Page 10 of Bishop

Bo and Butch had already moved into a defensive position in a blur.

The guns were out and drawn immediately on both sides.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” I whispered, holding up my hands.

“Why are you in my place of business,” Britney Lee sneered, never moving.

“We just want to talk,” I assured her. “Everybody just be cool.”

Amusement danced into her eyes. “I think you boys are lost. I’ve never seen you three before and therefore I wouldn’t have a fucking thing to talk about with you.”

I stepped forward, “We need to talk about Avery Stone. We know you got him stashed somewhere.”

Britney Lee’s laughter echoed just as someone behind us screamed about hitting a jackpot. Tension began to ripple through the room.

“You got some huge fucking balls on you, but until its set right. Avery belongs to me. All his little body parts.”

“Fuck,” I shook my head biting at my lip.

My thoughts moved swiftly because she’d kept him stashed somewhere and I didn’t know too much about her.

“You can’t hold him in here forever,” Bo cleared his throat. “It’s best to hand him over to us now.”

She tapped at her lip playfully. “I don’t think I will. And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll head out now while you’re still breathing.”

The air in the room was becoming thicker than a bowl of gumbo.

“We’re leaving,” I muttered. “But we’ll be back.”

Britney Lee cackled. “I’ll be right here, baby! I’ll be right fucking here.”

When we were outside, I started looking around.

“What the fuck?” Bo questioned me.

“He’s not here,” I said.

“How do you know?” Butch asked pulling out a cigarette, his voice thick with caution

“It’s too out in the open,” I continued to stare at the cigs until he handed me one. “Thanks. And my gut is saying otherwise.”

Bo sighed. “Well, she definitely hasn’t killed him yet.”

“She knows we’re on to her though,” I lit the cigarette up and pulled the smoke into my lungs as we began to walk back to our bikes. The prostitute was on the corner leaning into a red car with a John. I watched her get in and they sped away before anyone could tell what was going on.

“Let’s check back in with Loki and report what we found…she could have him sitting anywhere,” Butch had already started the engine to his bike.

We all agreed that finding Avery was top priority. The only thing was we didn’t have a clue about was how long Avery had left.

Britney Lee was a fucking monster and I could still feel her eyes on me. It was like she locked onto my soul with some sort of dark voodoo spell.

Britney Lee might have been running the Koreans, but she was born and bred in Louisiana. Her dangerous words had been purely southern and there was no covering those roots.

Yeah, she was from around these parts and I could just tell it.

EMMY

Areporter had stopped me just as I’d been about to head back into the law office from lunch. She’d been a tall older woman probably in her mid-fifties, with gray hair. The bag of beignets had been tucked under my arm as I responded to a text, when she stepped into my path.

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