BooksBarbecue
Back We Were Killers Once
Chapters (65)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Notice
  3. Dedication
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. Twelve
  16. Thirteen
  17. Fourteen
  18. Fifteen
  19. Sixteen
  20. Seventeen
  21. Eighteen
  22. Nineteen
  23. Twenty
  24. Twenty–one
  25. Twenty–two
  26. Twenty–three
  27. Twenty–four
  28. Twenty–five
  29. Twenty–six
  30. Twenty–seven
  31. Twenty–eight
  32. Twenty–nine
  33. Thirty
  34. Thirty–one
  35. Thirty–two
  36. Thirty–three
  37. Thirty–four
  38. Thirty–five
  39. Thirty–six
  40. Thirty–seven
  41. Thirty–eight
  42. Thirty–nine
  43. Forty
  44. Forty–one
  45. Forty–two
  46. Forty–three
  47. Forty–four
  48. Forty–five
  49. Forty–six
  50. Forty–seven
  51. Forty–eight
  52. Forty–nine
  53. Fifty
  54. Fifty–one
  55. Fifty–two
  56. Fifty–three
  57. Fifty–four
  58. Fifty–five
  59. Fifty–six
  60. Fifty–seven
  61. Author’s Note
  62. Acknowledgments
  63. Also by Becky Masterman
  64. About the Author
  65. Newsletter Sign-up

She spoke calmly, reasonably. “If you don’t want to give up, then just go. You’ve got a head start. I don’t care what happens to you and I won’t follow. Leave Carlo alone.”

“That doesn’t seem like the smartest course of action,” Beaufort choked.

“Yeah, you’re a good judge of smart,” her voice whipped over the line.

“Fuck you,” Beaufort said, anger taking over.

There was another pause and then her voice continued, calm and cold again. “Do me one favor. Put me on speaker so I can hear his voice again and make sure he’s okay. What harm can I do, right?”

Beaufort agreed and pressed the button. Her voice continued. “Hello, Perfesser.”

“Hello, O’Hari.”

“Has he hurt you?”

“No. I’m okay. You just take care of getting back safely and I’ll handle things at this end.”

Then it got a little weird, from Beaufort’s way of thinking, when she said, “Hey, I’m sorry if I’ve ever been an idiot.”

“You haven’t, I have,” Carlo said. “An insensitive, unconsciously cruel idiot.”

“Okay, you win,” she said. “I love you anyway.”

There was a pause, and then Brigid went on, speaking to Beaufort while Carlo listened. “All right, then. You and I are going to make a deal. The confession for Carlo, simple exchange. But Jeremiah Beaufort, if anything happens to that man, the law can do their thing, but I’ll personally hunt you down no matter where you go. I’ve done it before and I know how to find you better than you know how to hide.” Her voice got as cold and soft as frost on the ground. “And then I won’t kill you. I’ll keep you alive. Maybe for years. It will be my only remaining pleasure.”

Beaufort didn’t know how every last thing was going to play out, but he thought he could see the next step now that he knew Quinn had the confession. He had the time to think while the woman made her way to Tucson. There was that. “I won’t hurt him,” he told her. “Right now I don’t have any reason to. We both want the same things. Get here and then we can figure out how to make the exchange.” He prided himself on regaining his composure, and already starting to think of a plan. “And you can threaten me all you want, but if I see one funny light out front or hear so much as one chopper blade overhead I’ll know I’ve got nothing to lose. You know what happens when a man has nothing to lose, I bet.” There was no response so he finished, “I’m going to hang up now and won’t be taking calls on this phone again.”

“You have a cell number? Give me that in case I need to reach you.”