Page 56 of Ruthless

Chapter 22

Rebel

After leaving Ginger I called the Max brothers in and then met them at her and Della's apartments to let them inside. No explanations had been necessary, they'd been around a long time and knew what they were doing. As far as cleanup crews went they were fast, thorough, and experienced. They had to be in order to do the jobs they were usually hired for, and their clients counted on them not to leave anything behind for the cops, especially not DNA. With no bodies to contend with, cleanup at the girls’ apartments was an easy job for them.

After that I'd gone to Pirate's Cove, where I met Vinny in his office for a private conversation. He was on the phone when I opened his door. He motioned for me to come in and sit.

"I don't care what you have to do to find him," he growled to someone on the other end of the line. "He damned near killed one of my girls. Kidnapped another." He was as determined as I was to find and end Daryl. He was protective over the girls working for him, and he didn't tolerate abuse of any kind. "No, we got her back. Spread the word. I want the whole fucking town looking for that little prick." He hung up, seemingly satisfied.

I sank down into the chair opposite him, his desk between us. "I want him," I said firmly, leaving no doubt that I would deal with Daryl once we found him. "I just left the Max brothers at the girls' apartments."

"Christ." Vinny hadn't always been a bar owner. Twenty years before he'd been involved with some shady characters and had done some dirty dealings. He'd made use of the Max brothers on occasion, so he knew the significance of hiring them. He'd distanced himself from that kind of life since, but once you were caught up in our world you never really escaped it. It paid to keep your connections. "Stevie told me what he did to Della." He rubbed the bottom half of his jaw. "You know, when I first met Daryl I liked him. He seemed like an okay guy."

"Drugs, man, you know what they can do," I said, sitting back in my chair.

Vinny nodded. "Yeah. I met Daryl in the beginning of their relationship, but he hasn't come around lately for me to notice the changes. If he had, I would have done something."

I believed Vinny. He didn't take shit from anyone. "He's using the hard stuff," I began, thinking about how Daryl had looked that night in Della's apartment, "and he seemed desperate for money. From what we've been able to piece together, he owes the Kings."

Vinny sniggered. "Wicked is crazy, he causes trouble just for the hell of it. If that's true, then Daryl's got a shit-ton of bad dudes looking for him."

"Including the Sentinels. Tanner and I go back a long way. His club is willing to help."

"A couple of them, Ace and Skipper, came by earlier. They wanted to know if I had a picture of Daryl." Shit, I'd forgotten to ask Ginger about that. "Said they'd been in touch with Wicked, but there's bad blood between them, he wouldn't help them for shit."

"Ginger said there was another man involved in her abduction, a friend of Daryl's named Jack. You know him?"

That news seemed to surprise Vinny. He nodded. "I know the guy. He comes in once in a while. In fact, I think he and Daryl met here one night, when Daryl came in to see Della. They were sitting at the bar and struck up a conversation, became chummy. He seemed pretty harmless, though."

"He helped take my woman," I snarled. "He pays for that. If we find him, he could lead us to Daryl."

"I'll ask around when the bar opens. Someone might know where Jack works."

"Does Daryl have family in the area?"

He shrugged. "Hell, I don't know. You know how the girls are, most of the time they don't know the last names of the men they date." He opened a drawer and pulled out a bottle and two shot glasses. "Want a drink?"

"Yeah, I could do with one." I noticed that it was the good stuff. He splashed some amber liquid into a glass and slid it my way.

He poured himself a shot, but before he had a chance to take a sip his phone rang. "Yeah?" he barked into the receiver. He grunted a few times before hanging up. "Well, that's something, at least. I found out Daryl is unemployed, and recently evicted from his apartment. He's been hanging out with one of his friends, someone who drives a black Camaro, could be Jack."

A black Camaro. That jogged my memory back to that morning when I'd almost been side swiped by one as I’d left Ginger's apartment complex. Fuck. It couldn't be a coincidence. My mouth turned down in a sneer as I realized how close I'd been to Ginger.

"What's wrong?"

My expression had given me away. "A black Camaro was leaving the parking lot of the girls' apartment building as I was turning in this morning."

"Shit, man."

"Yeah." I clenched my jaw. "Fuck."

"Don't beat yourself up over it. You got your girl back, right?" Something in Vinny's tone made me narrow my eyes. There was an undercurrent of speculation in his comment, as if he were looking for confirmation as to the status between me and Ginger.

I couldn't blame him, considering what had just happened. Plus, Vinny had known me for years, and he'd never seen me interested in one woman before. He had to know that there was something serious between me and Ginger for me to be there. Ginger was more than just a casual fuck, but if I pointed that out to him he probably would have tried to pound the shit out of me. That thought made me grin.

That pissed him off. "Right?" he asked in a hard, prompting tone.

Did I think of Ginger as my girl? Fuck, yeah. She was mine, and had been for years. I wanted her. I had claimed her. I didn't want anyone else to have her, but admitting it scared the fuck out of me. I felt that once the words were out of my mouth, my fate would be sealed. I wouldn’t be able to take them back. I glared at Vinny, suddenly pissed that he was demanding a commitment from me. It was none of his fucking business, anyway.

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