Dangerous Game

“Why should I trust you?” She screamed in a whisper.

“Because you won’t get him back. He never gave her back to me…” He replied morosely, eyes downcast.

Ginnie staggered back a step. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” She demanded, knowing full well the reason behind his words.

“He never let my wife go. He killed her and didn’t tell me. I kept trying to get her back, I did everything he asked, followed his instructions to the letter.”

“How do you know it’s a him?” She accused. “How do you know it’s anyone at all?”

“There’s always someone. I just assumed you had some beau…” Liam answered.

She stood stiffly, staring intently at Liam. She could hear the soft clinking of the links of his handcuffs as he adjusted and readjusted, trying to find a position to relieve the burning sensation of the cuffs chafing against the skin on his wrists. There was a sizeable goose egg on the side of his head where Ginnie’d knocked him out last night. The area on his face where his nose sat was caked with dried blood and there was an ugly bruise along his cheekbone. Ginnie flexed her fingers. She could feel the cracked skin from punching the dirt bag currently under her careful scrutiny.

“There’s always someone…” He repeated, more to himself this time, eyes glazing over as they stared unseeingly into space.

Making a sudden decision, Ginnie strode around the back of Liam’s chair. She pulled the small, sliver key out of her jeans pocket and slid it into the small lock of the handcuffs. With a click, the cuffs fell open. Ginnie heard the slight sigh of relief as Liam pulled his hands to rest on his lap in front of him. His shoulders would be sore after hours in his handcuffed position. She could see him rubbing his forearms, coaxing the blood back into his fingertips.

For another second, she watched Liam from behind. Then she walked back in front of him. She thrust her hands out, grabbing his collar. With an almighty pull, she hoisted him from his seat, pivoted, and slammed him against the wall. She watched him gasp as the tears sprang up, the eyes went blank and rolled back, and the jaw went slack. She’d knocked the wind out of him, judging from the way he was sucking in air.

“You listen to me, Liam,” she started, her voice dangerously low, “I don’t trust you. Not even as far as I can throw you. I think you’re among the most undeserving filth on the face of this earth.”

“Then why am I still alive?” he gasped.

Growling, Ginnie pulled him back and threw him into the wall again. “Dammit, you keep your mouth shut unless I say otherwise, understand?” Ginnie asked, even though it was rhetorical. She removed one hand from his collar and pulled her gun out of the holster on her hip, shoving it against Liam’s temple. “Now. I’m willing to give you a chance because neither one of us has any options.”

Liam seemed to relax a little.

“But,” Ginnie added, making him tense up once more, “if you screw it up…”

Pausing her speech, Ginnie squeezed the trigger on her gun. Click. Liam flinched.

“I don’t think I have to tell you the next time I do that, the gun will be loaded.”

Liam shook his head. Ginnie dropped him and holstered her gun. She exhaled through her nose and slowly let him slide down to the ground. Ginnie checked her watch. It’d been too long. Almost two hours since she’d come in. Playing cat and mouse took too much time, and she was starting to get sick of games anyway. But Liam didn’t seem to know that.

“So who’d he take?”

“What?” Ginnie snapped.

“Who’s so damn important to you that you’d risk your life, and mine?”

Ginnie dropped her head and looked away.

“My father.”

A harsh laugh issued from Liam, making Ginnie jump.

“You honestly think that he’s let your father, of all people, live? You’re more naïve than I thought. He’s no more alive than my wife is,” he finished bitterly.

“Want a bet?” Ginnie asked darkly.