Page 96 of Into the Blue
“In a way. We’re still beefin’ with the Fayes. You said you wanted in and Thane came too. Trained hard. Rose quick. Ran green for me until one day the green didn’t come back. Thought you were stealin’ from me. You beat Colton down pretty bad up there and then I find out you were in a hospital and remember nothin’. Luckily, I found my shit and you weren’t blabbin’ to the cops. I didn’t wanna deal with that… complication.”
And now Colton’s missing. Not dead, though I tried my best when Tony brought him to town. I hoped it would scare him shitless. But I haven’t heard from him since.
“And what about Ethan?” Thane or Ethan was her childhood friend and the runner who died in the accident that took her memories. I knew they were close and that loss must have hit her hard.
“Yea. Knew he was takin’ some off the top. He was the type. Problem resolved itself, didn’t it?” She flinches, but I don’t give a fuck. At this point, anybody who steals from me can disappear. It’s made my life a hell of a lot easier.
There’s hesitation, which is unlike the woman at all. I already know what she’s gonna say before she opens her mouth. “I’ve been gone for months now. What if—What if I don’t come back at all?”
“Why would you do that?” My brows furrow. That is not what I expected. I fully thought she was gonna ask to come back.More news I don’t want to hear.If there’s something I need, it’s more competent people to do this job. “Convenient that you forget all about the reason you were in this to begin with.”
“Yea… those are the only memories I do have… So much loss and I just want out.”
I don’t need anybody here that doesn’t want to be here. It’s a liability. I tilt my head to the side. “Comes at a price,” I say. I’ve never had anyone willingly walk away from Dupont. Not alive. But I can’t look weak either.
I tell her that it’ll cost twenty large to make her way out. She made that in a couple months, easily. I don’t need the money, but I might with how things are going. It will at least keep her out of my hair for a while and away from my desk.
My phone vibrates on the table and I pick it up on speakerphone when I see it’s Redd.
There’s heavy breathing, but Redd’s voice is clear, “I got ‘em. They’re comin’ for you.”
I stand, looking down at the phone like it’s grown legs. “The fuck?”
“That bitch finally showed his face and I took the shot. Blood for blood,” Redd replies.
My mind is in complete disarray as I try to think of anyone, absolutely anyone he could be talking about, knowing that there is only one man that it could be. “Told you to stand down. Let us handle it.” Like businessmen, I don’t add because I butchered Junior’s men just hours earlier.
“I’ve been waitin’ over a year for this, Blue. Lew had more life to live. I couldn’t let it stand no more. He made a mistake gettin’ comfortable in Clayton again.”
“Fuck,” I start the protocol for an attack. First shooting a text off to the team at my house. With the warehouse video feed connecting from room to room that guards are in, sounding the alarm from the app. “You fuckin’ idiot! They were waitin’ for your dumb ass.”
Twenty people rush into the room and stand guard around the table.
Looking back at my phone, there are nine cars all pulling up to the front of the warehouse.
This is the last thing I need.Lafayette men ready to take my team on for this.
“Blue,” Redd pants. “They’re takin’ me.”
I pull at my locs, thinking over what my next steps should be.“Who? What the fuck? Who is takin’ you?”
“The cops found me,” Redd says and the blaring sirens start up in the background.
“That’s not a problem. Did anyone see you?” I ask.
Silence.
“Redd, did anyone see you?” I ask again. Fuck, I hate repeating myself.
His voice is too calm for his circumstance when he says. “A few folks maybe.”
“Maybe? What the fuck?! Tell me you aren’t this dumb.” I huff a long suffering sigh. “You’re on your own for now. I have to deal with whatever Faye Senior wants here. Go with them and say nothing until I come to get you out.”
“Heard.” The line clicks and I grab my knife again, prepared for whatever might come our way. “With me,” I tell Kitty when she’s just sitting there in shock.
With panic in her eyes she asks, “What are you doin’?”
“Goin’ to have a chat with Lafayette Senior to see if we can’t come to a deal.”
