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13
Hawk
AsIdroveintothe underground parking lot of my building, I wondered if the Universe was conspiring against me with all this bad fucking timing.
First, I had to watch Lila flirt with that curly-haired loser. What did she see in him? Even from across the street, I could tell at first glance he wasn’t good enough for her. I wanted to break his nose when he sniffed her hair as he passed behind her to pull out her chair. And did he think he could win her over by talking her ear off?
Amateur.
But at least he looked relatively harmless. And boring.
The only reason I left was that Leo had called me back with the news of a second attempt on one of my routes. I couldn’t ignore it anymore. No matter how much I wanted to make sure Lila got home safe…and alone, I couldn’t neglect my business.
Then that damn earthquake hit when I was halfway to my office. It took all my willpower to keep myself from making a U-turn. But I found the number for the coffee shop and called them instead. They assured me that all their customers were fine, including the woman in the red skirt.
I pushed away all thoughts of Lila to focus on the issue at hand as I walked into the conference room. Leo and my higher-ranked guys sat around the table, eating pizza and arguing.
Everyone except for Robert. I tried to keep the money laundering and the hedge fund firm separate as much as possible.
Once I took my seat, they all turned silent.
“Oh good, you’re here,” said Leo as he scratched his balding head. He watched me closely with frosty blue eyes. There was a time when they looked that way because he was a cold motherfucker. His stare could send chills up your spine.
But not anymore. He had mellowed down in his old age. So why the frosty eyes? Because he was too damn stubborn to get his cataracts fixed.
“I don’t know what the fuck is going on?” Leo said. “I just got off the phone with Jamal. There was a third attempt on our runners.”
“Any patterns?”
“The M.O. was different each time. The first one was a fake construction roadblock on the route, forcing our guys to stop, then the so-called workers came out of the van with guns and shot up the Humvee. I guess the fucking idiots didn’t know it was bulletproof. Our driver barreled through them and got away.
“During the second attempt, the runners were on the sidewalk on their way to the client’s drop-off point. Six guys jumped them. Luckily, we had already doubled our manpower, so they could easily fight off the attack.” Leo shuffled some papers in front of him, averting eye contact. “So, yeah. No pattern.”
“And the third?”
Leo kept shuffling his papers. Every single one of my crew around the table was doing their best to pretend they were busy with their phones.
“Don’t make me ask twice.” A hint of warning in my tone.
“Well,” Leo said hesitantly, “it just happened, so we don’t have all the details. Let us confirm a few things, then I’ll update you.”
I glared at him.
“Okay, Hawk. But don’t jump to conclusions. We’re still not sure it’s him.”
“Who?”
“Six guys on motorcycles tried to force our runner’s car off the road and into a ditch.”
I gave a curt nod to indicate to him to keep talking.
“Luckily, Jamal had trained our drivers well. So, when the bikes showed up, this driver’s training kicked in, and instead of veering away, he barreled through and let the bikes hit the Humvee. After a few blocks, our guys lost them. We sent two extra cars to escort the runner the rest of the way. The convoy took a bunch of detours to make sure they weren’t followed and finally made the delivery.”
“Which gang was it?” I asked.
“We’re still checking.”
“Fucking answer me!”
