Page 6 of Stryker

John reached into his pocket andpulled out his cell phone to show Stryker the picture of the pieceundamaged and wrapped for shipping. Stryker took his cell phone outand snapped a picture.

“I’ll be back.”

Stryker jumped out of the container,motioned for Brick to follow him, and headed for the diner. Strykerknew John wasn’t the type of guy to argue a point, and he wasright; the assholes could take it out on them in the nextdeliveries, but that wasn’t going to happen, not on hiswatch.

“Follow my lead,” he saidto Brick, who nodded.

That was the thing about the team; hisbrothers were there to back each other up no matterwhat.

He entered the diner and saw the twomen sitting at the counter shoveling eggs into their mouths.Stryker motioned for Brick to sit on the opposite side of themwhile he went to sit on the other beside the dark-haired man. Thewaitress came over with a big smile to take their order.

“Hey, guys. What’ll youhave?”

“Two black coffees,please, Marie,” Brick said with a smile.

The two men from the trucking companyglanced at either of them before continuing to eat their breakfast.Stryker calmly set his phone down on the counter close enough tothe one man with the name Fred stitched to his shirt so he couldsee what was on the screen. The guy glanced over but didn’t sayanything. Acting stupid didn’t matter to Stryker onebit.

“I think we have a problemhere at the new store,” Stryker stated.

Marie returned and set the two coffeesdown in front of them.

“Thank you, Marie,”Stryker said, and she smiled widely.

Fred looked up at Stryker, sneered,and said, “Fu—”

Wrong move. Before the guy could evenget the rest of the words out of his mouth, Stryker took hold ofhis wrist and turned it ever so slightly, pinching the nerve ashe’d been taught all those years ago, putting the asshole in apainful hold. Thanks to their position with backs to the rest ofthe restaurant’s patrons, no one was the wiser.

“Now, if you make a scene,I’ll leave you flattened on the ground. So I would consider yournext words very carefully.”

The second guy tried to move in tohelp his buddy, but Brick easily stopped him with just one look.Stryker had seen that particular look before from his friend, andthe second guy was smart to sit his ass back down.

“Now, as you can see here,from the photo, that piece of furniture did not have a large crackbefore your company moved it, so this is what will happen. You’regoing to get on the phone, tell your boss the truth about whathappened to this piece of furniture, and you’re going to acceptresponsibility for the damage. Then your insurance is going tocover the cost of replacement. Do we understand each other?”Stryker asked while giving the man’s wrist more pressure, makingthe man wince.

“What makes you think wejust won’t go to the sheriff and have your ass arrested?” thesecond guy growled.

Brick started laughing and pulled outhis phone. “Here, I have him on speed dial. See what happens next,’cause he doesn’t like assholes coming into his town and takingadvantage of his fine upstanding citizens. You want to try yourluck?”

When neither made a move for theirphones, Stryker asked, “Do we have a deal?”

“Fine, we broke it. We’llcover the damages,” Fred huffed.

Stryker released his wrist, and theguy began rubbing it. Without missing a beat, Stryker reached intoFred’s front pocket, took out the wallet, then used his phone tosnap a picture of his ID.

“What’d you do that for?”Fred asked.

“My insurance theremaining deliveries will be coming promptly and without anyfurther damage. If they do, I know where to look foranswers.”

Stryker threw the guy’s wallet ontohis eggs, dropped a couple of bills down on the counter to covertheir coffees and tip, and got up.

“Remember to tip yourwaitress,” he said before walking back out of the diner withoutglancing back.

“Assholes will always beassholes, and sharks will always be sharks,” he murmured to Brick.“They see a perceived weakness, they pounce. That isn’t happeningany longer.”

“What was that all about?”Brick asked.

“They tried to screw ourfriends over.”

“Oh, I see that, butthat’s not what I’m talking about.”

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