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“Nice driving,” she said. “Is there anything you don’t do well?”

“Go fuck yourself,” he said. “And ask your buddy where we’re going here. We’re almost out in the lake.”

“Keep going straight for a while,” I said. “Hold the same direction.”

She killed Natalie’s partner, I thought. Probably with that very gun. But over here in Michigan…There was no way Cap could have killed Natalie. Unless…

Wait a minute, why would they even kill them at all? If they didn’t even know they were cops until afterward…

“McKnight,” Cap said. “I’m starting to think you’re just stalling here.”

“A few more miles,” I said. “Hold your course.”

If they didn’t know they were cops…then they must have thought they were real gun dealers.

“I don’t remember any islands out here,” Cap said. “You’re taking us right out into the middle of fucking Lake Huron.”

If they thought they were real gun dealers…

God damn it. They thought they were competitors. They had this takeover all set up, until these new players arrived on the scene. Hell, that’s probably why Cap and Brucie were stuck here for a few days. Maybe it wasn’t the weather. Maybe it was Laraque trying to play the two U.S. angles off each other, work a better deal.

“McKnight, you’d better say something. Or I swear to God I’ll kill you right now.”

Natalie and her partner didn’t die because their cover was blown.

They died because their cover wasn’t blown.

“McKnight?”

She killed Resnik, picked up his cell phone, and got my number. Gave that to Cap. Hell, that might have been a big surprise to him. Or maybe not at all. Maybe it explained a lot, why me and Vinnie were trying to drive him away. It would have all made perfect sense if he thought I was part of Natalie’s supply chain.

So he came over to my cabin…thinking I was already dead, of course. But so what? Nobody else would have known that. I would just be missing at that point. He came to my cabin and he saw Natalie’s Jeep there. Not my truck. Again, which would have made sense to him. I was just down the road, but he didn’t know that.

He opened the door and found Natalie inside. He must have figured she had come there looking for me, and when I wasn’t there, she had just settled in to wait for me.

Did he tell her she was waiting for a dead man? Did he say one word to her before he gunned her down in cold blood and then left?

Cap cut the engine and let the boat drift. He came down the stairs.

“Start talking,” he said, leveling the gun at my head. “Where are they?”

“You killed her,” I said. “You killed Natalie.”

“Yeah, no kidding. That’s what I do, remember?”

I wanted to go for my gun right then. I wanted to empty every round into his body. Then take his own gun from him and do it all over again.

“Cap, just cool it,” Rhapsody said. “Let me do this.”

“You’ve done enough,” he said. “Look at where it got us.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Look at us,” he said, gesturing in every direction. “You don’t think this is strange?”

“It’s strange, yes.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, Cap. It’s strange.”

“And yet you seem to be going along with it just fine. Take the boat out to the middle of the fucking lake. No problem.”

“I’m just playing it out,” she said. “I’m taking Alex at his word.”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t you?”

“What else are we supposed to do?”

“Nothing. You’re right. Everything’s going great. As soon as Alex gives us the guns back, wherever the hell they are, we go and make the switch. The other boat’s not even that far from here, eh? St. Joseph Island’s right across the lake.”

They’re distracted, I thought. They’re totally focused on each other right now. This will buy me another second.

“That’s the plan,” she said. “If you’ll let us get on with it.”

“We just zoom right over there. Your guys are waiting for us?”

“Yes, Cap. For God’s sake…”

Right hand to pant leg, lift, remove the gun. Fire. How quickly can I do this?

“Oh, after we take Alex back and let him go,” Cap said. “I almost forgot that part.”

“Are you trying to ruin everything here? Because you’re doing a great job.”

She looked at me, just as I was starting to lean forward. I stopped.

“I’m just getting it clear in my head,” Cap said. “We’re not going to shoot Alex and dump his body in the lake.”

“Of course not.” She looked at me again. I wasn’t going to get my chance if she kept doing that.

“And you weren’t thinking of shooting me and dumping me in the lake, either,” Cap said. “I mean, once you have the guns and you don’t need me anymore.”

“What are you talking about?

“I’m just saying, you went along with this pretty quickly. This whole crazy boat trip.”

Yes, I thought. Keep fighting with each other. I can use this.

“Stop it,” she said. “We’re partners now.”

“So I thought.”

“We are. And this is just the first deal, remember? We took care of business and now we’re running the show.”

Think, Alex. There’s a little fire here. How can you pour on some gasoline?

“Yeah,” Cap said. “I guess we did. We killed the bosses and took over.”

Wait a minute, I thought. Something’s not right here. What did Natalie say about that meeting in the hotel room? Rhapsody and Laraque together, the way she described them…

“We did it,” Rhapsody said. “We can own the world now. Both of us.”

Every word coming back to me now. How scared Rhapsody had seemed, until he touched her. The power dynamic that only Natalie could see.

“Yeah,” Cap said, his eyes narrowed now. He was thinking hard. “Both of us.”

There’s no way, I thought. I knew it was a lie. She couldn’t have killed him. She couldn’t do any of this on her own, without him. It felt like Natalie was right there next to me now, giving me this one last card to play.

“How did you kill him?” I said.

They both looked at me.

“I’m talking to you, Rhapsody. How did you kill Laraque?”

“Shut up.”

“Just tell me. I’m sure Cap wants to know, too. How did you kill him?”

“I said shut the fuck up.”

“Tell him how you did it,” Cap said. “Go ahead.”

“Knock it off. I’m serious.”

“Tell him,” he said. He was with me now. I had him on the hook. “Tell the man how you killed Antoine.”

“I shot him. You know that.”

“Where did you shoot him?” Cap said.

“In the head.”

“No, where was he when you shot him?”

She let out a long breath. “In the tub.”

“In the tub, right. In the bathroom.”

“No, his tub’s actually in the kitchen.”

“Did he see it coming?”

“I’m not going to do this now,” she said. “I told you to knock it off.”

“That’s a pretty hardcore thing to do, Rhapsody. I’m impressed. It must have made a real mess. His brains all over the bathroom tiles?”

“Stop it.”

“But that’s what it takes, right? That’s what you have to do to get to the top.”

She didn’t answer him.

“You know what would be a real shame?” he said. “If you didn’t actually kill him. If you just said you did.”

“Don’t do this.”

“Because that would mean, what, that the two of you are already thinking about double-crossing me? Cutting me out of the deal and finding a new American partner? Now that Gray is gone?”

“Cap, I mean it.”

“After all, who wants a partner who’s unstable?”

“That was Alex’s word, not mine.”

She looked at me one more time. I saw her right hand tighten on the gun. Cap saw it, too.

He shot her in the stomach. Shoomp, the same muffled noise.

Rhapsody let out a low moan, dropped her shoulder bag to the deck, brought one hand to her stomach and leaned over like she was going to be sick. “Cap,” she said. “Cap, God damn. What are you doing?”