Page 105 of Ink's Devil

The bastard’s dead. Alder is going under.

“But Alder found out later there was more?”

Connor looks down, then up and provides me with the answer, “Guess I’m not so clever. There’s honour among thieves. He trusted the Mexican suppliers more than his son.”

“So, you admitted it, and told them where you stored them.”

He grows animated. “What the fuck type of idiot do you think I am? First, I might not get on with my mom, but I wouldn’t want to let loose the likes of Alder and Phil on her. And second, as soon as I told them, I’d be dead.”

“Which they now think you are,” I remind him.

A wan pained smile crosses his face. “I feel like I am.”

“You are an idiot,” I tell him with no sympathy at all. “Once Alder knew Beth could get her hands on two kilos, when they knew there was more, they knew where it had to be stored. Men have already paid your sister and mother a visit.”

Fucking asshole. The moment he used Beth, he sent those motherfuckers to her door.

“They got the drugs?” This gets to Connor. “Oh, fuck, man. Are Beth and Mom okay?”

“They’re fine,” Beef reassures him, his face grim. “But the drugs are gone. That mean you’ve lost your bargaining chip with Caruso?” Beef doesn’t let on they are in our possession, not his father’s.

“Cops got two kilos,” Connor states slowly. “Perhaps that will be enough.” Then I swear a tear rolls from his eye. “I never wanted Beth to get into trouble. Thought she’d just hand it over and then walk away. How could I know she was walking into a trap? That your brother would swap places with her. Fuck, man,” his eyes find Beef’s, “I didn’t know.”

Even I have to admit he looks contrite.

“What was your plan if the drugs were still there? To offer them to Caruso?”

“Getting that much heroin off the street would look good on his record. Yeah, I’d have bargained with that.”

“When’s your handler back from his fuckin’ sex trip?”

As Beef grins at my description of a vacation following wedding nuptials, Connor answers, “Saturday.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Mace

“So, there you have it,” Beef finishes his summary of the conversation with Connor.

“He’s telling the truth?”

“It’s plausible and fits with the evidence,” the VP reassures the prez.

Hellfire looks thoughtful. “By now Phil will have been told his son is dead, but will he take his henchmen’s word for it? There’s no body, only a lame story about bringing him home to bury. So, we need to do something to convince him, and my suggestion is that a burial has to take place. For that we need Beth and her mom to believe it. They’ve got a funeral to arrange, and a body to put under ground.”

“We’re going to let them believe their son and brother is dead?” Fuck. I might torture people when there’s a need, but unless I’ve finished the job, physical wounds heal or whatever scars left can be lived with. Letting women think they’re putting a family member six-feet-under? The pain will be there for life.

Hellfire sits forward, his hands clasped on the table in front of him. “We’ve all heard what Connor said. Though he doesn’t yet know it, he’s still got, or rather we have, his bargaining chip. We’ve got the drugs. We can pass them to Caruso, and he gets, what, ten kilos in total off the street. But it doesn’t get him closer to Phil Foster, or this Alder. From what you say, Connor thinks he’s a foot soldier, hasn’t inherited the brains of his dad. But I reckon that’s what he’s been told all his life. Patsy probably thought she was right comparing him to Beth’s achievements, and Connor probably read it wrong. There’s a five-year age difference, of course she’d be getting ahead. Connor underestimates himself. He managed to intercept and take the drugs. Fuck knows how he did it. But he could have a lot of info in his head, info that would be of use to Caruso.”

“Suppliers and routes for a start.” Demon nods. “But is it enough to get our brother out of jail?”

Crease lines appear around Beef’s eyes. “Caruso knows Phil’s in this up to his neck, but the fed is looking in the wrong direction. Alder’s the kingpin here. Ten kilos of H sounds a lot to us, but easy to replace. That shit’s flooding over the border, we all know that. Caruso might play ball if Connor gives him the man at the top.”

Demon’s eyes snap to his VP. He looks thoughtful. “It could work,” he says. “Give him the chance to stop the trade rather than just putting a dent in it.”

I frown. “So, we offer that up to get Ink back? But how do you get from there to a funeral?”

“Phil and Alder are still walking free men, if they’ve got suspicions that Connor’s alive, they’ll never stop looking for him. They’re still out ten kilos, remember, and by taking it, Connor’s revealed just how much information he’s got in his head. If they believe he’s dead, Connor can start somewhere else without looking over his shoulder. And,” he holds up his hand before I can ask why the fuck we should care what happens to Connor, “they won’t try to use Ink’s woman to locate her brother.”

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