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“Wait!” His voice shook. “Piotr referred to him as Agent Schakowsky. That’s all I k-kn-know. I swear.”
I believed him. He was a low-level grunt with a drug problem. Not exactly the type of man Piotr would confide in.
“Thank you. You’ve been most helpful.”
Unlike his friend who still graced him with a choked gasp now and then, Jan had earned himself a quick death. He didn’t even see the gun until it was pressed to the side of his head. Had even less time to react when I pulled the trigger.
My phone rang from inside my pocket, and I wiped the blood on my hand on the leg of my cargo pants before answering.
“Yeah?”
“We have a problem,” Tweak said, the sounds of traffic loud in the background. “Well, two actually. The first being that the DEA file is a dead end. Everything they have, except for Gunner’s military record, is public knowledge. What little they know dates all the way back to Pops arrest record.”
“Anything they can use?”
“Fuck no,” he scoffed. “Even their theories are way off base. Like we’d be stupid enough to clean drug cash through a business that had our name on it.”
“And the second problem?”
A tractor trailer honked, and Tweak yelled back, “Blow it out your ass.”
“Where the hell are you?”
“On the side of the road at the exit for Austin.”
“Is our second problem that you’re stranded because I’m in the red at the moment so it’ll be awhile before I could come get you.”
“Jesus. You killed someone didn’t you? You know how Ryder feels about that.”
“That’s why he has me,” I remarked dryly. “To make sure his Boy Scout nature doesn’t get us all killed. Now, hurry up and tell me what our second problem is so I can clean up. I have somewhere to be tonight.”
“Boy, am I glad you’re on our side.” Another car horn blared but this time Tweak yelled nothing in return. “When a tractor trailer cut me off right before the exit, I lost sight of Marco.”
“Why would Marco be going to Austin? We’re the only people he knows in the US.”
“Exactly,” Tweak huffed. “And he left the phone you gave him at the clubhouse, so it’s not like I can track the little shit.”
“Which means he doesn’t want us to know where he went.” The Austin connection was too big of a coincidence to ignore. “I’m going to text you an address. If he’s not there, then head back to the clubhouse and tell Ryder that Marco has gone rogue, and my brother is working with DEA Agent Schakowsky.”
“Shit. Do I even want to know what sort of seedy joint you’ll be sending me to? Please tell me Marco doesn’t have some sort of weird fetish that he goes all the way to Austin for.”
Knowing Tweak, he was picturing all manner of fetishes. Not that I was one to judge, because I wasn’t exactly vanilla, but I’d never understand why some people got hung up on feet. I’d once watched a documentary about a guy who got off on women trying on shoes.
“It isn’t clowns, is it? Because you know they freak me the fuck out.”
Jesus. It was worse than I thought. What sort of porn had he been watching?
“No, idiot. I’m sending you to Brandy’s apartment.”
“She still has her apartment?”
I sighed. “Just call me if you find Marco.”
Bass threaded through the club, the leather seat underneath me vibrating with it. But I didn’t mind. From where we sat in the VIP area on the second floor of the club, we had a perfect view of the bodies writhing on the dance floor below us. I could enjoy myself without worrying about a man bumping into me and the atmosphere here was electric.
Stella said she’d fixed the owner’sMaseratia few months back after someone had rear-ended him, and he’d been begging her to come by his club ever since. When we got in line downstairs she’d texted him, hoping we wouldn’t have to wait as long to get in. We were both surprised when the bouncer motioned for us to follow him a few minutes later. Stella tried to tell him that all the fuss wasn’t necessary, but he ignored her, and now I was glad he had.
All the strobe lights were centered on the dance floor, making the space inside the booths darker and more intimate. In the next booth over, someone stood up, but in the dim lighting it was tough to see anything beyond the outline of a man. He moved closer and light reflected off a gold signet ring on his hand, the same one that smoothed down the lapel of his suit jacket. When he stopped at Stella’s shoulder, I could tell the cut of the dark gray suit he wore was expensive.
