Exposure by Brandilyn Collins

and muted thump. Giordano hesitated midstep, his back muscles tensing. Then he jerked forward.
    Nico slapped him in the shoulder. “What was that?”
    “Nothing. Let’s go.” Giordano kept moving.
    Nico raked his gaze down the hall. The first door on the right was closed. And he’d never checked around the corner for the second car. “Your wife and kid still here?”
    “No!” Giordano whirled around, face flushed.
    “I think they are.” If they’d looked out a window and seen him . . .
    “No, it’s just a mouse. We get ’em all the time. I pulled one out of the toilet yesterday.”
    “Pretty big mouse.”
    Giordano swallowed hard. “Let’s just go, okay? Do what you said, no problem with me.”
    “We got real problems if you didn’t do what I told you.”
    “I did!” Giordano’s arms thrust outward and hung there. Sweat popped out on his forehead. “I told my wife to leave — she left.”
    Nico turned toward the hall. “Let’s check.”
    “No!” Like a madman Giordano rushed forward. He grabbed one of Nico’s arms and pulled. Nico cursed and pushed him back. Giordano stumbled into a coffee table and flailed his arms for balance.
    Nico kept walking.
    Behind him Giordano roared. Nico heard running feet. He swiveled around as Giordano rammed a head-butt off-center in his chest. Nico flew backward and crashed into a wall. Giordano leapt for him, but he scrambled to his feet and out of the way.
    “Ungh.” Giordano landed hard on the floor. In an instant he shoved up and twisted around.
    Rage shot through Nico. He whipped the Beretta from his waistband. “Stop!”
    Giordano stilled.
    “Get your hands up.”
    The man’s arms floated upward. Giordano blinked as if in a daze. “Don’t kill me. Please.”
    Nico’s eyes narrowed. When he gave this guy cement shoes, he’d be
laughing
. “Back up out of the hall. Now.”
    Giordano moved backward, his arms shaking. Nico pressed him on until they both stood in the living room.
    “When I tell you to, you’re gonna turn and walk out that door. You’re gonna get in the backseat of my car and lie down. Got it?” Nico’s voice was cold steel. Everything in him wanted to beat Giordano senseless right now. Forget driving the idiot to a family business. Nico was putting a bullet between his eyes the minute he lay down in the car. Then Nico would come back inside and finish off the wife and kid, and whoever else was in that room. Four old grandparents and the puppy too.
    “Giordano, you hear me?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Don’t move.”
    Keeping his eyes on his target, Nico sidled toward the living room window. He drew back a frayed sheer curtain with his left hand and threw a glance outside. All clear.
    From the corner of his eye he saw Giordano launch like a rocket.
    Nico jerked and his finger pulled the trigger.
Crack
,
crack.
Holes torched in Giordano’s left jaw and right forehead. The man’s body recoiled, and he stumbled backward. Both arms flew up.
    He thudded to the floor, face down.
    Curses burst from Nico. He shoved his pistol in the waistband of his pants and ran to Giordano. Yanked his shoulder to flip him over. Giordano’s eyes were at half mast, his breath a rattle in his throat. Blood pumped from his head and down his temple.
    Fury flooded Nico. “Get up!” He kicked Giordano, then wrenched his arm, dragging him over the carpet. Blood smeared in his wake. “Get up!” When Giordano’s head hit the hall floor, Nico came to his senses. The guy wasn’t going anywhere. Nico threw the man’s limp arm down and straightened, glaring at him.
    Giordano twitched — and his breathing stopped. The blood stopped spurting.
    Nico ran a hand down his face. Good, real good. Now he’d have to load a deadweight body in the car in broad daylight.
    The sound of a loud engine filtered from outside. Nico ran back to the window and edged away the sheers. A man climbed down from a pickup truck and walked over to open his storage unit in the first building. As