Page 41 of Wrecked

“Sure thing, Boss,” Rebel said as if it were no big deal.

Crow wanted to shoot Jimmy in the head.

“In fact, you can leave with me when I go home,” Jimmy said.

There was only a moment of hesitation on Rebel’s part, but it gave Crow comfort that Rebel didn’t want to leave him, and that was enough to have Crow sliding his arm around Rebel’s shoulders.

“No problem,” Rebel said, as if they were having an everyday conversation.

Crow’s hand tightened on Rebel’s shoulder, his fingers biting onto the man’s muscle. Rebel turned his head slowly and gazed at him.

Then winked.

From the way Rebel was facing him, Jimmy wouldn’t see the wink at all.

But Crow did and it took the wind out of his sudden uncontrollable anger.

Stick to the plan, Crow silently told himself.

They knew this could go either of two ways. The first was that Jimmy would say yes to hiring him and Crow could take the guy out behind his own walls. The second was that Jimmy would say no, which he had.

That meant that Rebel needed to get Angel to the gardens and Crow would get them both out of there.

“Did you see Mitch down there?” Jimmy asked Rebel.

“I did, but he got a phone call and had to leave,” Rebel said.

“I see.”

Crow wasn’t sure that Jimmy bought it, but he didn’t say otherwise and after a few more minutes of small talk, Jimmy announced that they were leaving.

It was all Crow could do to slide his arm away from Rebel’s shoulders.

“I’ll call you,” Rebel said, sliding out of the booth before turning to kiss him on the lips.

Rebel walked away with the group of men and Jimmy put his arm around Rebel’s shoulders.

At that moment, Crow vowed that Jimmy’s days were numbered.

The next morning around 6 AM, Crow paced through the room at the hotel, waiting for Real to call him back.

About an hour ago, Real sent a text message that said he had news on Jimmy Lincoln. When the phone rang, Crow snatched it from the hotel table.

“Did you find out who he is?”

“Yeah…now tell me how the hell you got tangled up with James Lincoln,” Real said, his voice a low growl coming from the phone.

“Rebel went to work as a gun for hire for the guy.”

“Fuck.”

Well, that didn’t sound good, but Crow waited. Real couldn’t be rushed, especially if he was thinking over the information.

“James Lincoln, also known as Jimmy has ties to the Russian mob out of Moscow. He reports to Slavic Balagula who is a descendant of Aslan Balagula.”

That got Crow’s attention. The Notorious Criminal Kingpin, Aslan Balagula, had been shot dead in Moscow in 2010. Who knew the guy had a son? Or maybe it was a grandson. Crow didn’t really give a fuck.

“Okay, so this Slavic is Lincoln’s boss?”

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