Read Online True Conviction by James P. Sumner - Free Book Online

disinterested. I lean forward and slap Jackson’s face to bring him round. Up close, he doesn’t look as high and mighty as he did when he was walking around chatting on his phone and swinging a briefcase around. He groans as consciousness washes over him once again.
    “Hey, Ted,” I say.
    “Wha-what’s happening?” he asks, groggily, still a little confused from being shot and kicked in the head.
    “Right now, you’re tied to a chair in your suite at the Four Seasons. You have a hole in your foot, which I put there to stop you running off.”
    He frowns, as if in deep concentration. He turns his head and looks at his female bodyguard sitting next to him, in much the same position. Except she hasn’t been shot…
    “Don’t worry. Your lady friend is here next to you. We’ll get to her in due course, but first I really must get the formalities out of the way.”
    “Wha-what formalities?” he asks. “I don’t understand.”
    I can hear the fear slowly creeping into his voice, replacing the confusion.
    “Sure you do, Teddy. You agreed to sell some land to a mob boss named Roberto Pellaggio. But you pulled out of the deal with no notice or explanation, and kept his money. He’s hired me to ask you really nicely to reconsider your stance on this matter and to let him have the deeds to the land, as per your original agreement.” I lean forward, gesturing with the gun. “Say, Ted, don’t suppose you fancy selling my employer the land you just screwed him out of, do you?”
    “What? Oh God! Oh Jesus!” he exclaims, as the full-blown panic attack that’s been slowly brewing beneath the surface finally kicks in.
    I figure I’ll hammer the point home, for effect.
    “Pellaggio is going to pay me a hundred grand to kill you if you don’t sell him the land. You shouldn’t have screwed him over, Ted. People like him… they don’t—can’t, tolerate things like that.”
    His eyes go wide, the fear apparent as he looks all around as if searching for a lifeline. I see his gaze rest on his briefcase, which is standing on the floor next to the desk. I can see the cogs start turning again, and his desperation changes to opportunity.
    “I’ll give you quarter of a million dollars to let me go right now, to pretend this never happened,” he says quickly.
    I smile and shake my head. “While I have no doubt you can afford such a generous offer, that’s not how I operate. I stand by my contracts, Ted. You can’t buy your way out of this.”
    He leans forward as much as he can, which isn’t much. His eyes are watering. “P-p-please...” he begs. “I have a family!”
    I sigh. “No, you don’t,” I reply, matter-of-factly.
    He holds my gaze a moment longer, realizing that lying and bargaining aren’t working, then he sits back in his chair and sighs heavily with defeat, staring at the floor as a tear rolls down his cheek and splashes on his lap.
    I regard him for a few minutes, trying to figure him out. Any confidence he once had has long gone. He looks full of regret and almost ashamed.
    My eyes flick over to the woman for a second. She still hasn’t looked up or changed her expression. I look back at Jackson. “Ted, tell me why you backed out of the deal.”
    He closes his eyes and swallows, sensing there’s no option left but to talk. I almost feel sorry for him. “GlobaTech Industries assigned me to a special project involving the land,” he explains. “I had no choice, I swear!”
    I nod slowly, trying to piece together everything in my head. But very little about any of this makes sense to me. “And why do GlobaTech Industries have such an interest in a plot of land in the middle of the Nevada desert?” I ask.
    He sighs again, pursing his lips together in a subconscious act of defiance. There’s obviously a lot more to this thing than he’s telling me and he seems very reluctant to divulge any information. Usually, people in his current predicament will say anything if they thought it could