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“This time,” Boomer said, “one of them fired off a few shots at Wyatt and Griz. Obviously, he missed. But, apparently in his rush to flee the scene, he hit a pedestrian crossing the street nearby.”
“Pregnant lady,” Ripper said, confirming for Becca the fact that he already knew what had happened before asking. “Bastards ran down a pregnant lady.”
“That’s messed up, man,” Devil said. “Is she okay? The lady?”
“Pretty fucking far from it,” Ripper said. “She didn’t make it.”
“That’s correct,” Boomer said. Becca could tell he was purposefully not asking Ripper how he knew as much as he knew. More office politics.
“We need to do something about this,” Devil said.
“We need to go to fucking war,” Ripper said.
Boomer shook his head. “A war is no good for anyone.”
“Oh, come on, Boomer, this is no time for your hippie pacifist bullshit,” Ripper said.
“Watch it, Ripper,” Boomer said.
“I’m just saying…”
“Does anyone here think I’m afraid to mix it up?” Boomer said, interrupting him. “You all know it’s not that. I’m concerned about our role in this town. What I don’t want is a van full of Death’s Head spraying down our streets with AK-47s every other day. Is that what you want for our town?”
“You’re too worried about what people think of you,” Ripper said.
“Let me put it in pragmatic terms. How long do you think we keep the local PD on our side if a war breaks out?”
“Who cares?” Ripper said.
“You should. The only reason you’re not in prison is because of that arrangement. You, in particular, Ripper.”
“I don’t give a shit about prison.”
“You may be fine about abandoning your wife and your sons while you rot in a cell, but I know I want to be there for my family. Who else?” Boomer said.
“We’ve got a sweet deal here, Ripper,” Wyatt said.
“Yeah, man, I don’t want to be looking over my shoulder all the time for the cops,” Devil said. “Here, we get to do what we want, and nobody fucks with us.”
“Death’s Head does,” Ripper said.
“And we’ll deal with that,” Boomer said. “A measured response to back them off without setting off a full scale war. We find the guy who did this, and deal with him.”
“Yeah, great, how the fuck do we do that?” Jocko said. “Do we know who the guy is?”
“We didn’t see his face,” Griz said. “Only his car.”
“Then forget it,” Ripper said.
“That’s why I asked her here,” Boomer said. “You were wondering why, now you know.”
“She saw his face?” Ripper said.
“And his license plate. With all that, we should be able to ID the driver,” Boomer said.
“So what are we fucking around for?” Ripper said. “We all know how this has to go. I mean, what the fuck are we doing here?”
“We’re having a conversation, with a civilian who understandably does not want to get involved in a war on the streets.”
