Page 13 of Gangster Daddy's Girl

I honestly have no idea how this has happened. In the beginning, I thought Tabitha would be an amusing distraction. I thought she’d be fun to mess around with. What I never anticipated was the effect she was going to have on me. I never expected that she would impact me on the level she has, nor get so deep under my skin. And I really never foresaw myself, a loner by nature, thinking about her just about every single minute of the day. It’s just never been who I am.

But here I am. When I’m not with her, I’m either thinking about her or planning the next time I get to see her. I don’t understand how it happened. But she’s ten times more addicting than any drug I’ve ever done. The more I get to know her, the more I learn about her, the more I want to know and learn. She has me craving her in ways I never thought I’d crave anybody. It’s confounding, but at the same time, it—no, she—is intoxicating.

The door to my office opens, and Marco steps in. His body is taut, his expression dark, telling me that something happened, and whatever it is, it’s not good. Sitting up, I grab my phone and shut off the music, plunging my office into silence. He closes the door and crosses the room, dropping heavily into the chair in front of my desk.

“What is it?” I ask.

“Tommy and Max got jacked last night.”

“They okay?”

He shakes his head. “Dead. Both of them.”

“What the fuck happened?”

“Still trying to piece it together, but from what I’ve been able to dig up so far, it looks like two guys in masks got the jump on them, got them down on their knees, and executed them. Two in the back of the head,” Marco says, miming the act of shooting. “Snatched the product, and the money then disappeared. Still in the wind.”

“And nobody knows who it was?”

He shakes his head. “If they do, nobody’s talking.”

I sit back again and drum my fingers on my desk. Dealers getting jacked isn’t a new thing. It happens. But I tend to run such a tight ship and am always out in the streets keeping an eye on things that it’s minimal within my organization. In those odd instances when one of my guys gets jacked, retribution has always been swift and brutal. Because of the tight grip I keep on things, it’s been quite a while since it’s happened to me. Fear is a useful tool and an effective deterrent.

“So, who’s got the balls to jack me?” I ask.

“We’re still looking into it.”

“Can’t imagine it’s any of the pussy street gangs we ran out of town years ago.”

“It’s possible a couple of them grew some balls.”

“Doubtful. I think we made our point about coming into our territory more than clear.”

“Some people are stupid and need repeat lessons.”

It’s possible, sure. But something is telling me this isn’t one of those times. Something in the back of my mind is telling me this is different. We made it more than clear that we don’t tolerateoutsiders trying to poach business in our area, and for a long while, there has been peace out on the streets. I don’t see one of my former rivals breaking that peace by doing something so reckless and stupid.

“What are you thinking?” Marco asks.

“I’m thinking this isn’t one of the idiots we ran out of town.”

“No?”

I shake my head. “Nah. I don’t think this is them.”

“All right. Enlighten me then.”

“It’s Rico and Dawson.”

Marco pulls a face. “No way.”

The more I think about it, the more it feels right. And the surer I am. I nod. “Yeah. This is them.”

“They don’t have the balls.”

“Like you said, stupid people do stupid things.”

Marco sits back and seems to ponder it for a moment. “Okay, so what are we going to do about it? We obviously can’t let this stand.”

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