“What do you need, Dante?” I asked, my voice level.
“I need to have a chat with you.” Dante waved me over, and I followed him into the kitchen.
If I thought the living room was bad, the kitchen was worse. Apparently, they never cleaned anything, and rotten food was spread across the counters and moldy dishes overflowed the sink. “Do you want a beer?” he asked as he opened the refrigerator door with a quick jerk that shook the old appliance.
“Sure,” I said, although I was afraid to consume anything here. “What’s going on with the place? I’ve never seen it quite this bad?”
“Bitches,” Dante muttered. “Sasha’s got the bitches all working and there’s no one to clean this place.”
I wanted to tell him that he and his lackeys could clean it but I held my tongue.
“I save the good stuff for the best of us.” Dante pulled out two Heinekens and handed me one before he popped open the bottle and drank deeply. “I want you to help me with something.”
“Anything,” I said as I sipped my own beer and lifted my boot from a sticky plate of ketchup and fries.
“Good, that’s what I like to hear.” He closed the refrigerator and leaned against it, lowering his voice. “I have a shipment coming in tonight, and I want you to go with me. Only Spider and Crow know, I want this to be kept quiet. There’s a mole in here somewhere,” he said, and I followed his gaze to the living room, relieved to be on the other side of his gaze.
“Absolutely,” I said. “Where should I meet you?”
Kobe
I pushed my hair back behind my ears as I tried to stay quiet in the parking lot out on old highway 441. Following Dante here from Sasha’s after my shift ended maybe wasn’t the brightest thing for me to do but I was at a breaking point, I wanted this all over and now.
My legs were cramping, the thighs were burning, but I held still in the squat between two cars, waiting for something to happen.
Dante whistled an eerie tune as a soft breeze blew in from somewhere and tossed my hair in front of my eyes, tickling my nose, and I fought back a sneeze.
“Any time today,” Dante said, and I wondered who he was speaking to because he looked to be standing alone on the sidewalk.
A low rumble grew louder then Easton pulled into the parking lot.
“Sorry, I’m late,” Easton said as he parked close to where Dante was waiting and dismounted his bike.
“It’s about time. I’ve been waiting, and I don’t like to be kept waiting.”
Easton’s voice was muffled as he stepped closer to Dante, his boots crunching against the dead leaves. I needed to get closer. There was another set of vehicles that was parked near them. If I could crawl there, then maybe I could get something on this stupid bracelet camera. It was risky, but if I wanted to nail the bastard, I needed to get a clear audio recording of everything Dante did.
Legs shaking, I crept through the lot, the sparse pieces of gravel crunching lightly under the weight of my converse.
“Heroin.” Easton’s words were low but discernible.
I snuck between a black pickup truck and a Toyota, my foot catching on a small pile rocks, sending one skidding across the pavement and under a neighboring car.
Dante’s head jerked over to the side. I froze, my heart pounding so hard that I was afraid he would hear it. Quickly, I pressed my back firmly against the car and watched Dante’s reflection in the window, my breath hung in the air as I waited to see if he was going to move toward me or not.
Dante stepped toward the row of cars where I hid, and I crouched lower until his face was no longer visible.
“What is it?” Easton walked closer to me and my body went cold. God, if Easton found me here, he was sure to freak and blow my cover as well as his.
“I heard something, didn’t you?” Dante asked, but his footsteps stilled.
“I hear the sound of other trucks, of air compressors on their old buildings.” Easton kept talking, rattling off things that were making noises and I prayed to God that Dante would let it go.
“Mmm,” Dante mumbled.
I rose a little higher to watch the reflection of his face. He frowned, then turned back to Easton. At least they stayed within in ear shot. “You would say that, wouldn’t you?”
“What are you talking about?” Easton asked seeming puzzled.
A tickle started in the back of my throat before I could cough a hand clamped down around my mouth, crushing my lips against my teeth as a scream ripped through my body, and I bit down hard.
“Augh, fucking bitch,” Spider’s voice roared.
I kicked against the cement and shoved myself back into him, knocking us onto the ground. I wiggled around and straddled the man, ready to kick his ass, when another strong arm wrapped around my chest and held me in place.
“Mmm, look what I caught,” Crow sneered in my ear as he pressed something cold and hard against my temple. “If you want to end this quicker, scream.” Crow’s words were as cold as the end of the metal pistol touching my forehead.
Spider rolled over and now had me on the ground, one hand covering my mouth while Crow stood over me pointing the gun at my face.
I relaxed my body weight and gave up my resistance, think Kobe, think. You are a trained martial artist. At the same time, I was giving myself a pep talk, another voice seeped into my head, the voice of my trainer telling me to choose my moves wisely, don’t react but plan my moves. Fine, I would plan this out.
“Dante was right,” Crow explained. “He said not to trust the new bartender. It was only
