Chapter 49 You Had Your Fun, Brother

Jaxx’s Point Of View He laughed then… a raw, throttled thing that didn’t reach his eyes. “You won’t,” he said. “You won’t pull it.” I let the silence sit heavy, like a curtain. He expected the dramatic halting moment, the moral hesitation. What he didn’t expect was that I’d already decided the play. His surprise would be a seasoning. “You really think I need to prove it to you?” I murmured. Fingers steady, I raised the pistol with deliberate slowness so he could study the angle of my wrist, the way the barrel lined up with his temple. His pupils shrank, the whites glassy. He swallowed. The sound ought to have been a victory for him. It wasn’t. “Do it,” he snarled, because even on his knees he could still taste bravado. “Make my night, bastard.” I smiled then, not wide, not pretty. A tilt that cut clean. “With pleasure.” The shot cracked. It exploded louder than he expected, louder than the night needed. His head jerked; his body flinched as if someone had punched the air where his ear