Page 20 of Static

"The dick," Toxic offered.

Lock just shook his head. "Money."

"Oh. Yeah, that, too," Toxic muttered.

"We already took out the mafia," Hush said.

"And that made him lay low for a bit," Lock replied, "but it wasn't enough. It didn't hurt him or he would have come after us sooner."

"Man like that has multiple layers of where he launders his money," I said.

"Agreed," Idaho said. He'd finally finished the fucking sandwich. "It would be stupid to trust one organization with all of it. I wouldn't."

"He probably has a few different businesses that take care of it for him," I added. "We already found the laundromats the mafia was using."

"And the Expo Center," Priest added.

"Exactly," Lock said. "We need to find who else he's using and put some fucking pressure on them. Force them to stop helping him. We fuck with his money, we fuck with him."

"I can look into that," Rip offered. "Dash and I will see if we can find who he might feel comfortable enough to leave it with."

"Good," Lock said.

"Once we find the places, what then?" Ricochet asked.

"Yeah, they're not going to stop helping him just because we ask," Smoke pointed out.

"I can make them stop," Butcher offered, a dark glint in his eyes.

"We have to do this clean," Lock warned, giving him a hard look. "We can't leave a pile of dead bodies around the city or we're all going to end up in fucking prison. The whole point is to take Fremont out in a way where we can't be touched."

"That's askin' a lot," Hush muttered.

"It is. So, ideas?" He looked around. "How do we force his associates to stop working with him?"

His eyes landed on me and I groaned out loud. "I have an idea." But I really fucking didn't like it.

CHAPTER 9

Gwen

Isat down at the kitchen table with a sigh and pulled my hair back into a low ponytail. I'd just finished getting Grace back to sleep after another round of puking. It broke my heart to see my babies sick. I hated days like this and would happily switch places with them so they never had a single day of illness.

A soft knock on the door made me frown. Toxic and Butcher had already stopped by earlier to return my keys and I wasn't really expecting anyone. Most of the girls were home and had already dropped off enough food to feed us for a week. I got up and opened the door, a tired smile forming when I saw Static standing there. "Hi." I looked him up and down. "Looks like you showered."

He chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, as soon as I left your apartment." He narrowed his eyes when I opened my mouth. "Don't you dare apologize again."

I closed it with an audible click of my teeth. My smile turned guilty because I was about to do exactly that. "The kids are sleeping," I told him.

"I was hoping you could help me with something?"

Turning to look over my shoulder at the bedrooms where my babies were resting, I hesitated. "Oh, I don't know." I wanted to, because Static helped us so much, but I hated to leave them.

"It won't take long," he urged, then motioned for someone.

Sylvia walked up. "Hey, Mama," she said, voice as low as ours. "I heard our little ones aren't feeling well."

Relief swelled in my chest. If I had to leave my kids when they were feeling crummy, I didn't mind as long as she, or one of the other old ladies, was willing to watch them. "Probably just a twenty-four-hour bug."

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