Page 28 of Carnival Queen

“He won’t. He doesn’t like to be told what to do, and if you try, he only gets angry and believe me, you pay if he’s angry.”

“Too fucking bad,” said Ghost. “Tell him if he doesn’t show, he’s going to have a problem on his doorstep.”

“You don’t understand. He’ll hurt Mama and Daddy,” said Boney. “I can’t risk that.”

“You already risked it. Call him.”

The four men stepped outside his office, closing the door behind them. The windows gave them a view of Boney squirming in his seat. They watched as he sent a text and then set his phone down, looking straight at them.

As they reached for the doorknob, Boney reached inside his desk drawer and pulled out a weapon. Nine pushed the door open further, shaking his head.

“Don’t do it, Boney. Don’t. Think of your mama and daddy. Don’t do this to them.”

“I am thinking of them. You don’t have any idea what you’re doing. You don’t have any idea how connected these men are. They can’t be stopped.”

“Everyone can be stopped,” said Gaspar.

“Not these men,” said Boney.

Then, he took the fast way home.

Taking one’s own life was a messy way to exit the world. It left nothing for your family to grieve over, no open casket, no hugging your loved one one last time.

Men scrambled in the police station, trying to find out why Boney would have killed himself. Nine got close enough to his cell phone to tap his own against it, downloading all the messages and get them to the tech boys.

“He sent a text to his sister to come and get their parents as fast as she could and get them to safety. Then, he sent one to Douglass and Jackson. He told them, and I quote, you’re about to meet the devil.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“What’s the noise about Guyana? Who do we have in Guyana that could be backing this?” asked Ghost the next morning.

“No one,” said Sly. They all turned to look at him and Code, and they both nodded. “Guyana isn’t the place where these guys would base themselves. We don’t know of any players in that area right now.”

“Maybe it’s someone new,” said Gaspar. “Ask the young guys if they know of anyone that the military has been chasing down. Check with our contacts at DEA and Homeland.”

“We still don’t know if this has anything at all to do with the floats,” said Ian. “It could be a total coincidence that those files were attached to the trailer. How could they have known that?”

“You’re right,” nodded Gaspar, “but since we’ve been sending guys out there for security purposes, nothing else has happened. The two guys we caught the first night were doing what they said, having fun. They’d been caught vandalizing other things before. The guy in the suit was from a business hosting three floats in another parade.”

“So we’re back to square one,” frowned Nine.

“I hate to say it,” said Miller, “but Deanna has to have a breakthrough and figure out who and what she saw that night. I spoke with her a little yesterday, and she doesn’t even remember the details of her conversation with her parents that night.”

“Any street cameras?” asked Nine, turning to Sly.

“None. It’s the one street in the area without any traffic cams or business cams. What do you think the odds are of that?”

“I think it all sounds pretty shitty for us and for her,” said Ian. “Why would the killers leave her standing there? Why not kill her as well? If there were no witnesses, they had a clear path to do whatever they wanted.”

“Maybe it’s time we did what we wanted,” said Ghost. The entire room looked at him with a grin. “We have no clue how many men they might have, although that wouldn’t deter us. What we do know is where all their strip clubs are located. Miller, Whiskey, Antoine, and Vince. Gather your supplies. It’s time to make things go boom-boom.”

“You’ve just made me so happy. I mean like having my first sip of beer happy,” said Miller with a huge smile on his face. “What about the girls inside and the customers?”

“Get in, and set the explosives, then trigger the fire alarms. Someone needs to be the last man out to ensure everyone is out of the buildings. We’ll have trucks ready to get the girls out of there if they want to leave,” said Ghost.

“I am so game for this,” laughed Antoine.

“Same, brother,” nodded Whiskey.

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