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“I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to hurt your lady friend. But you gotta understand. I’m gonna need that money back.”
Licking his lips, he puffs his chest just a bit, and I know I’ve got him exactly where I want him.
“Just make it right, Pete, and we can all go home. Don’t you wanna go home?”
“Y-Yes.”
“Good. So just tell me, Pete, where’s the cash?” I tilt my head to the side assessing his expression. He’s scared, and rightfully so. Something tells me he doesn’t have direct access to the cash and whoever does might not be so willing to give it back.
“I- I don’t have it, a-and I can’t get it,” beads of sweat roll from his hairline down his cheeks and I suck in air loudly between my teeth as I examine his expression.
“Ooo, wrong answer, Pete.”
“B-but I know who h-has it,” he quickly offers up.
“Alright, Pete. Who?”
“R-Reaper.”
“Reaper?” No way I heard that right.
He nods his head, licking his lips, “Well, ex-Reaper anyway. Dante Knight. That was his woman on the surveillance.”
“Now why the fuck would you give an ex-Reaper hard earned Brotherhood cash?” I ask, glaring at him. Wondering what kind of dumb shit this idiot got himself into.
“I-I might have… stolen some of his product. Some H. O-okay, a lot of it. If I didn’t pay him back, he was coming for my ma. I didn’t have the fucking money so…”
Interesting. An ex-Reaper moving product in Havok Hills? Travis and the Knox Brothers are going to have a field day with this one.
“The girl, what’s her name?”
“Cadence Knight.”
Lowering my gun for a moment, I smile and Pete visibly relaxes in response, his shoulders dropping as his lips turn up at the corners smiling back at me. I chuckle and drop one hand to Pete’s shoulder, gripping lightly and he chuckles along with me. I’m not quite sure what he thinks is so funny, but when I stop laughing, I see the fear flicker across his eyes. The moment he realizes it’s the end of the line. The moment right before I whip my hand back up and put a bullet right between his eyes.
Pete’s head snaps back violently as blood, chunks of skull, and brain matter splatter the wall behind his head. Warm droplets of crimson splash across my cheeks, and copper fills the air.
“The fuck did you do that for bruh?” Darren asks, as he snatches a rag from one of the shelves and wipes blood off of his boots. “How are we supposed to get the cash now?”
“Don’t worry about that, I have resources for finding Dante. We didn’t need this piece of shit running off and warning anyone.” I grunt as I push up to my feet.
“Yeah, ok, makes sense.”
Snatching another rag from the shelf, I wipe the specks of blood spatter off of my face, before tossing the rag onto Pete’s corpse.
“Get cleanup out here would ya? I got some shit to take care of tonight, but I’ll get us a lead on Dante tomorrow.”
“Yeah, got it,” Darren mutters as he pulls his phone from his pocket and taps away at the screen.
Sighing, I stuff my Glock back into my waistband and pull out my own phone. Swiping at the screen, I stop when I reach the name of the less crazy brother.
Arsenal Knox
Making my way back through the crates, I tap the screen to call, waiting as the line trills. As I make the jump from the feeder boat back to the dock, Arsenal’s voice filters through the phone.
“Yo kid, what’s crackin’?”
“Hey man, we have a situation.”