Page 22 of Sniper

“I have no reason to lie to ya.”

That son of a bitch! My gaze lasered in on a wooden box with a familiar logo on it. “Hey Jeff, you mind getting me a pack of those fancy cigarettes? The Turkish ones.”

He jumped up. “You like those, do ya? Only got one guy who buys ‘em and he pays twenty bucks a pack, but for you I’m asking ten bucks.”

“Sold.” He got up and grabbed a pack of the cigarettes.

Rebel’s scowl turned into a smirk. He gave me a nod.

“Here ya go!” Redneck Jeff smacked the soft pack against his palm before he extended the pack to me.

I gripped his wrist and yanked him to me, pressing my blade to his neck. “Wanna try that shit again Jeff? And this time tell me the truth, or you’ll be breathing through a slit in your throat. Feel me?”

He struggled against my tight hold. “Fuck man, okay! What do you want to know?”

“Who buys those cigarettes?” Rebel posed the question as cool as can be, as if everything was normal. “The Dead Crows?”

He snorted. “Nah, those pussies are too scared to do somebody else’s wet work.”

“Then who,” I asked.

“Tellin’ you this shit could get me killed.”

I applied more pressure to the blade against his throat. “Keepin’ it to yourself right nowwillget you killed. Feel me?”

He nodded frantically. “It was the Black Vultures MC, but it wasn’t personal, they were tryin’ to collect a bounty.”

Rebel frowned. “On Falcon?”

“Nah, no one’s gonna shoot pretty for not keeping his zipper shut. Some dude called Sniper. Know him?”

Rebel glared hard at Jeff. “Yeah, I fuckin’ know him,” he growled.

Jeff snorted a laugh. “Stupid fuckin’ name if you ask me.”

T-bone covered his laugh with a cough.

“Nobody fuckin’ asked you,” I spat out and pressed the tip of the blade into his skin. “Who paid the damn bounty?”

“Can’t say for sure,” he began in that slow bullshit tone that was about to piss me off.

“Want to try again?”

“Look, I had my pods in my ear and I was a little stoned, so I was only half payin’ attention. But I think they said it was some guy named Evan or Ethan, some shit like that.”

“You sure?” Rebel asked because I was too stunned to say anything more.

“Yeah, I’m sure. Said the dude put up fifty large for his life. They’re probably gonna try again if they got pretty boy instead.”

He wasn’t wrong, but that wasn’t the part that worried me. I wanted to know where the fuck Ethan got fifty grand to put on my head.

“Thanks,” Rebel said eventually and tossed a few bills on the ground at Jeff’s feet.

“Anytime. Tell your boy to watch his back.”

I released Jeff and sheathed my knife before heading back to my bike, my mind on Ethan. Something else was going on, I just knew it, and there was one person I knew who had the answers I needed.

Chapter Fifteen

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