girl I need to ‘stay away from’, there is a girl named Rose being surveilled, and there seems to be even dirtier business in the underworld than I could have dreamed of. My sources weren’t providing what I wanted them to, and I decided to start pushing them more.

Something, somewhere, was fucked and I couldn’t figure out what it was. My next plan of attack was meeting with The Dictator and begging for a better position within the company or cleaning myself up enough to prove that I can work well with others. Anything to bring me in closer.

I was tired of being seen like the black sheep. The disappointing bastard that showed up on his doorstep about two decades ago. The face that reminded him of his dead daughter. I planned to prove myself or die trying by getting him the information he looked for–even if I didn’t know what his meetings were about or what knowledge he had.

I also needed to make my plan for catching Blondie off guard. Maybe some light kidnapping.

“Reaper?” I asked into the room.

“Yeah, boss?”

“Find out what you can about what he just said and make him disappear.”

​Chapter 11

Fallon

Homework began early in the semester, considering I’d chosen to take online classes to get more out of my weeks with Kelly. They started early with reading assignments. Fall was the perfect season to have free days for exploring and have late nights for scrambling to finish classwork. I loved Halloween and I would not be missing out on the adventures of spooky season.

Every year we had a tradition of corn mazes, haunted houses, scary movie marathons, and a lot of candy.

No exceptions.

“How are your assignments going?” Kelly poked her head over her laptop.

“I finished most of my work, but I got a head start so we have time to dick around this week without worrying about some of these assignments. This year is going to be crazy since I’m going to play catch up with my classes now that I must change my major because some businessman told me I’m obligated to.” I shoved a sour gummy worm into my mouth.