Page 194 of Creep

I stood up and leaned over the desk. I tapped his cheek. He flinched.

“Smart man. Why don’t we get started?”

* * *

I followedthe fucker to a warehouse. Theo had already been alerted and was tracking my car and relaying the information to Agent Keller as it happened.

I wished I had more time to prepare for this, but it was all happening quickly. If the fucker strayed off somewhere else, I was going to fucking kill him with my bare hands, even with the FBI coming.

Once we take down the Tacchinis, Leo and Luckas would have no backing and no made men guarding them, protecting them from us. They would be forced to come out of whatever hole they were hiding in. Theo wouldn’t care if I went after the fuckers once we have all the women and children safe from out of their hands, and there really wouldn’t be a place safe enough for either to hide from me.

I clenched my fists around the steering wheel.

There hadn’t been a sighting of either of those fuckers in weeks.

They went underground as soon as Lia managed to escape her father’s house after taking the book. My suspicion that they knew something was up got stronger. That’s why they were hiding. But if the entire operation they had been working on for years went up in flames…

This had to work.

It was time to put all this shit behind us, once and for all.

I pulled my car to a stop behind the black bulletproof town car. My car was much more… ordinary.

It was unmarked. There was no way to tie this car to me, and I planned on abandoning it here when everything went to shit.

I got out of the car and walked up to where the fucker was standing.

He grinned and looked at the place proudly. I narrowed my eyes at the sight.

“This is the real moneymaker. Drugs and guns work, sure, and some would argue women are much harder to control, but I find they can be…accommodating, given the right incentive.”

What a piece of shit.

I smiled at him. “Then why don’t you show me the moneymaker?”

He shook his head. “Not until we talk about your role in all of this.”

“My role?” I asked.

He nodded.

“A partnership.”

He shook his head. “I am taking a risk bringing you on. We’ve done all the work. You can’t expect to be handed a partnership.”

“Alright,” I said slowly. “What’s my role?”

“Anything I need.”

“So like a fucking errand boy.”

He clasped my shoulder as if we were close friends about to walk into a bar. I looked at the hand touching me, then back to him. He smartly removed it. “Don’t think of it as an errand-boy job. Think of it as a consultant with many, many benefits. Money, drugs, power…” He pointed to the warehouse. “Women.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” I said. “Why don’t you show me these women you’re promising me?”

“Now, I can’t promise them to you completely. They still need to make a sale. But there's no reason you can’t try out the merchandise.”

He turned his back to me and led the way to the warehouse. I followed behind, resisting the urge to pull the knife I had tucked inside my boot and plunge it deep into his back.

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