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“Drugs?” The guy truly looked insulted. “Who said anything about drugs? I owe money just like your brother did, and I don’t want to fucking pay it off the same way. You help me and I’ll help you.”
“My brother owed money?” Jude narrowed in on that part of the guy’s speech. If that was true, then he had been hocking his things. “How much money?”
“I don’t know exactly how much he owed, but I need ten grand.”
“Right.” Jude barked out a laugh. “I’m not giving you ten thousand dollars.”
“You want to know who filmed your brother, you help me.” Anthony trembled, understandable since he was soaked and only wearing a light jacket when it was thirty-five degrees out. But he honestly did look scared, and he had from the second he’d walked into the bar. Jude had attributed it to him seeing them, but maybe there was more to the story. He did have an air of desperation that pricked at Jude’s conscience.
“We’ll do it,” Snow snapped. “Give us a name.”
“We’re not giving him any money,” Jude insisted, frowning at his partner.
“It’s worth it if we can get to the bottom of this,” Snow said before looking back at Anthony. “Tell us.”
“You think I’m stupid? Money first.” Anthony’s dark eyes flitted from Jude to Snow.
“We don’t have that kind of money in our pockets,” Jude said.
Anthony rolled his eyes like he knew that. “Then meet me here tomorrow night at eight with the cash and I’ll tell you what I know.”
“I think you’ll tell me what I want to know now.”
“Or what?” Anthony scowled again. “You can’t hurt me worse than the people you’re after.”
Frustration ate at Jude, and he realized this guy wasn’t going to back down. He was obviously scared, and if he owed the same people Jordan had, it made sense. “I’ll give you five.” That was going to make a huge dent in his savings.
“I need ten.” Anthony briefly shut his eyes. “Look, I owe this money and he’s already coming after me to pay it out with my hide. I wasn’t kidding about these people being dangerous. Please, I don’t want to end up in the hospital like Jordan. You get him off my back, and I’ll tell you all about the poker ring.”
Jude perked up. “Poker ring?”
“Shit.” The guy scowled. “I guess it don’t hurt none to tell you that much. It’s why your brother owed so much.”
“I thought you said you didn’t know how much he owed,” Snow said.
The guy snorted. “It was more. I do know that. He got roped into the games same as I did. That’s how they get you. They pull you into the smaller-staked games, and then it grows.”
“You’re saying my brother was gambling?”
“How did you think he came to owe so much money?”
“Why in hell would we trust you?” Jude asked, snarling. “You could just give us the name. You don’t have to extort us for money.”
“Out of the goodness of my heart?” He snorted.
“You promise to meet us in the bar tomorrow night, and we’ll be here with the money,” Snow said. “And no more fucking running.”
Though Jude didn’t agree with giving up ten thousand dollars, he was desperate. It would hack an even larger hole into his savings, but finding out who’d shot Jordan…who’d filmed him being raped…was worth it. “We’ll be back here tomorrow night, and you’d better have a name for us.”
“I will.”
Furious, Jude turned to go to their Jeep. “You think he’ll show up? We should have just beaten the name out of him.”
“Like you would do that.” Snow stopped him with a hand on his arm. “That guy is terrified. Maybe if we help him, he’ll be able to get away from these people.”
Jude stared at him. He didn’t want to help that guy, and it went against everything he usually stood for. But here he was, in front of a man who everyone thought was cold-blooded, and he could see that Snow meant it. He smirked and pulled Snow in for a kiss, noting his nose was cold. “You’re a good man, General.”
“Come on. Let’s go by the hospital and check on your brother, then go home.”
They reached the Jeep just as there were two loud shots. Snow’s wild gaze met his, and they both ducked down behind the vehicle as another car peeled past them.
“Fucking gunshots,” Snow said. “They came from where Anthony was. Call 9-1-1!”
Cursing under his breath as he ran toward Anthony, Jude pulled out his phone to scroll until he found the number for dispatch. He could see one wound on Anthony’s chest right away. Snow kneeled beside the man. “Cara, it’s Jude Torres. I’m off duty but need to report a shooting. We’ve got one man down with two GSWs—one to the chest, so I’m going to need a rig here ASAP. Call the cops, too. The shooter is gone. Is there a supe around?”
