Page 31 of Dangerous Deviance
“If I didn’t, they would have come after us right now,” I argued. “Thought we were easy picking.”
“Or we could have negotiated with Muro directly,” he said. I locked eyes with Derek. He shrugged his shoulders; it was just like he predicted.
“Muro was taunting us,” Derek said. “It was his own message. There isnoalliance, Father.”
“You know better,” he said. No one wants a war.”
“Itisa fucking war,” Derek said. “You’ve got to open your eyes. He disrespected us.”
Gerard sighed loudly. “All right,” he said. “Kill any of his workers found in our area. The agreement was to buy their product and sell it ourselves. If that’s what the plan was, then we can eliminate the rest. Declare our position.”
So he was flipping sides, just like that? What was going on in his mind?
“Fucking hell,Father,” I said, making sure he heard the sarcasm in my voice. “This isn’t about the coke anymore. We’ve got to be ready. Muro isn’t going to wait around for us to arm ourselves.”
“And neither are we,” Gerard said, his voice harsh. “I’d rather take down the man himself, absorb his empire than be forced to destroy it. But we have to work carefully.” He cleared his throat, then adjusted the phone in his ear. “Work efficiently. Killing everyone that has a Midnight Miles logo on their back isn’t practical. They’re loyal to whoever is paying them. And that could be us.”
I sighed. “You want to absorb his company, then?”
“Why not?”
I looked at Derek, who rolled his eyes, closing them tight. Our family had been content to stay in Sage City, slowly expanding into the neighboring areas, with a few casinos and resorts in Las Vegas, so this news was irritating. Gerard had been letting us take over more of the family business in the past years, as he should have, but he hadn’t been too hands-on. I wondered if he was going to do anything now, that he had declared his intentions.
My phone buzzed, and I pulled it out:Kileyblinked on the screen. We hung up with Gerard and I excused myself to the hallway, finding it empty. Axe, the goon, and the corpse were gone. I accepted the call.
“Hi,” I said.
“All right, get ready for this shit. So about Elena,” Kiley said, her voice nasally.Elena. I loved that name; it sounded majestic. “The sister disappeared about a year and a half ago. Elena about six months after that. Looks like she filed a bunch of missing persons reports, but the police couldn’t find anything. By the way, I found an old flyer in one of the databases; I’ll send it over in an email now.”
How the hell had she managed to dig that up?
“Thanks,” I said. “But where did she disappear to?”
“The last record we have of Julie is outside of Pebble Garden University, filling up her gas tank. And Ellie paid late membership dues for a local women’s club. I think it was some sort of private gym, actually.”
Pebble Garden was a couple of hours away, but not as far as Brackston. Ellie had mentioned that her sister was supposed to start school. That must have been the last place she had looked.
“And her parents?” I asked.
“Gone. Died when Elena was a sophomore in high school.”
“Anything suspicious about their deaths?”
“Nothing special. Car accident,” Kiley said, her voice mundane. “Unless there’s a reason to believe a car accident would be foul play?” I shook my head, even though Kiley couldn’t see me. She continued on before I could answer. “Here’s the weird thing,” she said. “She was part of that gym, right? An all women’s martial arts social club.”
That didn’t surprise me. Ellie was strong. “Right.”
“Elena was the first to disappear. After that, a few more. Eventually, people stopped going because too many club members were disappearing. The police suspected the owner, but even after they set up a watch on her, nothing came of it. And still, the women kept disappearing.”
“Shit,” I said. That did not sound good. Did that mean the women had been hunted?
“I know. I doubt it has anything to do with the owner. But the police didn’t know who to accuse.” She sighed. “Anyway, something fishy is going on. I hope you figure it out.”
“That’s about the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me,” I said.
“Don’t get used to it,” she snapped. “Let me know if I can be of any use.”
I clicked off the line, then checked the surveillance footage on my phone. Ellie was in her usual spot, sitting on one of the patio couches on the rooftop, her eyes staring blankly in front of her. Sometimes, her eyes flicked back and forth, as if she was having a waking dream, or she held a hand to her ear as if she couldn’t quite hear something.
