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“What the fuck’d you do?” Sting bellowed at Stitches.
“Narcan. Took away his buzz. Also has a tendency to…” He waved his hand in Dustin’s direction. “But we now know for sure he’s on something with an opioid in it. Besides, he’ll settle down in a few minutes. It’s the shock of havin’ all that shit go away in the space of a few breaths that gets ‘em.”
They waited for Dustin to quit struggling, which took several minutes. I pressed my face to Rage’s back, and he turned to me, putting his body completely between me and Dustin.
“How long’s he been usin’, baby?”
I shook my head. “I have no idea. I mean, his personality has always been a little erratic, but never so much I suspected drugs.” I couldn’t keep myself from trying to get a peek around Rage to see Dustin. It was like a bad train wreck. I didn’t want to watch the carnage but was helpless to keep from it.
“Eyes on me, baby.” He grasped my chin in his hand and turned my face up to his. “We’re not done yet. Can you take more?”
“As long as you don’t leave me by myself, I’ll be fine. I need you, Rage.”
He groaned and pulled me into his embrace. “She’s done, Sting.”
“Give me a few more minutes, Rage. I promise to make it quick, but she needs to tell everyone here what happened in her own words. If we’re gonna take care of this, she has to.”
Rage gave a strangled, frustrated growl. “Make it Goddamned quick.”
“I hear you.”
When Dustin finally settled down, he glared at everyone. “I’ll be happy to see all y’all six feet under!”
“I want to know what you said to Pepper when you called her to come pick you up.” Sting moved around the table to stand in front of Dustin. “Specifically, I want to know how you threatened her.”
“No one said I threatened the bitch.” His bloody smile was positively evil. “But I did make a few promises.”
“Such as?”
Dustin laughed. It wasn’t a pleasant sound. “If I don’t get her and her little brat, they will. Either way, there’s no way you can save her. Best to give them both to me now and let us get out of your hair.”
“The ‘they’ you’re talking about is being taken care of as we speak. When I said you guys picked the wrong firm to target, I meant it. Ever heard of a place called Argent Tech?”
“‘Course I have,” Dustin snapped. “Everyone in the fuckin’ world knows what Argent Tech is.”
“The law firm your… friends targeted is working for Argent. Moreover, they’ve pissed off some pretty dangerous people.”
There was a pause while Dustin processed that. Then he shrugged. “Don’t matter. It ain’t me they’re comin’ for.” He nodded to where I stood behind Rage. “I’ll make sure they think it was all her.”
“You honestly think the people behind the biggest tech company in the fuckin’ world don’t know exactly what happened every step of the way? They let you in just to see what you’d do. Why? Probably had something to do with the Max Dinos.”
At the name of the crime family, Dustin started, obviously not realizing Sting knew his relationship with them. “Don’t know what you’re talkin’ ‘bout.” Again, his chin went up stubbornly. He was going to play this out to the very end.
“No? Well, let me refresh your memory. You like to spend money. You like to gamble. You blew through your share of your father’s life insurance policy and most of your mother’s, too.”
Dustin’s lips parted on a gasp. “How’d you know that?”
As he spoke, Wylde entered the room with a laptop and a grim look on his face. “‘Cause I’m fuckin’ good at diggin’.” He set the laptop on the table and jerked his head at Sting to come look. “Fucker’s been busy the last few years.”
Sting looked at the laptop, scrolling through the information on the screen. I couldn’t see, but I could see Sting’s face growing more and more thunderous. His gaze snapped to Wylde. “You fuckin’ kiddin’ me?”
“Never about something like this, prez. This fucker needs to be put down.”
Sting shot a look at Rage. “Seems your brother doesn’t care how he gets his money. You know he killed your father?”
Rage stiffened. I could feel the tension radiating off him. I put a hand on his back, then pressed my face against him. He relaxed marginally but was still shaking with what I could only assume was fury. “You positive?”
“Oh, yeah. He thought he erased the cheap home security system, but I’m a hacker. Nothing put on the cloud ever truly gets erased. If you know how to retrieve it.” He tapped the screen. “His dad drowned. Right?”
“Yeah. Got drunk and fell into the backyard pool.” Rage glanced back at Dustin who now sat wide-eyed in his chair.
