He laced his fingers together and put them under his chin. He watched me unblinkingly and I wished he were easier to read. I felt like he was toying with me and I had to fight the urge to squirm under his scrutiny.
“Booker ran down the plan you had to bring Goddard down before the girl came forward with her story. I was already impressed with how quickly you stripped him of his office and how thoroughly you decimated his reputation. You never exhibited that ruthless streak in any of the other endeavors you took on for me. Frankly, I didn’t know you had it in you.” I shouldn’t feel the shot of pride that zipped through me when he said he was impressed, but I did. Nassir wasn’t impressed by much. “I’d like to see more of it.”
“Taking Goddard down mattered to me.” Sometimes justice wasn’t blind. Sometimes it could see crystal clear.
“What if I told you that your skill set, the way you get to men in power, is something I could use? There are places I can’t reach, things I can’t control, but if you do for me what you intended for Goddard, well,” he rocked back in his chair. “I would be unstoppable. I could take control of the Hill as well as the Point. I could make significant changes to both.”
I closed my eyes briefly and turned his words over in my head. “Are you asking me to be your digital assassin, Nassir?”
He chuckled softly and leaned forward so he could put his hands on his desk. “I am asking you to help me take the power from men who have done nothing to deserve it. I always knew there was more to you than your ability to hack into bank accounts and do background checks. You are an asset, Stark. Some men deserve to die and some men deserve to simply wish they were dead. I enjoy the idea of ruining lives without bloodshed. It is a very marketable skill. I see dollar signs when I close my eyes and imagine it.”
I watched him carefully as I lifted my hand to my mouth and rubbed my thumb along my bottom lip. “Are you going to kill me if I turn you down?”
It was a fair question, but I was surprised at the way it made his eyes flicker in annoyance. “No. I still have use for you either way.” And since I owed him, he would work me until I couldn’t see straight. He was a businessman, after all.
I met his gaze but shifted uneasily in my seat. “Titus asked me to help him out at the station. Now that most of the bad apples have been shaken from the tree, he’s pushing the department forward into this century. He needs my help with that. It’s honest work, above board.”
His dark head tilted to the side as he considered me silently. After a long moment he asked, “Does it matter what side you’re on as long as you believe in what you’re doing? There is no black or white in this scenario, Stark. We are all making the best of the gray that surrounds us.”
I exhaled and put my hands on my knees as I leaned toward his desk. “Look, Nassir.” I rolled my shoulders and looked back to the live action porno playing behind his head. “Poking around the Internet, looking at bank records, and digging into people’s backgrounds is nothing. If I start messing with the big picture, start exposing your enemies and making life difficult for them, the people I’ve been trying to fool for years will come knocking. At least if I’m working with the police, they can’t threaten me with jail. They can’t scare me by threatening to hurt Noe. They won’t have a reason to come after me.”
Nassir got to his feet and unbuttoned his suit jacket. He crossed his hands behind his back and started to pace back and forth on the other side of the desk that separated us. He was looking at his feet instead of me when he quietly told me, “The feds don’t need a reason to come for you, Stark. They think they own you, that you’re their property, and if they decide they want you back, they will come for you no matter where you are or what you’re doing. Wouldn’t you rather have both me and the cop at your back? Why not cover all your bases?”
I was so stunned that he knew my story, I couldn’t speak. I gaped at him wordlessly as he paused mid-step and turned on me. He put his hands on the center of his desk and leaned forward, his body coiled and tense under his perfectly tailored suit.
“I know what it’s like to be ripped from your life by the supposed good guys. I know what it’s like to be turned into a weapon, into a cold-blooded killer. I had my humanity stripped from me and I fought to get it back.”
“How . . . what do you know?” I was still stunned and having a hard time making my words work.
“Race told me you disappeared one day. That your family was pulled apart. He also told me that the government showed an unnatural interest in you from the start. That they had an agenda where you were concerned. Been there, done that. I believed the promises I was told as well. One more mission. One more assignment. One more kill. I owed them. It was my duty. It was all for the greater good.” He scoffed, and for a second, I saw everywhere he’d been and everything he’d done to become the man standing in front of me now. I never would have guessed that I had something in common with Nassir Gates, but there it was, the same things in our past that made us cold and emotionless until the right person came along and rattled all the rusty metal that caged us. “I won’t let them take you out from under my nose, Stark. Neither will the cop. You have us at your back, whether you want us there or not. You are one of the few things King and I agree on.”
I rubbed my hands over my short hair and shoved down the lump that had clogged my throat. “That sounds like you think of me as more than an asset.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “You are one of my people. I do what it takes to keep what is mine safe.”
“You and the cop sound more alike than either of you realize.” They had the same mission, only they went at it from drastically different angles.
“Work with me, Stark. If you do, I’ll make sure you and your girl want for nothing. When I first landed in the Point, I went looking for papers. I needed a new identity. I needed to become the man who was going to make his mark here. Your girl is good; she’s been helping rich kids and scared runaways become other people for a long time. I can use someone like her on the payroll. She won’t have to hide in the shadows and slink through the dark. I’ll make this work for all of us.”
