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He held up both of his hands as my voice rose. “I know that’s upsetting to hear. This was yours and Mila’s house, you bought it together. But what do you feel every time you’re here alone now?”
“We’re not talking about feelings right now, Danny, and I’m not selling my house. Now, move your ass. I’m not waiting for you.” I stormed past him and out the door to my garage where I took the keys to my Range Rover. I’d use this car, I hadn’t driven it in a while.
Sell my house? What the fuck was Danny thinking? He didn’t speak during the whole ride to Gideon’s. It was a good thing too, because I was pissed.
“I knew you’d get angry.” He eventually spoke as we drove up the driveway.
“Of course I’m angry. Danny, you think it’ll help me to get rid of Mila’s dream home?”
He sighed. “I think it’s bad that you’re surrounding yourself in so much grief. How can you heal that way?”
I released a humorless laugh. “Heal? You think I’ll heal?”
“Yeah, Alex, I do.”
I put the car in Park and shut off the ignition. “I’m done doing therapy with you.” I opened the car door and slammed it harder than I should’ve, but if I didn’t get away from him I’d say or do something I’d regret.
“Hey, Alex,” Penn greeted me as I entered the house.
“Hi.”
Penn cocked his head and stared at me. “You good?”
“Fine, is Gideon ready to talk?”
Danny walked in and Penn’s attention went to him, then back to me. “Something going on?”
“No,” Danny and I answered at the same time.
“Whoa.” He chuckled. “Okay. Yeah, Gideon’s in his office. Let’s go up.”
Gideon was behind his desk, Toni beside him, when the three of us entered.
“Good work last night,” Gideon said by way of greeting.
“It was all right. We didn’t get much out of them, and I’m not sure if it was because they didn’t know anything or they had a torture kink,” Danny responded and took a chair in front of the desk.
“Any information we acquire is helpful.” Gideon looked at me. “Have a seat, and we will talk about next steps.”
Penn took his spot on the couch, and Toni stood next to Gideon’s desk. “You all got your clothes from last night?” Toni asked.
“Yeah, in bags,” Danny answered.
Toni nodded. “Okay, I can burn them.”
“Glad I didn’t wear my favorite murder pants,” Danny muttered, and I snorted reflectively. He glanced at me and just like that, I wasn’t angry anymore. This was Danny, probably the person closest to me in my life right now. He hadn’t said that about the house to hurt me.
Gideon smirked. “I sent some of my guys to the crack house last night after the brothers left. To say the people there were tightlipped would be an understatement. But after some convincing, it turns out Sasha and Ruslan wanted to sell mephedrone out of that location.”
“Mephedrone?” I sat up. “Do we know how they’re getting it into the state?”
Gideon smiled…both a good and terrifying sign. “We believe so. One thing Sasha said last night was that he was supposed to meet with a man named Liev next week. On the surface that wasn’t anything, but Toni did the digging he does so well.”
We all gave Toni our attention. “Liev Hansen. His company owns a distribution center two towns over in Morristown. I only had last night to deep dive, but I was able to find out that he had two deliveries from a company that, shockingly, has their main hub in Moscow.”
“Hang on.” Danny held up a hand. “I know I can do the research myself, but I’m gonna ask. What the fuck is mephedrone?”
“It’s a highly addictive powerful synthetic stimulant and empathogen drug related to amphetamines and cathinones found in the khat plant.” Penn lifted his phone. “I googled.”