That was Dominic’s game. Always moving. Always hiding. We had a hacker working on nailing down his location, but it took time and a maniacal type of patience to hunt down a man who lived in the sewers like a rat.
“The last time I saw him was… a week ago.” Freddy choked on his spit, struggling to speak through the pain. “When he—”
“Gave you orders to rob us?” I chuckled and dragged my thumb over his melted tattoo. “Tell me,dolboyob,how’s that working out for you?”
“My job wasn’t to rob you. Not… not yet.”
His body quivered, slowly succumbing to all the pain. Drool ran down his chin. Beads of sweat hit the floor between my boots, and his eyelids began to droop.
“Not yet, motherfucker.” I pinched his cheeks. “You were sent to case the place?”
His eyes rolled back into his head. Blue made a disappointed sound and aimed the torch at the bottom of his feet. The flame he released was bright white with a hue of blue that seemed fitting.
The hissing sound it made was dull beneath Freddy’s wail. His eyes sprung back open, and he lurched upward like he’d forgotten he was tied down.
“Yes!” He gasped. “I… I was just there to take notes.”
“What kind of notes?”
“Guard count. Security system. All the normal shit.”
Dominic Delgado was a gangster turned high-stakes heister. He moonlighted as a loan shark and ran an online gambling ring. Dude had a hard-on for stolen cash, and he loved dropping it behind him in a trail that led to nowhere.
He landed on our radar over eight years ago when he started targeting businesses owned by elitists and mobsters. State by state, he sent a team in to do his dirty work. More times than not, the men he trained ended up in a wood chipper or the bottom of the ocean while he hid in the shadows like a fucking coward.
As far as the public knew, the only business Benjamin Thomas owned was the billion-dollar streaming company, Teleflix. Hidden in the dark web were several alias’ and bank accounts that held the truth.
The last time Delgado had tried to rob one of those businesses was over five years ago. Two of our men were killed, and I took a bullet to the shoulder.
He ran, and I’d been waiting ever since.
“Delgado…” Freddy started choking on his drool. “He doesn’t like failure. He’ll hide for a while, but eventually, he comes back to finish what he started. He doesn’t need the money. He just wants the win.”
The pursuit made him hungry. He got off by sitting on the edge of his seat, using his men like pieces on a checkerboard, wondering if the next move would earn him his win.
Eventually, he was going to run out of players and be forced to play the game himself.
I straightened and used the bottom of my shirt to wipe the blood from my fingers. I nodded once at Blue.
“I’m done with him,” I said before walking away.
My phone was already in my palm, blood smearing my screen as I moved my thumb across it.
He answered on the first ring. “Was I not fucking clear enough when I told you to sit your ass at home for ten days?”
“Blue caught one of Delgado’s men.”
“I know. Kingston could’ve handled it. What the fuck good are you to me or this organization if you get minced because you’ve got a hole in your abdomen you refuse to let heal?”
“It’s healing fine,” I gruffed. “I sat in a fucking chair while Blue had all the fun.”
I slammed the heel of my boot into the steel door. It swung open with a screech, and I welcomed the cool air as it blasted me across the face.
Ben made an ugly sound through the phone. “That’s not the fucking point, Koslov. I gave you an order, and you disobeyed me.”
Damn.
Gravel crunched beneath my boots as I strode through the quiet lot. Hand on the back of my neck, I sighed. It wasn’t a habit of mine to disrespect my boss. Ben was one of the few men I truly respected. I’d watched him build this chapter with his bare fucking hands and earn blind loyalty from dozens of mistrusting, hardened men.