I doubted she would take him up on the offer. My little thief didn’t answer to anyone and she wasn’t for sale. I would appreciate having her under Nassir’s protection and knowing she was safely tucked away in his pocket, but I had a feeling she would feel stifled there. The last thing I wanted was for her to push against someone who was so willing to push back. “Let me run it by Noe and see what she says.”
I wasn’t alone anymore. I wasn’t sleepwalking. I was wide awake and present in every single moment. She had given me my purpose back. She had reminded me of my worth. She kept saying that she had taken her dignity back, but I told her she’d never lost it. She was the most dignified person I’d ever met. She made me believe I was special, not because I was always the smartest guy in the room, not because I was the biggest or the best, but because I was me. She didn’t mind that I was quiet and often thinking. She didn’t care that I wasn’t smooth or sophisticated. She didn’t cower away from my bad dreams or the fact my sluggish heart was struggling to keep up with her.
“One lesson I’ve learned and learned well is that there cannot be heroes without villains. You have to have one in order to appreciate the qualities in the other.” Nassir’s words rang oddly true.
“What about someone who hovers between the two? Someone who plays either role when it suits him? What’s there to appreciate about someone like that?” I straddled the line daily, drifting either direction depending on the day and the circumstance.
“You appreciate his intelligence because that is a smart, smart man. Anyone who can play both sides is someone you don’t want to underestimate.”
I got to my feet and inclined my chin in his direction. “You let me have veto power. I get to choose when and where I work. If I decide the target isn’t worth the time or effort, you let me opt out, no questions asked.”
I thought he would refuse. He wasn’t a guy who gave anyone else any of the power. Slowly, he nodded and moved to cross his arms over his chest. “Anything else?”
“I’m not going to be a ping pong ball between you and the cop. What I do for you stays here and what I do for him stays at the station, even if it’s something that might hurt your business. I’m not going to betray either of you. I won’t.”
Nassir snorted, the sound weirdly elegant as he lifted his eyebrows at me. “You do remember Titus’s very pregnant girlfriend is on my payroll? We might not like each other, and we definitely don’t agree with how the other handles their business, but we are acutely aware of the fact that we need each other. I won’t pit you against the cop, and I assure you, he won’t use you to try and hang me.”
Pushing my luck, I told him, “I need to have access to the target’s computer. I need someone small, nimble, and quick on their feet. Someone who knows their way around electronics.” Someone fearless and clever.
“Booker ran down the plan you had to bring Goddard down before the girl came forward with her story. I was already impressed with how quickly you stripped him of his office and how thoroughly you decimated his reputation. You never exhibited that ruthless streak in any of the other endeavors you took on for me. Frankly, I didn’t know you had it in you.” I shouldn’t feel the shot of pride that zipped through me when he said he was impressed, but I did. Nassir wasn’t impressed by much. “I’d like to see more of it.”
“Taking Goddard down mattered to me.” Sometimes justice wasn’t blind. Sometimes it could see crystal clear.
“What if I told you that your skill set, the way you get to men in power, is something I could use? There are places I can’t reach, things I can’t control, but if you do for me what you intended for Goddard, well,” he rocked back in his chair. “I would be unstoppable. I could take control of the Hill as well as the Point. I could make significant changes to both.”
I closed my eyes briefly and turned his words over in my head. “Are you asking me to be your digital assassin, Nassir?”
He chuckled softly and leaned forward so he could put his hands on his desk. “I am asking you to help me take the power from men who have done nothing to deserve it. I always knew there was more to you than your ability to hack into bank accounts and do background checks. You are an asset, Stark. Some men deserve to die and some men deserve to simply wish they were dead. I enjoy the idea of ruining lives without bloodshed. It is a very marketable skill. I see dollar signs when I close my eyes and imagine it.”
I watched him carefully as I lifted my hand to my mouth and rubbed my thumb along my bottom lip. “Are you going to kill me if I turn you down?”
It was a fair question, but I was surprised at the way it made his eyes flicker in annoyance. “No. I still have use for you either way.” And since I owed him, he would work me until I couldn’t see straight. He was a businessman, after all.
I met his gaze but shifted uneasily in my seat. “Titus asked me to help him out at the station. Now that most of the bad apples have been shaken from the tree, he’s pushing the department forward into this century. He needs my help with that. It’s honest work, above board.”
His dark head tilted to the side as he considered me silently. After a long moment he asked, “Does it matter what side you’re on as long as you believe in what you’re doing? There is no black or white in this scenario, Stark. We are all making the best of the gray that surrounds us.”
