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“Or he was just choosing Gunner because hehadkilled someone before,” Viper replied. “I just know that this just complicated the fuck out of things. We should’ve been going to take care of Francis tonight—and now we’re stuck in fucking limbo, yet again. Has Robbie given you any money?” He turned to me.
I shook my head. “Nah, he hasn’t even shown his face since that night. But then again, he might be waiting for us to show up—well,meto show up and talk to him.”
“Well, I think you ought to fuckin’ show up and talk to him,” Viper retorted, shifting in his leather chair. “We need to get to the bottom of what the fuck is going on. I’d go above his head and—”
“Hey,” Sarah stuck her head through the doorway of the conference room, interrupting us with an apologetic look on her face. “Sergeant Johnston is here to see you guys.”
“Fucking great,” I grumbled under my breath.
“You can just let him in.” Viper shot me a warning glare. “This might be a good chance to get some more information.”
“But I wouldn’t press,” Will added in a low voice. “I don’t think it’s a good idea. We don’t want to blindside the guy.”
“Sergeant,” Viper cleared his throat as he stepped through the door. “Good to see you, as always.”
“Hmm,” he grunted. “Wish I could say likewise.”
Shit.
Sergeant Johnston jerked an empty chair back and took a seat. “I’d like to know why Francis hasn’t been taken care of, considering the time that’s passed.”
“We’ve been dealing with some other shit,” Viper said through gritted teeth, and honestly, I don’t know why we didn’t just out Robbie right then and there. The asshole was making an already fragile situation that much worse.
“He saw that the warehouse was cleaned out,” he snapped. “And now he’s pushing for a full fucking investigation into it even harder than before. I need this guy shut down, or again, we’reallgoing to be paying for it.”
“He got any beef with Robbie?” Axle asked, his deliberate rebellion against what Viper, the President, had asked, causing evenmoretension to rise in the room.
Sergeant Johnston shrugged. “Hell if I know. I don’t get in the middle of petty rivalry and shit, if there is any. That’s not the issue here. I want him taken care of—and I want it done sooner rather than later. I’ve got him busy working on another drug case, but I know he’s smart. He’ll have it wrapped up in about a week. And if you can’t get it done, then I’ll have to figure something else out. I’ve been doing this for nearly thirty years, and I’ve managed to keep a clean reputation. The last thing I need is some do-gooder fucking it up when I’m close to retirement.”
“We’ll take care of it,” Viper growled. “Don’t you worry about that.”
Sergeant Johnston went quiet for a moment, and then glanced around the room, his eyes locking with mine for a few short moments before going back to Viper. “What was with the question about Rob?”
“Just heard some things,” Viper answered before anyone else could.
“This isn’t about Rob. This is about the warehouse full of drugs and the fuckin’ mess you made.”
“And we’ll clean it up.”
Sergeant Johnston seemed to be satisfied with that answer, enough to get up out of the chair and leave with a nod. We all remained silent, even as the door shut behind him.
“What if we just kill the guy and tell Johnston it was an accident?” Axle finally spoke up, his nonchalant tone borderline disturbing.
“Yeah, because our relationship with him isn’t already strained as it is,” I snapped at him, rolling my eyes.
Axle shrugged. “I mean, it would solve all the problems without causing any further digging.”
“It goes against everything that we are.” Viper’s expression was blank, and I couldn’t tell if he was furious or just completely perplexed by the situation.
Axle grimaced. “And yet here we are, having to either piss off the boss of the cops by killing one, or not kill one and piss off the son.”
“And there is the risk of Francis snitching anyway,” I added, though I still wasn’t keen on killing the guy. It seemed unnecessary. If we could just scare him or pay him off, that would solve that—anything to stay off the fed’s radar.
Viper drummed his fingers on the table, his skull rings glimmering beneath the dim chandelier. “Then I guess we take tonight to get our shit together, and we take care of this tomorrow. Francis is working tonight, and there’s no way we want to do this on their watch. We need to get him when he’s not in uniform—or armed.”
Chapter 17
Hallie
