Kim Oh 2: Real Dangerous Job (The Kim Oh Thrillers) Read Online Free Page B

my former boss. Without me bringing in a paycheck from the job I used to have, we needed that money just to survive. But Donnie also knew how much danger that put us in; a guy like McIntyre didn’t take lightly somebody stealing from him.
     
    But even with my brother knowing all those things, which was bad enough, there were others that he didn’t know. That I had managed to keep from him. The only things that I had even tried to keep from him. My hooking up with Cole, our plans to kill McIntyre – me, because that would be the only way that my brother and I would ever be safe from him now, and Cole for pure revenge against the man who had betrayed him and left him a cripple – and then my stealing even more money from McIntyre and killing Pomeroy to cover it up. Just running that lengthening list through my head made me feel sick. There was a whole dark world I was keeping from my brother.
     
    “Kimmie –” He spoke up after silently regarding me for a moment longer. “That’s bullshit. You’re up to something. I know you are.”
     
    This wasn’t the first time I felt like a fool. For thinking I could get away with something.
     
    “All right.” I nodded. “I am. But I can’t tell you about it.”
     
    “Why not?”
     
    “I just can’t. Please . . . don’t ask me anymore.”
     
    He fell silent again. He looked at the gun lying on the table between us, then back up at me.
     
    “But what am I supposed to do?” He looked scared and worried. For both of us. “When you don’t come home again? I mean . . . never again.”
     
    I didn’t say anything. Because I couldn’t.
     
    I didn’t have an answer for him.
     
    “I don’t know,” I said at last. It was something that I had worried about as well.
     
    Maybe Cole didn’t think about stuff like that, but I had to. Just another difference between the two of us. If you’re going to get into this line of work, it’s probably better if your relationships with other people were a little on the tenuous side. Otherwise, you might be thinking about them, right when you needed to be focused on the job at hand. That could be a real disadvantage when there were guns and other dangerous stuff involved.
     
    “Well . . .” I looked up at the water-stained ceiling, as I tried to organize my thoughts. “I’ll try to make sure there’s some money here for you.” I wondered if there were some kind of insurance policy I could buy. That covered getting killed while trying to kill other people. Did that count as an occupational hazard? I’d have to check into it. “And I’ll try to get the rent paid up as far ahead as I can –”
     
    “Kimmie –” My brother’s voice broke in. “That’s not what I meant.”
     
    I brought my gaze down to him. I knew what he meant.
     
    Same thing I would’ve meant, if I’d been talking about what I would do. If something happened to him.
     
    “I don’t know,” I said again. “I just don’t know.”
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    FOUR
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    “You know,” said Monica, “if you were going to need a van today, you could’ve just told me. And I would’ve kept the one I had yesterday. It would’ve been fine.”
     
    She was annoyed because she’d had to go schlepping out to the rental place again, this time dragging me along. That was so I could be put down on the rental agreement as an additional driver. I would’ve gone out there myself to get the van that Cole wanted, except that even if I’d had a credit card that was good for more than buying a pack of gum, I was still too young to rent a vehicle.
     
    Which sucked – I was seriously looking forward to the day when I’d be old enough to do something besides kill people.
     
    “Didn’t think about it, sweetheart.” Cole was more pulled together than I’d seen him in a while, complete with boots and a jacket on. We were heading out, which was the reason for the van. “You know me.”
     
    “Yeah, I