Page 44 of Outlaws' Single Mom
“What? No, not since the last time you were here.” His response is a little too rushed.
“Why don’t I believe you?”
I move to block one side of the counter, while Lash goes to the other end.
“I don’t know what to tell you. It’s the truth.”
“We’ve been hearing rumors thatsomeonehas been whispering to the cops about our little visit. I know you’re a smart businessman, so that doesn’t seem like the sort of thing you’d put yourself in the middle of, but it’s awfully suspicious, don’t you think? And if we find out you’re covering for him we’re gonna start wondering what else you’re covering up. So how about starting with a simple question. Does he work for you?”
Jackal shifts closer, causing Sergei to back up.
“Off and on, yeah, sure. He was always hanging around anyway since Georgia was here, and he was good for small shit. But I swear on my mother’s grave, he hasn’t been around lately. Probably scared to run into you again, and hoping I don’t start coming after him for rent.”
Interestingly, the new guy is looking more and more jumpy as time goes on. I get the feeling he’d go through the ceiling if I made a sudden move. Leaving Sergei to Jackal and Lash, I walk his way. He suddenly finds something really interesting on the floor, ducking down and pretending to give a shitabout someone’s old crap. “You got something you wanna add to the conversation?”
He shakes his head so fast it’s a wonder it doesn’t pop right off. “No, no! I don’t know anything.”
“It’s fine, you can tell us. Right Sergei? We’re really very reasonable men.”
Sergei finds at least one of his balls again. “Come on, Tony doesn’t know anything.”
“You sure about that?” Jackal turns his attention to our new buddy. “You friends with Jay, Tony?”
I nudge him with my foot. “Up on your feet.”
When he stands, he’s almost as tall as I am, and stronger than I thought coming in. His straight hair comes down to between his shoulder blades and he’s wearing a black concert T-shirt. He might put up a fight, but I’ll still kick his ass if I have to. “I know him, sure, but I haven’t seen him since?—”
Getting a good grip around his hair, I pull his head back, forcing him to look me right in the fucking eyes. “This can go one of two ways. One way, you walk out of here on your own two legs with no bones broken. The other way, you don’t. All up to you.”
He tries to shake his head but doesn’t get far with my grip on him. “C’mon,” he whines.
“Begging only works if you’re a fuck lot prettier.” I give his head a shake for emphasis. “So how about you start talking.”
There’s a slight chance that he doesn’t actually know anything, but he was acting real suspicious, and my gut’s never steered me wrong. So when he takes too long to decide, I give his face a little love tap, snapping his head back with my fist. Are we the bad guys? Sometimes, but when the cops start looking our way, a lot of lives are on the line.
Blood drips from his nose. He’s lucky I didn’t fucking break it. “Wait, wait! He’ll kill me.”
Jackal comes closer, and his voice is icy and hard. “I hope you’re not under any illusions of what we’ll do to you if you don’t cooperate. Jay’s not here now, but we are.”
“Okay, okay! Just… don’t. Jay came by a few days ago. He said he needed to get into the apartment to get some of his shit. I didn’t see the problem, since it was his fucking place, too, right? When he came back down he was pissed as fuck. I don’t know shit about anything, but he said your club was on his ass for no reason, and he told me what to send to the cops and I did it. That’s it, I swear.”
“Why the fuck would you do that? Seems like a lot of risk for you, and not much to gain.”
“I owed him, okay?” Tony lets out a panicked gasp. “He settled some debt for me in exchange for a favor.”
“Where is he?” Jackal asks, pissed.
“I swear, I don’t fucking know. We aren’t exactly friends.”
I turn to Sergei. “You know anything about this? Think real hard.”
“No. Fuck no.” He looks furious enough that I actually believe him. “You can have this little fucker if you want.”
“Boss!”
“No. Get the hell out and if I see you around again I won’t be as forgiving,” Sergei growls.
I give Tony a shake. “Here’s the deal. We’re gonna leave you breathing, for now. But if I were you, I’d be thinking long and hard aboutrelocating, because you’re burning bridges real fucking fast. That clear? Anything you wanna add?”
