Chapter 6: The Interrogation
The man on the right lunged forward, his hand darting toward his shoulder holster, but he misjudged the slickness of the muddy logging track. His boots slipped out from under him before his fingers could clear leather, sending him sprawling hard into the wet gravel. I didn't hesitate. I closed the distance in two long strides, my boots heavy against the ground, and pinned his shoulder down with the heel of my boot before he could roll over.
The other man froze, his hands hovering waist-high in the damp air. He was younger, maybe late twenties, with a nervous twitch in his jaw that the pale fog light caught all too clearly.
"Don't," I said, my voice low and level, cutting through the low hum of the idling sedan. "We aren't here to play games out in the mud. Tell me where Elena is holding the secondary ledger, and tell me now."
"I don't know what you're talking about," the standing man spat, though his voice lacked conviction. He kept glancing down at his partner writhing beneath my boot. "Elena's long gone. You missed her by an hour."
"She doesn't move that fast," I replied, applying a fraction more pressure to the shoulder beneath my sole. A sharp grunt escaped the man on the ground. "She relies on checkpoints. Which means she’s hooped up at the old rail depot past the ridge. Now, are you going to give me the keys to your car, or am I going to walk you both back to the sheriff?"
The standing man swallowed hard, his eyes darting from my face to the dark tinted windows of my SUV where Leo was still sleeping soundly under my coat. He realized, in that quiet moment, that I wasn't just a retired mechanic or a quiet local father; I was the ghost they had spent five years trying to hunt down. Slowly, with deliberate slowness, he reached into his coat pocket, pulled out a heavy brass key ring, and dropped it straight into the mud at my feet.
"The depot's locked," he muttered, stepping back into the shadow of the sedan. "And she left a welcoming committee just for you."
May you like
"I've always liked company," I said, scooping up the keys and stepping off his partner's chest with a sharp twist of my heel.
I left them standing in the freezing fog, their boots ruined and their pride fractured, and walked back to the SUV. I climbed behind the wheel, started the engine, and shifted into gear. My heart pounded against my ribs, steady and hard, a rhythm I hadn't felt since the days I walked away from the syndicate for good. Elena wanted a final accounting, and I was finally ready to give it to her.
