Page 133 of Bossy Hero

Tomer laughs, the sound catching me off guard. The Tomer of old would be hard-pressed to find humor in serious times like these. Even with his earlier frustration over the Katia topic, he’s settled back into his lighter vibe rather quickly. It warms me to my core. Lettie’s so damn good for him.

“Sorry I’m late,” Leo announces, striding in with his tablet tucked under his arm.

“Traffic jam at the elevator, Lionheart?” Tomer teases, clearly not done milking his earlier joke.

Again, I’m taken aback by his mood. Mia and I catch eyes, and she raises her brows and grins. She sees it too. Tomer milking a joke is new territory, and rather than remind him to focus, I’m inclined to let it go. Especially since I don’t want to shit on his newfound joy.

“Har har har.” Lionheart pulls up a chair, taking the last open spot at the table. “Check your emails. I just sent you something.”

Simultaneously, Tomer’s, Klein’s, and Mia’s heads whip to their laptops like they rehearsed the movement to be perfectly in sync.

I check my tablet, my eyes springing wide as I read the subject line:Local Pipeline for Ket, X, Meth, and Fet.

Mia rapidly fills her lungs, making a gasping sound. “Holy shit.”

“Is this legit?” Klein asks, his jaw unhinging.

I clap the big guy on the shoulder. “Lionheart, if this is what I think it is, your tardiness is hereby excused.”

Mia taps her fingernail on her screen. “Who drew this?”

Leo responds, “A friend of mine named Marcus West. We served together, and I’ve kept in touch with him through the years. He’s local to the area.”

Disappointment floods me, thinking of West’s wasted potential. “He’s also a fucking mess. Shady past. Addiction. Criminal activity.”

Which is why I didn’t hire him despite his qualifications.

Mia screws her face to one side. “That explains why he might be privy to this type of info.”

I tip my chin at Lionheart. “Walk us through it.”

“Hang on a second. West’s handwriting is shit.” Tomer shuffles to his workstation. “Let me bring it up on the big screen so we don’t all go blind.”

After a few clicks, he has the hand-drawn diagram on the main screen. Leo strides toward it, and the rest of us roll our chairs over for a better view.

“Keep in mind, some of this might have changed. West’s been clean for a little over two years now. It’s possible some of these players are no longer in the picture.”

Tomer rolls his hand around in aget on with itgesture.

Leo begins his explanation. “I’m a visual learner, and West is shitty at explaining things, so I asked him to sketch it out for me. This diagram is exactly what it sounds like. It’s the drug pipeline he was involved with from pointAtoZ. Now, we all know there are many layers in a drug operation like this, far beyond the buyer and the seller.”

Mia snaps her fingers twice. “Yeah, yeah. No shit. Carry on.”

Shaking his head, Lionheart points at the box on the far left of the diagram. “Customers or users are the first box, obviously. Local dealers are the next level. Anotherduh. You’ve got hundreds of them. When West used, he ended up owing more than he could pay, which is often the case. To cancel his debt, he was forced to sell at the local level. But having drug users in that role isn’t a good business practice because they have a tendency to snort all the product.”

“Where’s the fast-forward button?” Mia thrusts her finger at the other end of the diagram. “Tell me how we get to the Costa Cartel and how it relates to Lenkov. Last I checked, the Columbians worked better with the Italians than the Russians.”

Placing his hands on his hips, Leo tuts at her. “Mia, if we go straight there, you’ll miss the most exciting part.”

She flops her hands onto her lap in frustration. “Well, just tell us that part then.”

Klein pats the top of her thigh. “Easy, tiger. He’ll get there.”

“Fine. I’ll speed it up since we have the patience of toddlers in here.” Leo shifts his stance, moving toward the middle of the board. “At first, West thought he was buying from small-time drug runners. He had no clue how massive the organization was or what he’d end up doing for Costa.”

“This doesn’t sound good,” Klein mutters.

Leo continues. “Because West had specialized skills from the military, he was given an opportunity to pay off his debt in other ways.”

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