Page 28 of Forever Zara

There was a grumble of agreement.

Then Robert started dishing out orders for selling their cocaine and Molly. They planned to hit nightclubs, colleges, and bars in his territory.

Some jackass was trying to make a name for themselves inhiscity.

What Rider saw when he peered through the filthy window was a crate in the middle of their table. Robert was handing out packages and instructions on which town to hit. If he had to guess, they had the street value of half a million bucks’ worth of hard drugs there.

It took seconds for him and Hawk to put silencers on their guns.

Hawk liked the up close and personal approach, he preferred to see a man suffer as death came to collect him. But they were going in hard and fast while these men were in one place.

The element of surprise worked in their favor once Hawk picked the pitiful locks.

Pop.

Pop.

Pop!

It wasn’t even a surprise how well or how fast it happened.

Rider advanced with a solid stride, the pair watching each other’s back in the same way they’d done for years. Robert cowering on the floor, drugs spilled everywhere. Hawk did a walk around, making sure bodies were dead.

Pop.

Pop.

Pop!

“You disappoint me, Robert. What was it you said, you didn’t want Marinos back here again? Well, surprise, bitch. I’ll let you into a secret. If it looks like it stinks, and it stinks, then you know what, Robert? It fucking stinks. And you have a stench all over you.”

Hawk grunted, letting him know they had to get out of there.

“Please. Meant nothing by it. It was a job. A fucking job. I don’t deserve to die.”

“Oh, but I think you did mean it. Now, who the fuck is your boss?”

The guy crouched on the floor like he had no fucking spine. Some prez he made. “Will you let me live if I tell you? I ain’t got any loyalty to him. It was just for the money, you know? He said if we wore these cuts and sold his shit, he’d pay us ten G’s each.”

“You didn’t reform theRebels?”

“Nah, man. This bastard approached me and my cuz a few months back in a bar, said if we did this, he’d set us up for life selling coke and Molly. He told me we could make big money, but we had to start here and then move it through Armado Springs. I wasn’t meant to get seen by you, not yet. Not until we flooded your city.” With Hawk holding a gun on Robert, Rider crouched down, unfazed by the smell of iron blood around him.

Some would say it made him evil. But who fucking cared?

Reaching into Robert’s inside pocket, he yanked out his cell phone. The pathetic guy didn’t even have it passcode protected, and he scrolled to the recent calls. Several rows to the same number underBoss.

“This him?”

“Yeah, yeah. That’s the boss. He laid it all out. We’re innocent.”

“Not so much, Robert, not so much.”

“Please, Rider, you don’t gotta do this. I can work for you, be a double agent. I know stuff.”

Hawk pushed the silencer to Robert’s forehead as the man whimpered and lost his bladder, stinking the place up with the smell of ammonia. Rider stepped a few feet away and hit call on the number.

A voice answered with one barked word, and Rider hung up.

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