Chapter 224 The Knife
白
Finished
More than anything, their friendship was the kind that ran thin as water.
Someone to talk to when boredom set in. George would help him out when he needed it. And in the beginning, Liam had genuinely considered him a friend.
All these years, he’d been waiting for George to turn around on his own. To figure it out, to step back from the edge. But George never did.
“You want to hear about my work?” George looked down. “Every time I bring it up, you get mad.”
He was good with computers. He freelanced as an intel broker, running transactions with people from every corner of the underworld before they made their moves.
The money was decent, and the work wasn’t beneath him. He didn’t take from anyone who couldn’t afford it. He’d never understood why Liam got so angry about it.
“You don’t just sell intel. You’ve done plenty of other terrible things too. How would I not get mad?” Liam’s face had gone deep red, his emotions running hot.
George blinked, his tone light and unbothered. “If you’re talking about the occasional casualties from our operations, then sure, I’m sorry. But we’ve got people to feed. Salaries to pay.”
He meant it. He had team members depending on him, equipment to maintain. It wasn’t just about him.
To George, this was a job. The same way Liam bussed tables at a restaurant or worked a register at a convenience store. Different content, same principle.
So he couldn’t understand Liam, and Liam couldn’t understand him.
Liam looked up. His eyes were red, and it was hard to tell whether it was the alcohol or something else. “Have you ever thought about the consequences? How many people suffer because of what you do?”
“I know.” George’s voice stretched out lazily. “But I just don’t feel anything about it. Sorry.”
After everything he’d done, was he supposed to weep for the casualties? That would be the cat mourning the
mouse.
The words hit Liam like a slap. He bit down on the inside of his lip, his fingers trembling. He set his glass down, and it struck the table with a sharp clink.
The silence lasted a long time. Long enough that George was about to say something to break it when a knife appeared in Liam’s hand. It came from nowhere, maybe hidden up his sleeve, maybe tucked beside the chair. George hadn’t noticed.
All he felt was a flash of cold against his stomach, and then warmth, blood seeping down through his shirt. The pain arrived a beat after the heat.
It wasn’t deep.
He looked down. Liam’s hand was clenched around the handle, his fingers bloodless white. The blade had barely gone in before it stopped. Liam’s hand was shaking so badly the handle rattled.
7/2
10:15 Tue, May 12
Chapter 224 The Knife
白
Fit Lord
George felt oddly blank. He raised his head and looked at Liam’s face. It was close enough to see every detail. The terror written across it.
“Liam.” He said the name quietly.
Liam let go. He couldn’t look at George. His hand slid off the handle, smeared with blood, and dragged a long red streak across his own shirt as he wiped it.
“I’m sorry.” He stumbled back one step, then another, until his shoulders hit the wall with a thud. “I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to do this to you.”
He hadn’t been able to commit. The wound was laughably shallow.
More than the pain, what filled George’s eyes was a vast, hollow nothing. He looked down at the knife in his stomach, then up at Liam pressed flat against the wall.
Liam’s face was whiter than his own, lips trembling, the rims of his eyes so red they looked ready to bleed.
His legs buckled and he braced himself against the wall, his voice cracking as it climbed toward a shout. “I told you, George! I told you so many times! Why couldn’t you just be a good person?”
George leaned against the back of the chair, face drained of color. The cut was shallow enough that he pulled the blade out himself and pressed his hand over the wound.
Liam’s palm was still flat against the wall. “I’m sorry. They told me to do it. They said if I did, they’d give me so much money. But I couldn’t go through with it.”
His words came in fragments, tumbling over each other. “I couldn’t do it, George, but I can’t stand seeing you anymore either. Every time I look at you, I feel so useless. I didn’t want any of this.”
His sentences lurched and broke. He said he’d been investigating for a long time. That he’d mapped out all their safe house locations. That they’d set up an ambush. That there were snipers outside. And a gunman. That George couldn’t get away.
George listened without a word. He just leaned against the chair, blood oozing between his fingers, staining his shirt dark, his face perfectly blank.
Liam couldn’t finish what he’d started, and he stood frozen as George walked past him toward the door. George knew there were people outside. He knew he wasn’t getting out clean.
But he didn’t want to die in here.
His brothers had warned him, over and over. Be careful. Watch the people around you. Trust no one.
But when his friend had asked him to come out tonight, he’d come anyway.
1.0K
መ
