Page 57 of Lamb

Sincerely,

Marisela Cruz-Prescott

It was an idle threat. And we both knew it. The burden of proof would be on me and I had nothing that actually proved Adrian was on the other end of the screen. And neither did our IT department apparently.

My dearest Marisela,

Please don’t threaten me with a good time. Actually, I take that back. Please do. I’d love to see you all dolled up and sitting across from me in one of those tight-fitting skirts you like to wear. A team of lawyers at your beck and call while you hurled every accusation in the book in my direction before I cleared the room and fucked you in the middle of the conference table. Just tell me where and when, little lamb.

Yours,

AL

Fucking hell!

Nowhere and never.

No address or sign-off. Short and sweet. Anything more and I would be tossing my computer across my desk just to watch it shatter.

Always and forever.

Yours,

AL

70

ADRIAN

“Do we have any intel on the girlfriend? Is she someone we have to worry about?” I looked over at Bugs, who was sitting cross-legged in front of me. A tablet on his lap and a stylist pressed to the screen.

I didn’t like complications. More than that I didn’t like loose ends. And I wasn’t above throwing in a freebie if it meant the job got done right. There was collateral damage in every business. Mine just happened to include spare body parts. Which were in high demand by the way. Especially to the right buyer. A win-win if you asked me.

“She’s pretty.” He shrugged. “But irrelevant. No family, no real social media presence, newer relationship… My guess is she’ll just assume he’s ghosted her. It’s kinda his MO.”

“You like her…” I watched his face for a moment while he pretended to watch his screen and not hear me. We both knew he did. I’d tested the new implant and it was working perfectly. This was just Bugs’s way of coping with shit he didn’t like. And it’d worked for a long time. That time wasn’t now, though.

Realizing I wasn’t about to drop it, he finally looked up and narrowed his gaze. “I don’t like her. I don’t even know her,” he grunted.

“Except you do. You know everything there is to know about her, don’t you?” I countered.

“That’s my job, isn’t it? Finding out everything there is to know about the target.”

“The target, yes.” I lifted a shoulder. “The target’s girlfriend, not so much. We just need the basics, not her life story.”Our boy had a crush.It was cute. It was also dangerous. “Stay away from the girl. If she really is irrelevant, be smart and keep her that way.”

He nodded once before returning his focus to his tablet. I wasn’t dumb enough to think that was the end of it, though. These kids weren’t exactly the listening type. But they were loyal. And more than that, they were predictable. Which made it easy to figure out what kind of trouble they were going to get themselves into and prepare for it.

Besides, keeping tabs on the girlfriend wasn’t exactly a bad thing, if he was discreet about it. Meant we would be the first to know if she became a problem.

“I’m thinking a car accident…” I broke the silence, waving a hand in the air as I tried to picture it. It was a waste of good organs but our client wasn’t paying for a disappearance. Rath wanted a body. Proof. And customer satisfaction was always my top priority. “Something messy but not uncommon…”

Bugs shook his head, his eyes lighting up like they did whenever I ordered him a new piece of tech. But we weren’t talking tech right now. We were talking murder. “I got a better idea.”

I shifted in my seat, leaning closer as I waited to hear him out. This was a group effort after all. “I’m listening.”

“Guy owns a bike. Yellow and flashy. The kind people like to ride a little too fast… the kind that’re easy to track in the dark… The kind that are prone to spinning out and hitting a guardrail without anyone asking why…”

Bugs met my glare from over the top of his computer screen, dipping his head in a curt nod. And I used a burner phone to dial Casper. Letting it ring out three times before hanging up. He would know what it meant.

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