Page 75 of Lethal Abduction

Luke nods. “Thought you were a bit more jumpy than usual.”

“Look.” Turbo gives him a fierce look. “I’ve got brothers who are still in, and I’m not a fuckin’ rat, so I’m still not gonna give you the full John Dory. Story,” he explains, rolling his eyes when he sees my confusion. “But I’m not the only one who got out, the last few months. There’s new leadership, some of them from overseas. They did a recruitment push down in the city and got a lot of hungry youngsters in who’ll do pretty much anything for the right paycheck. But the old fellas like me remember when our colors stood for something, when the Banderos ran on some pretty strong moral principles.” His eyes cut to Luke. “Like it was back in the day, when we helped you and your sister get away from your rock spider of a stepfather, even though he wore the Banderos colors, same as we did.”

Luke nods. “I remember.”

“Dealing happy powder is one thing. We’ve always done it, always will. It’s just business, same as this stuff.” He holds up his dead joint. “Running hookers, pills—all that is part of the business.” He spits to one side. “But there’s shit you gotta draw the line at, and snatching people is where my line sits. Same for a lot of us.”

“Snatching?”A cold, dead chill runs down my spine. “Are you saying the Banderos kidnapped Abby?”

Turbo shifts uncomfortably. “I’m not sayin’ nothin’, not directly.”

I lean forward, ignoring Luke’s warning glare. I’ll have this idiot’s shotgun before he’s even out of the chair. “You need to tell us where she is.”

Turbo scowls, but he doesn’t go for his gun.

“Turbo.” Luke speaks calmly, but there’s a certain note in his voice that makes it clear he isn’t fucking about. “You need to talk, brother.”

“Fuck.” Turbo looks at me, then at Luke, who nods at him. He shakes his head. “I’ll talk about what’s relevant,” he says, eyeing me resentfully. “That’s it.”

I just glare at him.Get on with it, asshole.

“A few months ago I got a call from one of these new kids,” he says. “Ambitious prick who’s trying to make a name for himself. He’s supposed to be doing small-town deliveries, earning his colors, but he fancies himself as a bit of a trigger man. Did a job or two back in the city, and now he thinks he’s fucking Carlos the Jackal, you know?” Turbo spits contemptuously.

I stare daggers at him.

“Anyhow,” he goes on hastily, “he told me there was a chick working in the Leetham pub who had a contract on her head. I thought it was complete bullshit, told him to shut up and do his job. Problem is, this guy was connected, you know? Did some time over in Thailand, knows some of the new leadership.He went over my head, sent this chick’s picture on to someone there. Next thing I know, I’ve got orders to grab this girl.”

My fists clench. It’s all I can do not to pull a gun on this fucker.

“I didn’t like it, so I asked why they wanted this chick.” He says it flatly, meeting my eyes. “All they’d say was that it was orders.” He scowls. “Well, orders are one thing. Kidnapping a local girl from a town I do business in is something else. Something I wasn’t about to put my hand up for without a damned good fuckin’ reason, and none of them would give me that.” He shrugs. “So I refused, told them to do their own dirty work.

“It didn’t go down well. Couple of days later, I got orders I’d been demoted. Told to go pull guard duty out in an abandoned mining camp not far from here.” He shakes his head, his face dark. “Turns out it was this same girl, along with some others. I did the week, but only because I had a real bad feeling about it.” He glares into the fire. “Then some young guys turned up, gave me a fat pay packet, and told me that my services were no longer required. I got the fuck out of there.” He shoots Luke an ashamed look. “There’s been a lot of shallow graves around here lately. Wasn’t about to find myself in one of them. I tore my colors off the same day,” he says, as if that makes some kind of fucking difference. “Sent them in from a town down the road and then came out here. Been lying low ever since.”

He glances sideways at me. “I went back to the mining camp,” he mutters. “A few weeks ago. I just needed to know she was alright, you know? I liked that girl.”

I’m about to wrench him out of his chair when Luke puts a restraining hand on my arm.

“She was gone,” Turbo goes on, staring down at the ground. “They were all gone. Place was empty.”

“How long?” I shake off Luke’s hand impatiently. “How long since they left?”

“Couldn’t say.” Turbo shakes his head slowly. “Had to take a guess, it’s been a while.”

Fuck.

I want to kill the prick.

Luke clearly knows it. “Abby’s in trouble, Turbo,” he interjects calmly. “Anything you can give us, mate.”

Mate?I clench my fists.

This fucker is a long way from being mymate.

“You need to tell us whotheyare,” I say tightly. “The ones giving the orders.”

I’m fuckingitchingto hurt this prick.

“I couldn’t even if I wanted to.” Turbo twists his beer can in his hands, glancing at me uncomfortably. “The only contact I had was by encrypted message, and my access has been cut off. I know they’re based out of Thailand, but that’s all I can tell you.”

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