AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The chemist stared. Didn’t want to seem too eager. Then he snatched the paper and unfolded it. Took a few minutes of muttering, rotating the paper for some reason, a grunt. He frowned, then stared at it with his mouth open. “Interesting.”
Across the room, someone got up and headed for them. One of the Hispanics. A couple of his guys intercepted the man and began a heated conversation. He needed to get this done before something kicked off in here and dinner got cut short.
“Can you solve it?”
The chemist looked from the paper to him. “What if I turn down this offer?”
As far as the Russians were concerned, there was no turning them down. “We take what you hold most dear.”
“I have no family.”
Morgan shook his head. “Not a person. A storage unit in Olympia. Mint condition, cherry red, 1966 Shelby Mustang. It’s a GT350-H four-speed isn’t it?”
The chemist swallowed.
“I’ve never burned a vintage car before. Should be fun.”
His lips thinned. No point saying, “You wouldn’t,” since they very much would.
Morgan said, “I want an answer.”
Extra guards came into the room. His men sat back down, but only after Morgan gave them a nod. The chemist was coming around.
“What happened to whoever came up with this?” The chemist folded the paper back up and tucked it in a pocket. “Why can’t he help you?”
“Don’t worry about him. Worry about you, and your car.” Morgan didn’t need the guy to do anything, just solve that equation and give them something new to work with. A breakthrough to advance work that had been going on for years.
If they could crack this code, there would be no stopping Raphi’s plan. The old man was dead in that limo bombing. Raphi’s brother Nico was dead. No one lived that could challenge him.
“How much will I be paid?”
Morgan picked up his fork. “How much do you want?”
TWELVE
“And what did you hear them say?” Liam stood across a table in a county jail interview room where convicts usually met with their lawyers. In this case, he needed his old “friend” to spill about the guy Morgan had been talking to.
They’d seen the whole conversation from the hub in the office where they watched it play out on the surveillance cameras that covered nearly every inch of this place.
What they didn’t know was the words exchanged between the two.
His old “friend” Skippy sniffed. “Nothin’. He just handed the guy a paper.”
Jasper pushed off the wall. “Did you see what was on it?”
Skippy looked at him, then at Liam. “Who’s the pretty boy?”
“Just answer the question, Skip,” Liam said.
“Did you tell him I beat you out for football captain junior year? You tell him that? How I ran more yards and scored more touchdowns. How the coach said I was the one who was gonna go pro.” He slapped a hand on his chest even though they were cuffed to the waist belt that shackled him to himself—hands and feet.
“No, I didn’t tell Officer Hollingsworth that neither of us went pro, Skip.” Liam shifted his stance, the weight of his uniform belt creaking. “What was on the paper?”
“Bunch of numbers.”
“Like algebra?” Jasper frowned. “An equation?”
“How am I supposed to know?” Skippy turned to Liam likeWhere did you get this guy?