I exhaled and put my hands on my knees as I leaned toward his desk. “Look, Nassir.” I rolled my shoulders and looked back to the live action porno playing behind his head. “Poking around the Internet, looking at bank records, and digging into people’s backgrounds is nothing. If I start messing with the big picture, start exposing your enemies and making life difficult for them, the people I’ve been trying to fool for years will come knocking. At least if I’m working with the police, they can’t threaten me with jail. They can’t scare me by threatening to hurt Noe. They won’t have a reason to come after me.”
Nassir got to his feet and unbuttoned his suit jacket. He crossed his hands behind his back and started to pace back and forth on the other side of the desk that separated us. He was looking at his feet instead of me when he quietly told me, “The feds don’t need a reason to come for you, Stark. They think they own you, that you’re their property, and if they decide they want you back, they will come for you no matter where you are or what you’re doing. Wouldn’t you rather have both me and the cop at your back? Why not cover all your bases?”
I was so stunned that he knew my story, I couldn’t speak. I gaped at him wordlessly as he paused mid-step and turned on me. He put his hands on the center of his desk and leaned forward, his body coiled and tense under his perfectly tailored suit.
“I know what it’s like to be ripped from your life by the supposed good guys. I know what it’s like to be turned into a weapon, into a cold-blooded killer. I had my humanity stripped from me and I fought to get it back.”
“How . . . what do you know?” I was still stunned and having a hard time making my words work.
“Race told me you disappeared one day. That your family was pulled apart. He also told me that the government showed an unnatural interest in you from the start. That they had an agenda where you were concerned. Been there, done that. I believed the promises I was told as well. One more mission. One more assignment. One more kill. I owed them. It was my duty. It was all for the greater good.” He scoffed, and for a second, I saw everywhere he’d been and everything he’d done to become the man standing in front of me now. I never would have guessed that I had something in common with Nassir Gates, but there it was, the same things in our past that made us cold and emotionless until the right person came along and rattled all the rusty metal that caged us. “I won’t let them take you out from under my nose, Stark. Neither will the cop. You have us at your back, whether you want us there or not. You are one of the few things King and I agree on.”
I rubbed my hands over my short hair and shoved down the lump that had clogged my throat. “That sounds like you think of me as more than an asset.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “You are one of my people. I do what it takes to keep what is mine safe.”
“You and the cop sound more alike than either of you realize.” They had the same mission, only they went at it from drastically different angles.
“Work with me, Stark. If you do, I’ll make sure you and your girl want for nothing. When I first landed in the Point, I went looking for papers. I needed a new identity. I needed to become the man who was going to make his mark here. Your girl is good; she’s been helping rich kids and scared runaways become other people for a long time. I can use someone like her on the payroll. She won’t have to hide in the shadows and slink through the dark. I’ll make this work for all of us.”
I doubted she would take him up on the offer. My little thief didn’t answer to anyone and she wasn’t for sale. I would appreciate having her under Nassir’s protection and knowing she was safely tucked away in his pocket, but I had a feeling she would feel stifled there. The last thing I wanted was for her to push against someone who was so willing to push back. “Let me run it by Noe and see what she says.”
I wasn’t alone anymore. I wasn’t sleepwalking. I was wide awake and present in every single moment. She had given me my purpose back. She had reminded me of my worth. She kept saying that she had taken her dignity back, but I told her she’d never lost it. She was the most dignified person I’d ever met. She made me believe I was special, not because I was always the smartest guy in the room, not because I was the biggest or the best, but because I was me. She didn’t mind that I was quiet and often thinking. She didn’t care that I wasn’t smooth or sophisticated. She didn’t cower away from my bad dreams or the fact my sluggish heart was struggling to keep up with her.
“One lesson I’ve learned and learned well is that there cannot be heroes without villains. You have to have one in order to appreciate the qualities in the other.” Nassir’s words rang oddly true.
“What about someone who hovers between the two? Someone who plays either role when it suits him? What’s there to appreciate about someone like that?” I straddled the line daily, drifting either direction depending on the day and the circumstance.
“You appreciate his intelligence because that is a smart, smart man. Anyone who can play both sides is someone you don’t want to underestimate.”
I got to my feet and inclined my chin in his direction. “You let me have veto power. I get to choose when and where I work. If I decide the target isn’t worth the time or effort, you let me opt out, no questions asked.”
I thought he would refuse. He wasn’t a guy who gave anyone else any of the power. Slowly, he nodded and moved to cross his arms over his chest. “Anything else?”
“I’m not going to be a ping pong ball between you and the cop. What I do for you stays here and what I do for him stays at the station, even if it’s something that might hurt your business. I’m not going to betray either of you. I won’t.”
Nassir snorted, the sound weirdly elegant as he lifted his eyebrows at me. “You do remember Titus’s very pregnant girlfriend is on my payroll? We might not like each other, and we definitely don’t agree with how the other handles their business, but we are acutely aware of the fact that we need each other. I won’t pit you against the cop, and I assure you, he won’t use you to try and hang me.”
Pushing my luck, I told him, “I need to have access to the target’s computer. I need someone small, nimble, and quick on their feet. Someone who knows their way around electronics.” Someone fearless and clever.
