Page 101 of Cut Me Down

“They’re looking for you. Everywhere. You've got to be careful. I knew the Chief wanted to crack down on finding you guys, but I never understood why we were focusing more on you all than Dust. Now, it makes sense.”

“Don’t worry about it. We can handle ourselves and your shitty police force.” He walks up to me slowly but is smart enough to stop before he can get too close. “No offense, of course.”God, I wish he could see the smirk on my face.He eyes up and down the Greenway before continuing.

“They’ve got third shift dispatch split. Half working day, half still working night. Chief fired Glenda, the lead dispatcher on first shift, then fired everyone else throughout the day.”

“Anyone who had a problem following orders today.” I state the obvious to make sure he’s keeping up.

“Exactly. Glenda told me that the Chief came down and gave an order to ignore any calls relating to second street, all the way down to twentieth. She told him no, that they’d filter through them like always.” He makes a ‘duh’ like gesture. “He fired her on the spot and took over for an hour before the third shift lead could get there. The dispatchers were texting her left and right before they were terminated about the car chase, then when the first call came through of the gunshots at Cut Me Down, Glenda called me as soon as she heard. Why would he do that? Everyone could see the chase?”

“The gun shots weren’t from the chase. They were after Ashia.” His face gets sterner than before as the worry takes over his features. He seems genuinely shocked.

“What does Dust want with her?”

“Cooper was working for them, and they think she was either hiding him or killed him.” His eyes widen and bulge.

“Cooper Siezly? He’s dead?” He says with genuine shock.

“As a door stop. But that was me, not her.”

“When did he get back? I was keeping tabs on him. I thought he was in Seattle?” He was keeping tabs on Cooper? And texting her every week to check on her? I really don’t like this guy.

“He was, until the leader of Dust gave him the territory.”

He places his hands over his head and paces.

“So, what do we do?” He says, almost in a panic.

“Now that Cooper is out of the picture, the leader is here and fighting back. I’m handling it tonight and hoping it shuts them down for a while. I have sources that will tell me if it gets them off of Ashia or not, and for now, that’s my main concern.”

“What are we going to do about the PD?”

“Lay low. Be yourself. If you're too compliant, they’ll know something is up. If you say too much…”

“They’ll get rid of me.”

I nod in agreement.

“Exactly. So as unfortunate as it is, there’s nothing we can do right now. I’ve got my guy locating who in the state government we can contact when this is settled, and Dust is taken care of. Let the state figure out your precinct.”

“I can’t just do nothing.” He throws his hands up in defiance.

“Do you want me to kill your Chief and half the police force? That’s the only way we’ll slightly get ahead here.” He steps back slightly and shakes his head. “That’s what I thought. For now, just keep me updated on anything you think I should know. Just text it to Ashia’s phone. Do you have any information on that Adrien kid that does the podcast?”

“Yeah. We questioned him once when we were looking for you. We thought since he knew so much, he must work for you, but he’s just an innocent kid. What do you want with him?” He narrows his eyes.

“That’s not your concern.”

“He’s just a kid!” He yells, and I step out a little closer to him. Just so he knows who the fuck he’s talking to.

“I have no interest in hurting kids, but I need to be sure that Ashia is protected and he’s not going to go try and sniff his own way into trouble. If he goes snooping around in the wrong places and gets caught, Dust will not hesitate to kill him. Send me his info. Now.” I demand and turn to leave.

“What are you going to do?”

“Get back at Dust.” I reply without stopping, taking large strides back towards the car. My need for retaliation is reaching a boiling point, and the need to release this rage is overwhelming.

Word about Dust going after Ashia got around DH, and every last one, except for our moles, called and ask to join the job tonight. Every single one of my people have families, and if it’s one thing you don’t fuck with, it’s family. I may pay them well, but that doesn’t matter to them. We protect each other and care for another like a family. A lot of them are my family, but we’ve never all come together like this. Even Mel left the baby with her husband to come out.

Thanks to them, we’ll hit them even harder than expected. We have two warehouses here in town without girls in them, two outside of town, and we have enough tonight to rescue the twenty girls we found earlier. All five are getting hit, with at least thirty Dust members, as well as Dranan’s new home. Carter has been surveying the house since I left, and noticed a pattern of six guards in and six guards out. They rotate in shifts, pairs switching at the same time, sixty seconds apart. Which is kind of smart, except for the fact that they’re fucking with us. So far, he hasn’t seen any proof that Dranan is actually there tonight, but if I can’t get to him, I’ll show him what he has coming.

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