“A girl got a little extra in her drink that night. One of the actresses.” I watch their reactions carefully. “Did you hear about it?”
Em nods. “I—I did, but I swear I told the guy who called everything I knew. We checked the cameras and nothing showed up, but there were a lot of people there that night and we don’t have one hundred percent coverage of the floor.”
John is looking a little too sweaty for my liking.
I move my hand to where I know the butt of my gun is visible, and easy to reach. “Hey, buddy. You got something you want to say?”
He’s probably not a bad guy. Most people don’t know how they’d react in these sorts of situations until they are actually in them. Even in the club, some guys deal better with the shit they’ve seen than others. There’s a reason why we mostly recruit from people who are vetted and recommended. The prospect period is vital to weed out the ones that just can’t handle it.
Our boy John here wouldn’t last long. He panics and makes a move to get away.
“Sit the fuck down!” I snap.
He drops like we’re playing musical chairs and the song just stopped. “I didn’t do anything!”
“But you clearly know something.” Crouching next to him, I rap my knuckles on the top of his head.
Em looks almost as annoyed as I am. “For fuck’s sake. If you saw something, tell them!”
“Look, it was really busy that night, okay? There were a lot of people hired by the show. I didn’t know who was doing what.” His shoulders slump. “Some guy delivered a few of the trays for me. He just sort of showed up, helped for a bit and then he was gone. I was pissed because things started backing up, but like, I don’t know exactly which orders he carried. Just figured he was flaky. You get that a lot in this business.”
“Could you describe him?” Colt asks.
John shrugs. “I don’t know.” He flinches when I move. “I really don’t!Thin, I guess? Dark hair? Dressed like most people that work catering. He was just some guy!”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Em asks.
“Because I know we aren’t supposed to let anyone touch the orders, and Istilldon’t know if he was legit or not. It didn’t seem like a big deal, and she didn’t really get hurt, right? Maybe she just got sick,” he says without much confidence.
I look hard into his panicked eyes. “That’s the only reason you’re still breathing, Johnny boy.”
Priest, stuffing his phone into his pocket, points to Em. “Here’s what’s going to happen. I’m gonna give you a thumb drive and you’re gonna give me all of the fucking security footage from the other night. Then John is gonna be scouring that shit looking for his man, and contacting the production company to see if that guy works for them. Anything else he can think of to identify the mystery helper. I’ll leave you a number to give me an update. If we don’t hear from you in the next few days, we’re gonna have another chat, and not as friendly as today. Got me?”
She nods.
Colt taps his wrist. There’s only so much time we have before more people start showing up. The longer we stand around, the more likely we get complications. Em and Priest disappear for a few minutes to copy the files before coming back out, while me and Colt do our best to look dangerous. No one gives us any trouble.
Priest nods, and we fuck off. Once we’re out, we hit the highway to put some distance between us and the club before we lay lowin one of our usual drop locations for a bit to see if there are any repercussions to our little visit.
“I wanna keep an eye on her,” Priest says. Obviously. We wouldn’t be fucking shaking down the club if we didn’t.
“Not disagreeing with you, brother, but she didn’t seem thrilled with being managed,” I point out.
He stays quiet, eyes focused on something that I don’t think we can see. “She’ll get used to it.”
Colt laughs. “Shit. This is going to be fun.”
7
Chapter 7 - Quinn
“Welcome.”Roger’s face lights up with a smile when he sees me. “Not exactly as professional as my office, but come on in.”
“Seems like a pretty nice place to me. I hear people are dying to get in,” I tease.
I looked it up on our way here and it really is a nice place, with a gym, walking paths and a therapy pool in addition to individual apartments for all the patients. But at the end of the day it’s still a medical facility.
“Nearly!” He laughs, and pats my back as I give him a hug.
