The Clean Ones

Chapter 23

P.

I had him exactly where I needed him to be.

He didn't expect me to appear so suddenly, I'm sure. I'm also sure that he didn't expect me to appear with a pistol pointed at his head, and my thumb grazing the trigger.

Oh, how sweet revenge is.

I had pushed the rim of the gun so deep into his forehead that it caused him to buckle to his knees and remain in a sitting position on the ground. "Get up!" I barked, removing the pistol from his forehead and allowing him to shakily get to his feet.

"So, Mr. Collins- if that is your true name-"

"See here, Miss Bennett," he interrupted. "If you'd give me two damn seconds, I could explain-"

"Not. Necessary. I don't want to discuss it. Are we clear?"

He started to nod, but quickly changed his answer. "No, Perri, we're not clear-"

"Really?" I said with a laugh. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yeah, I'm damn sure." He retorted. "Perri, you can't run away from this, we need to talk about it."

"Shut up." I commanded and brought the pistol up again. "Now, you're either going to listen to me, or you can have a chat with my little friend here," I twirled the pistol around in my fingers. "So, which will it be?"

He was silent for a moment. Well, longer than just a moment, actually. He was still for a long while. But I waited. I stood there, arms crossed, with the pistol dangling at my side. Cale's eyes did not meet mine once. They remained locked on the ground below him, until he finally answered, "Fine, Perri. I'll do what you say."

"Thank you!" I said with a smile. "Now start walking. I'll direct you from there."

The walk from the plaza all the way to the government building felt longer than usual. Cale didn't say a word the entire way there, which I was thankful for. I couldn't risk him saying anything. Cale walked in front of me. His head was held high upon his shoulders the whole walk. It wasn't until now that I realized how tall he actually was. He was well over six feet tall, and stood about a good foot taller than me. Despite his tall, muscular frame, he didn't intimidate me. I knew that I could take him on if I needed to. I would prevail in a fight against him.

"Alright, stop." I commanded once we reached the front of the government building. Cale halted, and I could see him tense up as he heard me whip out the pistol from my side, click the bullet into place, and hold it up to the back of his neck once more. "Just go with it," I whispered in his ear. "Just follow my lead and try to stay alive, got it?"

He chuckled. "Sounds easy enough."

I didn't reply. I just nudged him forward with the barrel of my gun. We entered into the familiar lobby of the government building, the same one we had both been through several times before. I shuddered at the thought of Liam's trial. I could've sworn I felt Cale give off a slight shiver through the barrel of my gun, too.

The receptionist did not perform her routine introduction of "Hellos" and "welcomes". She did not even utter a single word to indicate that she noticed us enter her lobby. She was smarter than that. As we passed by her desk, I saw her give me a subtle nod, one that could've easily been overlooked, had I not known better.

I brought Cale over to the third elevator in a row of five. Each elevator went to a different, designated set of floors. The third one, however, was assigned to only one floor- the highest floor in the skyscraper building. Exactly where we needed to go.

I pressed the general elevator button and pressed the code corresponding to that particular floor into the keypad beside the door. It took promptly five seconds before the buzzer above the elevator sounded, and the doors opened to reveal a lavish wood-and-velvet interior. I didn't need to shove Cale forward for him to get the message. He continued forward into the elevator. I checked behind both shoulders to make sure nobody was following us before I followed him inside.