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I’m up the stairs, ignoring the woman who yells at me to stop. I open the door to his office, flashing my badge. “Hey Richie, how’s it going?”
He frowns. “Fuck you very much is how it’s going. Get the fuck out of here with that shit.”
“Richie, I hear that you and the Levin Bratva are close. Like really close. That’s not good.”
Another frown, his eyes roam the room like he’s looking for something. “I don’t know nothing about no Bratva. The Levin family is good people. You making accusations like that could hurt a lot of people—including yourself.”
“Is that a threat, Richie? Not a good idea. I know differently. Do good people talk others into going in on a heist of edibles?”
He goes still, not even his eyes roam. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Sighing, I shake my head. “We have so much to talk about, you and I.”
“No we don’t. I don’t got nothing to do with the heist or the Levins.”
I toss my card at him. “I don’t give a shit about you. I want the Levins. We can pin everything on them. I don’t want edibles. I want something on them that will stick and for a long-ass time.”
“I’m a law-abiding citizen. I met the Levins a few times at fundraising events. I barely talked to them, don’t even remember what we talked about. You’re wasting time, yours and mine and the governments. Get the fuck out of my office you fat cow.”
The insult about my weight stings, but I refuse to let him see it. “When you remember something, call me. And if you don't remember something by the end of this week, I might have to come back and help you remember.” I warn him.
I leave without looking back, as if I weren’t afraid I made the same mistake with Richie I did with Aleksander Levin. If I’m going to die, I’m not going to do it without trying to make the Levins pay. Maybe, just maybe, they’ll tell me what happened to Ray before killing me. I’d be happy enough with that. It’s the idea of living without knowing that terrifies me, not the thought of death.
* * *
Aleksander
Pulling up outside the home of Phoenix Raymond, I’m surprised to find it’s a home. It’s not even a two-flat or home broken up into apartments. Where the hell did she get a house from? My SUV hasn’t fully stopped when there’s a knock on my window.
“Valdez wants a word,” a man mutters.
I take the cell phone he offers.
“What?” I know he’s usually invaluable to us, but for three fucking weeks—what? “What do you mean she’s only been an agent for three weeks? How the fuck did she just become an agent?”
“Phoenix is a hacker who focuses on human trafficking. She’s good. My girl wanted to bring in Phoenix, but Phoenix said no. She worked out a deal with John Hart, who currently heads the Bureau here in Chicago. Yes, she is that big and no you can’t kill her. It doesn’t matter she blackmailed her way into the Bureau. She has value to them. They will not take kindly to her death. I have to say after digging in on her, I won’t allow her to be killed either. Read her file and you’ll understand why.”
Fucking hell. I hang up and hand the phone back to the man. If Valdez wants to protect her that’s a problem. He takes his loose moral code seriously. The problem is I saw the hatred burning in her blue eyes—she wants us dead. She will do whatever it takes before it’s all over.
My phone rings, it’s Milos. “Have you read the file on her?”
“No, the file doesn’t matter. She wants us dead. If Valdez is going to protect her, we are fucked,” I warn him.
Milos scoffs. “She won’t kill. She might want us dead and after reading her file, the girl has every right, but she won’t kill. She doesn’t have it in her. Offer her up to a million.”
He hadn’t seen the girl’s eyes and he won’t believe me until he sees it for himself. “Youoffer it to her and see what she says.”
“I will. When she proves me right I’ll take that pretty Bugatti Chiron you bought yourself for Christmas.”
As I have no plans of letting the Bugatti go, the same as Phoenix Raymond on her plan of vengeance, I don’t hesitate. “You’re on. And I get the Turner you bought yourself for your last birthday.”
“Deal.” He ends the call with a chuckle.
I wonder what the hell it’s going to take to get Phoenix off our back without killing her.
CHAPTER8
Phoenix
