Page 81 of Cut Me Down

When I apologized for the lack of showing my loyalty to her, she was shocked. What did she expect? For me to be mad at her because another woman touched me and I didn’t push her away fast enough? I should have. The moment I saw Mikaela walking up to me, I should’ve walked straight over to Ashia and made a big show, and I thought about it to, but Mikaela is a nice girl. I didn’t want to embarrass Ashia, or Mikaela, or degrade her in any way. I’ve beat up men for less.

I also didn’t think she’d touch me like that either. We had sex once, and other than that, she’s never acted that way. It took me by surprise, but the moment she shoved her greedy hands on my chest, I swatted her away and told her about my beautiful girlfriend. I was even going to point Ashia out until I saw her walking outside, and then I immediately dismissed her and told her we had nothing left to discuss.

Walking outside to talk to her, I was prepared for something completely different. I figured she’d withdraw from me or scream at me, call me an asshole, and doubt my feelings and dedication to her. But she wasn’t even mad at me, instead she tore herself down, and that’s way worse than what I expected. I don’t ever want her to feel like that, and I’ll make sure it never happens again. She still doubts herself. So much so, that because a woman like Mikaela got near me, she immediately felt inferior? I need to do more to reassure her.

“D? Can you hear me?” Carter’s voice comes through my earpiece, concerned.

“Yeah, sorry Carter, what do you have?” I look around, not even realizing I was at the bottom of the latter and standing in the alleyway.

“The big guy? That’s Dranan Hugo.” Perfect. Now that we have a visual and confirmation, we can follow him and search more into his background.

“From this point forward, this is strictly surveillance. Do not engage. I repeat, do not engage.” I say as I make my way down the alleyway and around the building. Needing to come in at a different angle so they don’t immediately see me. I make my way up a little further before I cross the street and crouch. Quietly stalking up to their line of SUVs.

“Be careful, D, these guys seem high on alert tonight.” I nod slightly, knowing Henry is watching through the scope and Carter can see me. The moment I press my back into the hood of the car in the middle, I hear more vehicles pull into the structure’s parking lot. One engine is louder and deeper than the rest, and a new wave of diesel fuel covers the air. Obviously coming from another truck. The slamming of multiple doors follows, and I focus on any other noises I can pick up.

“Fedor! My old friend! Welcome to my new empire!” I hear a deep, elongated, boisterous voice call out. My assumption that it’s Dranan. Since he’s here, I doubt anyone would be addressing the buyer directly. I gently tap on my earpiece to ask if Carter can hear and record his voice.

“Barely, it most likely won’t be audible information at that distance.” He crackles through again, and I can feel my irritation building.Fuck. I know I shouldn’t do this, but we need to get this information so we can analyze it later. If deals with this buyer are going to be a new routine for them, we need to be prepared. I point my finger straight and double tap it to my eye to make sure Henry is seeing the exchange.

“Yep, getting all of it, D.” He confirms. I then drop down to my stomach and quietly army crawl under the vehicle. The cold concrete seeps into my skin. Scraping and scratching deep, but I’m careful not to make noise as I make my way closer to the exchange.

“D! What the fuck, that’s too close! Get out of there!” Henry yells in my ear, but I’m not listening. If the fucking ‘Dust King’ is here on a deal, it’s important, and means that these are the large buyers Paul was talking about the night I interrogated him. We need more information to know what the fuck we’re dealing with here.

“Dranan Hugo! Has the American life been treating you well since prison?” Another loud, deep voice calls out, followed by a deep guttural laugh. This voice, though, is coated with a heavy accent. Russian maybe? I can’t quite tell.

“I can hear them better now, you stubborn mother fucker.” I hear Carter say in my ear, and I stop from crawling any further. Not willing to risk them seeing me.

“Oh, I’m living the American dream, ??? ???? (my friend). I certainly hope you find our selection to your liking.” I scoot back ever so slightly as the foot steps appear to be heading in my direction.

“It took long enough. We may be old friends, Hugo, but I am not a patient man.” They stop at the edge of the vehicle, and I hear the trunk pop open. My heartbeat begins to thump against my chest, knowing that all it takes is for someone to look under the car, and I’m done for.

“I understand and sincerely apologize for the delay.” Dranan says.

“Unexpected delays?” The accent man asks suspiciously.

“Not unexpected, just more forceful than anticipated.”You got that right, mother fucker.“Though even with the vigilante, nothing will hold us up further. With us stepping into the next phase of our empire, nothing will stop us.”And he’s back to delusions.

“I certainly hope so. I do not wish to gain an enemy with this alliance.” The accented man, Fedor, exclaims.

“Any threat to us will be eliminated soon enough.” I wish I could kill them right now, but we're severely out numbered, and if I show myself to kill Dranan, I'd be dead in a second, and Dranan would just be replaced. He’s confident enough to believe that we’ll be eliminated? What does he have planned?

“Did Sahara follow you from Seattle?” Fedor asks.

“No, this one is a much smaller group.”

“Ambitious bunch.” The accented man says, almost proudly.

“You have no idea.” They exchange pleasantries and list off everything being sold tonight.Dumbasses.They discuss the ‘third partner’ arriving in a few weeks, and about moving ahead with ‘other branches’ of operations. They never say his name, or what this ‘other branch’ could be, but I believe some of the information we’ve acquired will help us.

Once they unload the product, I sneakily make my way back out the way I came, and crouch around the building long enough to remain hidden. Quickly and quietly, I make my way over to behind the neighboring storage house.

“You guys got everything?” I ask into my earpiece quietly.

“You know we did, D.” Carter says.

“Great. Wait for Dranan to leave, then once this ‘Fedor’ visitor tries to leave and makes it about a mile out, we’ll intercept.”

“On it.” Carter says, and Henry starts giving additional orders on how to trail then intercept.

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