Page 46 of Walker

“A few well-placed threats should keep the bitch in line, but I think you’re on the right track. If there’s some dude scoping out your woman’s house, he’s probably trying to see if she has money to spare or other assets that can bring in money.”

“That’s what I’m worried about. You know how some of those fuckers work. We haven’t had traffickers in the area in a long while, since the women from S.H.E. ran them all to ground. Doesn’t mean those unsavory types that loan money wouldn’t see Ariel, or Josh Jr. for that matter, as a possible way to earn some green to pay off the dead guy’s debt.”

“Does your woman know that’s a possibility?” Hollywood asked.

I shook my head. “If Ree does, she hasn’t mentioned it, and I don’t want to put that thought in her head if it isn’t already there. She has enough bullshit to deal with.”

It didn’t take long for us to get to the lot where the three idiots met. I showed the guys the images of the men that Quickshot had procured for me. As soon as he got information in from his searches, he sent it to me via text on my burner phone. I only turned that phone on for a few minutes every two hours, so that the GPS couldn’t be tracked as effectively.

“There’s the first one. He looks a little gay, I’ll go lure him over,” Hollywood announced.

“What the fuck?” I asked as he hopped out of the van and Trouble shook his head.

“He thinks he’s God’s gift to all the sexes.”

“Didn’t realize he swung both ways.”

“He doesn’t. He’s a giant fucking tease for anyone who will give him the attention he craves though. The asshole really should have thought about a career in the spotlight. He thrives there.”

“Okay then.” We watched as the asshole’s charm worked on Gary Newsome. It took less than a minute for Gary to be led straight to the back of the van where Trouble opened the door and snatched him inside. We slapped some duct tape over his mouth, tied his ass up, and then waited for the other two morons to show up.

The same shit played out three times over, just as easy each time. “That was scary easy.” Trouble glanced back at Hollywood who toe kicked each of the sniveling bastards in turn. “It’s like none of them have ever heard of stranger danger.”

“Either that or they all have a type,” I suggested. Hollywood grinned.

“Great, you fed his fucking ego. He’ll never let it go now.”

“I went fishing and reeled in three supposedly hetero guys without even breaking a sweat or pulling out my best lines. This face works miracles, motherfucker!” Hollywood’s announcement was met by several groans from the three men who were tied up. Apparently, they didn’t appreciate his assessment.

We drove back toward Sierra High and then up into the mountains where the club had a cabin we used for the solitude and the easy cleanup when it came to messy jobs. I didn’t think things would need to get messy as the assholes we wrangled up weren’t the type to put up much of a fight. Still, we needed the solitude because they were already proving to be noisy fucks during the ride.

“The next one of you fuckers to start blubbering through the tape is going to be the first to die a slow death while you choke on a dick.” Trouble glared back at the men who all shut the fuck up.

“Wish I’d thought of that about fifteen minutes ago,” I muttered.

“That’s why you have backup.”

Once we got there, it took no time at all to get them into the makeshift cabin and strung up on the meat hooks that hung from the rafters. The cabin consisted of one room in the entry that appeared to be a living room area, and then the back room that was soundproofed. There were no windows in the back room, though from the outside it appeared as though there were and that blackout shades were drawn down.

The floor was sealed concrete that sloped from all sides toward the middle of the room where there was a large drainage pipe in the floor with an industrial mesh strainer to keep larger chunks of things from falling in and clogging the pipes. We weren’t necessarily a one percent club anymore, but the old ways meant that we were still prepared for anything and everything.

Once I had all of their attention, I grinned at them. “Do you know who we are?” They all shook their heads. “Good, if you have any hope of surviving this, when we’re done here, you also won’t know who we are. You won’t know who anyone we talk about is and you won’t remember that this ever happened. Are we in agreement?”

They all nodded their heads vigorously and Trouble and Hollywood moved forward to snatch the tape from their mouths.

“We can’t all miss work together. Someone will know,” Gary yelled immediately, as he was in the grips of full-blown panic.

“Nah, they’ll think you fucked off to the casino together again.” At the worried looks they cast one another; I knew it was the right thing to say. “No one is going to miss you.”

“We’ll get fired. They warned us if it happened again…” the smallest of the three, Andy started to say, but Hollywood reached over and smacked him across the face with an open palm. I shook my head at the cartoonish slap and the responding gasp from Andy. If these were Josh’s friends, it made me wonder what kind of man my vivacious Ree had hooked up with. Then again, she probably didn’t know any better, since they were together in high school and stuck it out for the baby they made.

“Don’t speak unless directly spoken to,” Hollywood ordered once he had all of their attention. Then he turned back to me. “You were saying?”

“We already established no one was going to miss you and whether you lose your jobs or not isn’t my concern. It shouldn’t be yours either as your lives are the bigger problem at the moment.” Andy whimpered and Gary pissed himself. Chuck, the third asshole we had strung up, watched me with calculating eyes. He was the one to worry about. I nodded my head toward him and Trouble moved in to slap the tape back over his mouth.

“He didn’t even say anything!” Gary cried out in defense of his friend. It surprised all of us because it didn’t seem like he would have the balls to stand up for himself, much less his friends. I nodded again and Trouble slapped tape back on his mouth as well. That left Andy as the mouthpiece of the group.

“Let’s hope Andy here can tell us what we want to know. If he can’t you two assholes will be the ones to suffer for it.” Andy, who was strung up between the other two looked left then right and gulped.

---