“What did you tell him?” she repeated, her voice rising.
“Quiet,” Durrie said. “You’ll disturb the other guests. You don’t want this knife to accidentally slip, do you?”
“There’s no need for any of this,” Quinn said. “It’s over. We got the boxes at the hotel. The ones you had Tucker deliver. Just let it go.”
Durrie’s face hardened. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. That’s a ten-million-dollar paycheck you just took out of my pocket. Goddamn it!”
“It’s over,” Quinn said.
Durrie took several loud, angry breaths. “No,” he said. “Not even close.”
“Nobody needs to get hurt,” Quinn told him.
“I’m sorry, what?” Durrie spat the question at his former apprentice.
“We all just need to relax. No reason anyone should get hurt.”
“I didn’t start this,” Durrie said. “You did.”
His eyes moved from Quinn to Orlando.
“What are you talking about?” Orlando asked.
Durrie snorted, then shook his head. “We’re leaving now.”
As he took a step in the direction of the elevators, Quinn moved in front of him.
“Pull your head out of your ass and get out of my way,” Durrie said.
“Quinn,” Orlando said.
As Quinn looked over, she nodded. Reluctantly he stepped back.
Durrie smiled. “Thanks, Johnny.”
The older man began carrying Garrett down the corridor. As Quinn and Orlando followed him to the elevators, they could see Garrett’s eyes peeking over Durrie’s shoulder. They were moist and laced with fear and uncertainty.
Durrie stopped on the landing in front of the closed elevator doors.
“Can one of you push the Down button for me?” Durrie asked.
Neither Quinn nor Orlando moved.
“Maybe you can help me,” Durrie said to Garrett. He leaned down, close to the control panel. “Push the lower button for me.”
Garrett reached over and touched the Down button.
It took less than a minute for an empty elevator car to arrive. Durrie stepped inside, then turned.
“We’ll take this one,” he said. He moved the knife a few inches up Garrett’s back, then looked at Quinn, a mischievous smile on his face. “Perhaps, Johnny, you’d like to join us? You come with me, maybe I’ll let the boy go.”
Both Quinn and Orlando took a step toward the elevator, but Durrie shook his head.
“Just Johnny, babe.” Durrie pointed at the gun in Quinn’s hand. “Why don’t you leave that behind?”
Quinn passed the gun to Orlando.
“You carrying anything else?” Durrie asked.
“No.”
“Okay then.” Durrie motioned for Quinn to step inside.
As Quinn got onto the elevator, he glanced back at Orlando. The same fear and terror he’d seen in Garrett’s eyes were in hers, too. Only there was more. Hatred and helplessness and fury.
The door closed, and she was gone.
Immediately Durrie set Garrett down. But instead of punching a button on the console, he let the elevator sit where it was for a moment, unmoving. He replaced the knife with the pistol, closing the blade and putting it in his pocket.
“You created a big mess for me,” Durrie said, his voice surprisingly light, almost playful. “I wasn’t sure at first whether to be proud or pissed off. Given the cash I’m out now, I think pissed off is the better choice.”
Quinn looked at him, saying nothing.
“But I’m going to give you a chance here, Johnny boy. The opportunity to clean things up for me, and make up for your betrayal. It’s just a little sacrifice for my employers. Your head in a box should be enough. Don’t worry, I’ll kill you myself. No more fuckups. I’ll even make you a promise. When I’m done, I’ll let Garrett go back to his mom.”
“But Mommy’s too busy,” Garrett said.
“It’s okay. Grown-up talk, all right?”
Garrett nodded slowly, then leaned against Durrie’s leg.
“What did you tell him?”
“I told him his mom didn’t have time to take care of him, so he was going to be with me now.”
“You’re a bastard,” Quinn said softly.
“Better that he learn about betrayal early. Hell, I’ve already been a better father to him than you’ve ever been.”
The comment stopped Quinn. He looked questioningly at Durrie, but his mentor only laughed.
“I saw you die,” Quinn said.
“You saw what I wanted you to see,” Durrie said.
“I saw the bullets hit you.”
“You heard a gun fired into a stack of boxes. What you saw was a couple of jerks from me, and the contents of a bag of blood. That’s it. You never even checked my wounds. Ortega didn’t give you enough time before he knocked you out.”
Ortega, the third member of their team. Of course he’d been in on it, too. “But I did check your pulse. There was none.”
“Come on, Johnny. There are dozens of drugs that’ll stop your heart. Me, I was more worried about getting it going again. Thankfully, Ortega was standing by with a shot of adrenaline.”
Quinn knew they’d been idle long enough without entering a destination that the elevator had probably reset itself, allowing it to go either up or down. He reached out quickly and pushed the button for the floor above them. The elevator began to lurch upward.
“Cute,” Durrie said. “But it’s not going to change anything.”
Garrett turned toward his father, burying his face against Durrie. Quinn thought he heard the boy sobbing, but it was faint.
“You said I betrayed you. Why would you think that?” Quinn asked, ignoring the comment.
“Don’t fuck with me.”
“Don’t accuse me of something I haven’t done,” Quinn said. Then a thought hit him. “It’s Orlando, isn’t it? You think something happened between us. Nothing has ever happened between us.”
Durrie snorted. “I was blind to it at first, you know,” he said. “For all I know, you two had been carrying on for years. Then Mexico City gave you away.”
“It was just a job,” Quinn said. “Nothing happened. Orlando told you that. She wasn’t lying, dammit.”
Durrie laughed. “Oh, I pretended to believe her, but I’m not stupid, Johnny. You two alone, sharing a room, and nothing happened? Right. You don’t get something like this from sleeping on the floor.”
The elevator car slowed to a stop and the doors opened.
“Wait,” Quinn said. “You think Garrett’s my son?”
“Of course he’s your son. That’s what you get when you fuck my girl.”
Quinn couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Garrett is your son. I’ve never touched Orlando, not like you’re saying.”
“Don’t even try that bullshit. This isn’t fucking high school, Johnny. And I’m not a stupid idiot.”
The doors to the elevator started to close again. Quinn reached out to keep them open, then flipped the stop switch on the panel as he stepped quickly into the open doorway. He faced Durrie.
“What’s that going to buy you?” Durrie asked.
“A moment to talk.”
Garrett was crying openly now.
“Shut up,” Durrie snapped at the boy. Garrett only began crying louder. Durrie shot a look at Quinn. “Tell your kid to knock it off.”
“Garrett,” Quinn said gently, “everything’s going to be all right. Okay?”
The boy said nothing, but after a moment his cries diminished to a soft sob.
“Nothing ever happened between Orlando and me. Nothing. I haven’t even seen her for four years.”
“See what I mean about being a bad father?”
Quinn’s eyes narrowed. “If I had a son, I would never do that to him.”
“You didn’t have a choice. With me gone, you probably thought Orlando would be all yours. But you were wrong, weren’t you? Once I was dead, she couldn’t deal with being with you any longer. She probably took off without even telling you where she was going, didn’t she?” Durrie laughed. “You’ve got to know the way your woman thinks. I guess that’s one more thing I’m still better at than you.”