Page 124 of Psycho

I followed him another two blocks, but because I was trying not to be seen, I kept some distance between us. By the time I turned the same street corner the fucker did, he was gone.

I looked around.

There was no way he just disappeared from thin air.

I didn’t fucking believe in ghosts, and I wasn’t about to start believing in them now.

No, the fucker was around here somewhere.

The buildings on both sides of the streets were small businesses protected by the King’s Men. I doubted he had gone into any of them. Up ahead was a dead end. Nothing but a dirt road. I would have seen him had he taken that route.

I came to a stop at a manhole, oddly placed on the street.

It was too close to the sidewalk.

I looked around, and when there wasn’t anyone around, I bent down and took off the cover.

It was dark and damp, so I couldn’t really see anything from my vantage point. I climbed down inside, using the flashlight on my phone.

I knew right away this wasn’t a typical sewage system.

For one thing, there wasn’t any running water.

And another, it looked like someone had been down there recently and done some renovation to it, to make it easier to walk.

I turned off the flashlight on my phone and moved to the wall, using it to keep myself hidden as I walked alongside it.

It didn't take me long to find what I was looking for.

There was a big room of people.

Lots of people—men—by the sound of it. I moved further along the wall until I could see inside.

In the corner was the man who took the money bag.

But that wasn’t what caught my attention.

Nope, what caught my attention was all the drugs on the table.

Hard-core drugs.

Some, the King’s Men distributed, and others we didn’t fucking touch because of the side effects they had.

And the men inside the room?

They were all fucking packing up the goods, getting them ready to distribute.

How… interesting.

The fucker Ozzy Reyes was working with these little shitheads to put the King’s Men out of business. But he wasn’t smart enough to come up with this himself.

No, there was a leader of the pack.

But which one?

I took in all the faces, memorizing all the features of the fifteen men in there.

Fifteen dead men walking at this point.

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