Page 29 of Casper
I’d been taking human biology and learned plenty about the human body. I’d taken it upon myself to dig up some dark web videos on how to successfully remove organs. Although I didn’t have a lot of experience yet, I’d done a few kidneys without issue. I was pretty sure I could handle this.
“Are you sure about this, dude?” Dom asked. “Should we call Jordan?”
Jordan was the med student we employed to help in situations like this. His last job for us hadn’t gone so well. I wasn’t sure he could work under this kind of pressure.
I shook my head. I would handle this one myself.
It wasn’t nearly as satisfying to shoot him up with anesthetic as it would have been to simply choke the life out of him with my own hands. However, I still derived some satisfaction from having Dominik tell him exactly what we were going to do to him.
The professor went into full panic mode. Thrashing about on the bed. Pulling desperately on the sheets that held him tied down. Once I stuck the needle into his vein, that all came to an abrupt end.
Dom helped me spread a plastic sheet out beneath the unconscious man. I didn’t want a huge mess to clean up. Since he was a good friend, Dom hung around to help me out. Following my instructions.
I wasn’t sure I’d be able to salvage every organ, but I was willing to try. Saving the heart for last, I got started with the kidneys. They were simple enough. I’d done that before. After some careful surgery, each kidney found its way into a cooler filled with ice. I targeted the liver next.
Most of the people on our organ waitlist knew any organ they received would be illegally obtained. They had made their peace with that. They also knew that it was up to them to secure a doctor willing to perform the surgery at a moment’s notice.
Many of them were rich folks who didn’t want to wait in line. Some of them were taking out serious loans and second mortgages to cover the costs. Others were probably getting the money through illegal means. None of that meant anything to us. It was only our job to supply the product.
Rebel was understandably surprised when I told him I would hopefully have several organs for him to appease some of the demand. The buyers knew there was a chance the organ wouldn’t be any good by the time it reached them, even though we did our best to move swiftly. If the organ was no good, the buyer simply remained on the waitlist for another one.
Black market organ sales hadn’t been on our radar when we started this organization. We started off with simple shit. Street drugs and weapons. Hard to get pharmaceuticals. When a desperate multimillionaire approached us, begging for help getting his wife a new kidney, we’d realized how lucrative the organ business could be. The rest was history.
“Holy shit, that’s disgusting,” Dom laughed, watching me carefully remove the man’s liver. “You’re a fucking mad man, you know that? Remind me not to piss you off.”
I grinned, trying to stay focused. Unfortunately, we had no hospital machinery to let us know if this guy coded. The blood loss was intense. I wasn’t sure we would manage to take the heart before he died on us.
The heart ended up being a no go. I didn’t have the right tools to break open his chest and safely remove it in time. The fucker died on us. Oh well. The heart remained that golden ticket we just couldn’t get our hands on. Yet.
When the organs we managed to obtain were safely locked away in their coolers, we cleaned up the scene the best we could. Rolling the professor up in the plastic sheet, we stuffed him back into the trunk of his car. I drove the car with Dominik following in his blacked out Audi.
We left the professor’s car in the middle of a farmer’s field, setting it ablaze before we drove off. Our next stop was the graveyard where we met Rebel and three buyers at the church. The handoff went smoothly, and we pocketed a substantial amount of money.
“Do I even want to know?” Rebel asked after the buyers left.
I shrugged, still feeling robbed of a truly violent scenario. My hands moved as I signed, “Luna’s professor thought he was entitled to what’s between her legs. He was wrong.”
Rebel and Dom exchanged a look before Rebel said, “Understood. Don’t get me wrong, Casper, I appreciate the business, but I just have to ask… Do you think you might be getting a little too fixated on Luna Burke? Hey, I get it. You know I do. Still, we can’t have too many bodies dropping around us. I don’t want you to do something you’ll regret.”
They thought I was getting in too deep. That I’d do something crazy. They were probably right. This was pretty fucking crazy, wasn’t it? I could’ve just beat the crap out of the guy and left it alone. That hadn’t been good enough for me.
I saw the way they were looking at me. Wondering if I would endanger us all. I would never let that happen.
“No worries,” I signed. “I’ll be careful. I know what I’m doing.”
Rebel clapped a hand on my shoulder. “God help anyone who looks at your girl the wrong way. Don’t get your ass locked up, Casper. We need you.”
He left me with those final words. While he headed back home to his wife, Dom drove me back to campus to pick up my car. He didn’t contribute to Rebel’s words of warning. He didn’t have to.
I understood their concern. However, Rebel had killed for Storm. Stray had killed for Codie. We were not the good guys. And I was just fine with that.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CASPER
Instead of going home, I went straight to Luna’s dorm. I let myself into the building, determination driving every step I took. After the way things ended between us earlier, I couldn’t go home without seeing her.
I knocked on her door and waited. I could feel her inside.
