Page 83 of Shattering Nash

“This other officer was working and actually closer to the Hudson house than Mitchell and Becker. He answered dispatch first, but then Mitchell and Becker came over the radio saying they were around the block, and they’d handle it. On a whim, I checked the GPS. They were ten minutes away.”

“Wouldn’t dispatch have seen that?” Nash asked.

“If they were looking, but it was a busy night. They relied on the officers.” Sullivan sighed. “This is where Fitch comes in. It turns out, he’s been working with Mitchell and Becker, and gotten pretty tight with them.”

Nash scoffed. “Not tight enough to not rat them out though?”

Sullivan snickered. “Fitch would rat out his own mother if money is involved.”

True.

Nash gestured to the hallway, and Sullivan led them down to the last room on the left. Fitch was sitting in a chair in the corner and smoking a cigarette.

“Evening.” Nash circled the room.

Fitch’s hand stilled with the cigarette at his lips as soon as he locked eyes with Nash.

“Ah, fuck.” Fitch shot a glare at Sullivan. “This is your friend? A little fucking heads up would’ve been nice.” Fitch shook his head and took a drag.

“It’s a pleasure to see you too, Fitch.”

Fitch licked his lips, and the corner of his eyes crinkled. He was formulating a plan. Or at best an approach. This should be interesting. He cleared his throat, tossing his cigarette in the can near his chair. “Any chance you’ll throw me some cash for the info?”

Nash narrowed his gaze, shifting it to Sullivan. He rolled his eyes and shrugged his shoulders. Fitch was playing his hand. A respectable move. But not with Nash.

“No chance at all. But” —He smiled at Fitch and cocked his head— “I will let you live.”

“This is bullshit.” He coughed and pushed up from his seat. “Some of us are hustling out here, Nash. I got bills, man. Gotta eat.” He side-eyed Nash. “A hundred bucks?”

“No.”

“Fuck,” he muttered, clearly annoyed he wouldn’t make money for the intel.

There was always a possibility of danger in any meeting. But Nash didn’t expect any from Fitch. He was outnumbered. He may have been untrustworthy and shady to put it mildly, but he wasn’t dumb. It’s the only reason he’d survived this long.

Nash folded his arms. “Tell me about Mitchell, Becker, and Cody Hudson.”

There was a long stretch of silence.

It seemed Fitch was being stubborn. Nash lifted his chin, and Ridge stalked forward. Fitch backed into the wall and tried to skitter away, but he was no match for Ridge, who grabbed him by the back of the neck and slammed him against the wall. The pained grunt echoed in the room.

Fitch held up his hands and blurted. “All right, man. Go easy.”

“Let’s try this again…” Nash arched his brow.

Fitch drew in a breath, accepting defeat. “So the kid, Cody, got busted by Mitchell and Becker a few months ago. First offense, I think, but this kid was fucking scared. Now, the kid’s supplier is a local guy, Zeke Neal, and Mitchell and Becker have been watching Zeke.”

“Why would they care about a small-time local dealer?” Nash asked.

“’Cause he ain’t small. He just flies under the radar. He works under Anders’ crew. Word has it Anders took a liking to the kid, and he’s moving up. If they can get Zeke to give them the information on Anders, that’ll be a big take down.”

“What exactly was their plan with Cody Hudson?” Sullivan asked.

“It was actually a pretty good one. They got Cody to agree to set Zeke up. Cody went in and told Zeke he wanted to get in the business. Cody offers to hold the drugs at his house. That way if Zeke’s place got busted, they wouldn’t have anything on him. All the while, Mitchell and Becker are calculating everything Cody’s holding. And it’s a lot. Zeke set up a pickup with Cody. Mitchell and Becker would watch the pickup, and when Zeke left, they’d follow him and bust him. With that amount of product, Zeke would be looking at a long-term prison sentence. Then Mitchelland Becker offer him a deal, become an informant, have him go undercover so they can bust Anders.” Fitch smiled, eyeing the men. “It’s a pretty fucking solid plan.”

It was an absurd plan and one that wouldn’t work in the end. If Anders even heard a rumbling of Zeke being taken in, he’d have him killed before morning. There were so many holes and what ifs in this plan. It was clearly orchestrated by people who had no idea of the innerworkings of the business.

“That wasn’t how it played out,” Nash said, and Fitch laughed.

---