Page 52 of Grim

“I could do that.” I walked over and stood directly in front of him. “But I’m gonna need something from you first.”

“Anything. Just no more of this shit.”

“If you want it done, you’re gonna have to tell me who your crew was working with?”

A spark of hope flashed through his eyes as he asked, “You mean our supplier?”

“Suppliers. Distributors. I want to know everyone with ties to your crew.”

“Ah, man,” he snickered. “You boys got trouble.”

I grabbed the broom handle that was leaning against the wall as I warned, “Answer the fucking question.”

His smile faded as he looked at the broom, then back to me. Knowing what was in store for him if he didn’t talk, he let out a sigh and answered, “Marco Delgado.”

“Who the fuck is that?”

“He’s cartel, and he’s our supplier.” Ruben couldn’t even look at me as he explained, “He wants his money, and nothing’s gonna stop him from gettin’ it.”

“How much money are we talking about here?”

“’Bout a quarter of a mill. He did a drop a couple of days before you and your boys came after us. That’s been at least a couple of weeks, so yeah. He wants his fucking money.”

“How can we find this guy?”

“His number’s in my phone. Just don’t tell him how you got it, or he’ll kill everyone I ever cared about.” Ruben shook his head. “Dude is one sick motherfucker—even worse than you, and that’s saying somethin’.”

After I leaned the broom back against the wall, I grabbed Ruben’s phone from the counter and started for the door. “Good doing business with you.”

“Whoa! Wait!” Ruben screeched. “You said you were gonna finish me off!”

“I lied.”

“Come on, man! Don’t do me like that.”

Without responding, I walked out of the room and let the door slam behind me. I went back and got Shep, and together, we headed to Prez’s office. When we walked in, he was sitting at his desk, and Creed was sitting across from him. Prez leaned back in his chair as he said, “I hope this means one of you found something.”

“Yeah, you could say that.”

I took a minute to tell them everything Ruben had told me, and once I was done, Prez shook his head and sighed. “This is not the news I wanted to hear today.”

“How do you want to play it?”

“As far as I see it, there’s nothing to play,” Prez answered. “Delgado doesn’t know we were involved, and there’s nothing out there that will lead him to think otherwise. So, we keep quiet and don’t buy trouble we don’t need.”

“And if he happens to piece something together?”

“Not gonna happen, but if he does, we’ll deal with it.” Prez immediately turned to Shep and ordered, “Get me everything you can find on this guy. Just so we cover all our bases.”

“You got it.”

“Let me know what you find.”

“Will do.”

Shep turned and started out of the room. Once he was gone, I looked over to Prez and said, “My time with Ruben has run its course. I figured you or Memphis might wanna come finish him off, or I can do it myself. It’s your call.”

“We’ll take care of it.”

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