Page 40 of Dark Alleys

“Morning, Lukas. Come in and pour yourself a coffee.”

“Thanks, boss.”

Blacky renovated an old Victorian, and his kitchen was huge and high end. His mother-in-law, Carmelita, loved to cook, and he catered to her likes when they did the kitchen over. It was amazing. Big as my entire apartment.

I filled a mug at the coffee station and followed Blacky to his office.

We sat in the lounge area of his huge space, so it wasn’t as formal as me sitting in front of his desk like I was called into the principal’s office.

“Let’s talk about the Tango,” was the way he started off.

“Sure.”

“You give me a verbal report that’s probably going no further than me, and then we’ll discuss what we could’ve or should’ve done better. All in all, I think we got off damned lucky, Lukas. Go ahead.”

“After I called and woke you up, I drove to the park and sat in the parking lot waiting to see how many of the Tango were going to show up. None of the Bandidos passed me, so I figured they were already in the park.”

Blacky nodded.

I told him the rest of the story exactly how it happened, and I didn’t leave anything out. He wasn’t the kind of person you could lie to. He was too fuckin’ smart for that.

He didn’t make notes or anything because all of our undercover stuff was strictly between him and me and off the record.

“When it was right down to the wire and we were waiting for that first shot, I figured the only way to damp it down was to do what I did. Take out Perez and the Blast would fold on the fuckin’ spot.”

“Yep. You figured right. Probably saved a lot of lives, Lukas.” He laughed. “Could’ve gone a whole nother way if the Blast had gone nuts and rushed the barricade, but they didn’t. They were fuckin’ gob struck and lost all of their momentum.”

“After I did Perez, I held my breath for a few minutes as I ran to my truck. It was dark and the crowd was thick.”

“You did good work, Lukas. You caught the rumor, and we saved a lot of trouble for a lot of people. Totally worth it. A gunfight in a public park would’ve cost the city millions of dollars and no telling how many innocents would’ve lost their lives. You kept that from happening.”

“Thanks, boss.”

“How’s your arm coming along?”

“Haven’t taken the bandage off since the second set of stitches went in. Hope it’s healing. The pain is a lot less.”

“Good,” said Blaine. “I’m not sure what the demise of Perez will do to the Blast. Next up will be Leo Castro and I’m not too familiar with him. I’ll have Kamps put together a profile of the new leader and we’ll see what we can expect from him.”

“Good idea, boss. Know their habits and stuff.”

“Exactly. The more we know about the top three, the easier it is to keep them under control or catch them at their weakest moment.”

“Copy.”

Blacky was happy with the way I’d handled the near riot, and I was glad he wasn’t pissed at me. My good mood lasted all the way out Blacky’s driveway until I hit the street.

Regan’s car was parked at the curb, and I didn’t want to deal with her following me. No way I’d allow her to get in my face like this.

Now she was in my work space. Couldn’t allow it.

I parked on the street in front of the Agency fence and walked back to Regan’s car.

I leaned in her open window and tried to hold onto what cool I had left, “Why are you at my workplace?”

“I wanted to see if anything you told me was the truth.”

“As you can see, I do work for the Blackmore Agency—Violent Crime for the State of Texas.”

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