I shake my head.“Just my fucking ward being a fucking idiot.”
“So…” Brad trembles in the chair, trying to hold his head up.“So, you’ll let me go, then?You’ll let me go, and I’ll inform for you, like…like you’re the cops?”
“You know we’re not actually the cops.”
“No, yeah, I got that.Cops don’t interrogate you with knives in a warehouse.I don’t care who you are.Just… Do we have a deal?”
“I’m afraid that won’t work, Brad.That Tony fellow you mentioned is dead, and with him that part of the operation has dried up.It wouldn’t get us anything.”
He rattles the cuffs that hold his wrists behind the chair.“Something else, then.Come on, motherfucker.There’s got to be something, right?You can’t fucking keep me here.You’re talking about a bunch of pampered rich assholes.You know how they treat people like me?You don’t get to kill me over them.”The last part comes out in a yell.The big-eyed innocent act seems to have fallen away.
I hold up a finger and then return to my phone, shooting off a text.
Liam: You should not be at the gym so soon after a near-fatal drug overdose.
Placing the phone back on the table, I see movement from the corner of my eye.Bartender Brad is twisting in his chair, trying to work his wrists loose.He’s straining forward, eyes on the table, almost like he’s interested in what’s happening with my phone.
Growling, I grab my pistol from the table and fire off two shots.The bartender, who drugged several twenty-something partygoers and sent them off to be trafficked, is still looking startled when he slumps over.
Then I send a follow-up text:Ravi.You’re smarter than this.
A quick check of the bartender’s pulse tells me he’s definitely gone.Good.
I see the moment Ravi reads the message, but there’s no reply.Not even the three dots to tell me there’s one in progress.Ungrateful kid.
“Okay,” I say to Reece.“Not that we got much, but at least it’s one less piece of shit running around.Let’s get this all cleaned up.”
My employee’s eyebrows dip.“You didn’t think it was worth trying to get him to give us information?”
“It’s like I already said: Tony, the guy who paid him, is dead.There have been no more missing people from that side of town.More than likely they’ve shut it all down for now.The cop he mentioned isn’t enough to go on.I’ve got a whole list of potentially corrupt guys in the Belle Argo precinct, and probably eighty percent of them match that extremely vague description.It’s a dead end.”
Still no response from my text to Ravi, so I send another.
Liam: I want you home when you’re done with classes today.
“Everything okay?”Reece asks again.
“Fine.This kid’s been a pain in my ass since day one, that’s all.An even bigger one lately.”
“The guys mentioned you had an adopted kid or something.”
“Not adopted.”Thank fuck.The last thing I need is to be someone’s actual parent.“An old friend and his wife got killed about four years ago.We’d lost touch, but his will was old.No local family, so the kid ended up with me.”
“Shit, that’s got to be tough.”
Reece starts rolling up our body in plastic.I get started hosing down the floor and dousing it all in bleach.
Ordinarily, talking to my employees about my personal life isn’t something I would do.Lately Ravi’s got my frustration leaking out all over the place.Sort of like the blood on this floor.
“He’s stubborn like you wouldn’t believe.I tried to go easy at first because his parents had been murdered, but I feel like that backfired.Almost got himself killed a couple of weeks ago, and he’s still not listening to shit.”
My phone lights up, finally, with a reply from Ravi.Not one I was hoping to see.
Ravi: My research indicates that light exercise is fine if I’m feeling up to it, and I am, thx!
With an IQ of one hundred fifty-four, you’d think he could at least spell properly.
“Kid doesn’t listen to a damn thing I say,” I mutter.