While I stayed with Richard, Julian and Vaughan immediately ran in the direction the shot was fired from, narrowing it down quickly through a process of elimination.
“Did you find anything?” I ask. I stretch my shoulders from the hunched position I’ve been sitting in. Every part of me aches with fatigue.
“Yeah,” Julian says. “He was packing his shit up when we got to him, roof of the building across the street.”
“He won’t be reappearing anytime soon,” Vaughan adds, and I know he means that they’ve tucked him away somewhere dark and damp and probably beat the shit out of him.
My phone vibrates in my pocket. Everyone in the bar stops still as their devices vibrate too. I pull it out and look at the message that has come from the higher-ups in the Towers.
Richard Cordez killed unlawfully on Sindicate Towers property. $1m reward for information leading to capture and expulsion of the shooter.
“Fuck sake,” Vaughan mutters, shoving his phone back into his pocket with disgust. “They know as well as we do that the shooter was a hire.”
I sigh. “Please tell me he told youwhohired him.”
“Yup,” Vaughan says. “We do know how to do our jobs, Ade.” He cracks his knuckles as if to make a point.
“Well?” I demand, heat dripping down my spine like molten lava, as I prepare to do some killing of my own.
Between the Grants being in town and any other number of dons who may have decided they want a slice of Richard’s pie, the list isn’t a short one.
“It was Cordez. Philip Cordez,” Julian says.
My vision goes to a pin prick as I take in this news. Richard’s own brother hired the shooter.
Why?
“Hey, bro, are you okay?” Vaughan’s hazel eyes look concerned for a moment, before I blink my own and come back to reality. “Ah, thought we’d lost you there for a second.”
I get up and make my way from the bar.
“Where are you going?” Julian asks.
“I need to shower, then we need to figure out what we’re going to do before the situation gets any worse.”
***
The hot water sluices over my body washing away Richard's blood and the grime and sweat from the day. I’ve never known a situation where a boss was killed. Presumably, they put some kind of plan in place. If Richard did that it would likely be detailed and tucked away in his safe.
Only we don’t have the combination to his safe.
The next step would be that he has some sort of lawyers involved to act immediately, but so far, I’ve not heard anything.
Nothing is lining up in my mind. Richard wanted to discuss something about the wedding we attended yesterday. His niece married a Brit mobster. But it all seemed okay to me. There were no fights, no fallings out. Everyone just got on with it because that’s what we do.
So why the fuck would his brother kill him?
He had given his niece an envelope that I know contained a tidy sum of money.
Words were exchanged between him and Philip. There was tension there, but I don’t know what the tension was about. Richard never spoke to me about Philip, or his own sons for that matter.
They must know by now and be flying over. I know Richard was so proud of them, it always left me feeling a little jealous. He said Harry was a force to be reckoned with and I wonder what part of the business he heads up in the UK. If he will move over here to take over the US side of things.
Richard had such a way about him that I never felt as though I was out of the loop. But looking back, it’s clear he kept a lot of information to himself. Anger bubbles inside me. I close my eyes, stretching my neck from side to side to try and release the tension that has built there.
How is it I don’t know more?
Richard had been anxious for the past week or so, since his first meeting with Philip Cordez, before the Grants arrived in town. I make a mental note to go and find them, to find out why each of them had to get married so quickly.