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“Hold up.” Jagger walked over to Kordarius and, after studying him for a moment, reached up and grabbed the collar of his t-shirt. He gave it a firm tug and ripped it, revealing a five-dot tattoo along with many others on his chest. I’d seen the five dots plenty of times before and knew they were used to represent being in prison. As soon as Jagger eyed them, he stepped closer and growled, “You’ve been locked up.”
Kordarius glared at Jagger through his swollen eyes but said nothing.
“Where were you locked up?”
Again, he said nothing.
“Who’d you run with?” When he still didn’t answer, Jagger released his hold on Kordarius’s shirt and barked, “You don’t wanna tell me? That’s fine. My brother will get it out of you.”
Kordarius’s eyes skirted over to Shotgun, then he quickly replied, “I was at Eddyville for first-degree. Spent fifteen in that fucking place, but that’s got nothing to do with last night.”
“Then, what was last night about?”
“Done told ya. We were just looking to make a score. That’s it.”
“If that’s true, you picked the wrong fucking house.”
Kordarius lowered his head and sighed. “You ain’t fucking lying. I haven’t gotten a beatdown like this since my first leg at Eddy.”
“You might as well get to talking. Otherwise, you got more coming.”
Without saying anything more, Jagger stepped away from Kordarius and returned to Viper and Shotgun. They spoke for a moment, then Shotgun headed for the chains and lowered Kordarius’s feet to the floor. He brought over a chair and allowed him to sit, then said, “We’re gonna look into everything you told us. If any of it doesn’t add up, I’ll be back, and trust me when I say, you don’t want that.”
Kordarius looked utterly defeated as he nodded; then, he sighed and sank into the chair. Viper and Jagger followed Shotgun out of the room and into the hall with us. I stepped closer to the others and listened as Jagger said, “I know he seems legit, but I got a feeling there’s more to his story than he’s lettin’ on.”
“I got the same feeling,” Viper replied. “We’ll get Menace on it and see what he can find out.”
Jagger nodded, then said, “Might be nothing, but he’s got some ink I haven’t seen before—V for three and some hieroglyphs. Might get Menace to check that out, too.”
“I’ll let him know.” Viper looked down at his watch and grumbled, “Fuck, where did the time go? Bec’s been waiting on me for almost an hour.”
“I’m sure she’ll understand,” Widow assured him.
“Maybe but doubt the same will hold true for Cat.” After a few sighed curses, Viper turned his attention to the rest of us. “I get that you boys are eager to find out what’s going on with this guy. I am, too, but there’s work to be done.”
He didn’t have to say anything more. We all immediately turned and walked out of the building, then went our separate ways. I still had a few hours before my shift at Stilettos, so I headed back inside to grab something to eat.
I was on my way to the kitchen when I heard strange voices coming from the family room. I stepped inside to see who it was and found Rebecca’s daughter sitting on the floor with an armful of her Barbie dolls. “Hey, Cat. How’s it going?”
“Hey, Lynch.” A sweet smile swept across her face as she shrugged and said, “It’s going. I’m waitin’ on Momma. She’s seeing if Thatch wants to go eat pizza with us.”
“Hmmm, pizza sounds good right about now.” Rebecca was Viper’s ol’ lady, and as much as he might want to have pizza with his girls, there was no way he’d leave with everything going on. Not wanting to be the one to break the news to her, I motioned my hand over to her dolls. “Whatcha got there?”
“Nothin’.” She quickly tossed the dolls into her basket, then looked up at me with a weird expression on her face. “What are you doing?”
“I was about to grab me something to eat.”
“Whatcha going to eat?”
“Guess it depends on what’s in the fridge.” I gestured my head towards the kitchen. “You wanna come with me to check it out?”
She nodded, then hopped up and rushed over to me. “Do you think there’s any ice cream?”
“Probably.” She followed me into the hallway as I asked, “But aren’t you going out for pizza?”
“I just want a little.”
“You sure your mom won’t care?”
Cat shook her head. “No, I always have a snack after school.”
“Okay, if you say so.” When we entered the kitchen, I walked over to the freezer and opened the door, then grabbed the tub of ice cream and placed it on the counter. “Is chocolate okay?”
“Mm-hmm,” Cat answered excitedly.
“All right. One scoop or two?”
“Two.”
“You got it.” I grabbed a bowl from the cabinet and filled it with two scoops of ice cream. “Here ya go, kid.”
