Page 35 of Murder & Mayhem
Flame’s eyes narrowed and two of the guards raised their rifles. They still weren’t pointed at us, but it was less casual.
“How do you know this? Who are you?”
I smiled. “It doesn’t matter who we are. Or how we know, just that we do. We’re only here for the Sullivan kid. I don’t give a fuck what else you have going on. Let me grab the kid and we’ll leave.”
“Listen, I don’t know who the fuck you are or what your business is with the Sullivan kids. I really don’t givea fuck. But if that one said he could pay you for this”—he upnodded to the vehicle—“he’s lying. If he had money, we wouldn’t have resorted to trying to take the kid to pay his stepfather’s debts.”
I ignored the paying part. I would never accept money from Jamie. Besides, we weren’t mercenaries.
“So you admit you took Bailey?”
“Are you a fucking cop or something?”
The guns went up, and instantly, Gid and I responded with our own weapons drawn and pointed at Flame. “Do we look like fucking cops? I already told you, all I want is the Sullivan kid. You admitted to taking him, so tell me where he is and we’ll be on our way.”
Flame watched both of us, and neither Gid nor I backed down despite his men having fucking rifles.
Finally, he held a hand up. “Stand down.” The guys lowered their weapons.
“Look, I’m not denying that I sent O’Malley to grab the kid. We were looking for that one though.” He waved to the SUV again, and he was fucking lucky I didn’t blow his ass up right here.
“Why?”
“‘Cause we knew he’d trade himself for his brother. We were gonna have him do runs for us. Not anything crazy. But his stepdad ran up quite a debt and the fucker was useless. He was never gonna be able to get it for us. We would’ve killed him eventually, but that wouldn’t get us our money.” There was a fucked-up kind of logic that I believed. “But fucking O’Malley two-timed us. He made a deal with his whore of a cousin and took off with the kid. I got no idea where either of them are. Believe me when I say, if I did, that fucker would be dead.”
“And Bailey?”
Flame shrugged. “I’d probably have continued with theplan, but he ain’t worth all this trouble. If I found him now, I’d just hand him over to you. I don’t know who you two are, and that scares me more than if I did. You’re clearly professionals, yet I don’t recognize you. One fucking kid and a junkie’s debt ain’t worth it.”
“I think he’s telling the truth.”Ari added, “I was able to get into his phone. He’s fucking pissed about O’Malley, and what he said about his plans with Bailey seem to line up.”
“I believe him too.”That was Jamie.“Flame never fucked with us, and he would get pissed anytime there was someone too young at the clubhouse or hanging around one of his crew. Joey used to talk about how a few of his buddies just disappeared.”
I lowered my weapon, and so did Gid. With a nod from Flame, so did his guys. “Then you won’t mind if we take a look around? You can put a guy on us if you want.”
He seemed to consider that but finally nodded. “Go ahead. You’re only wasting your time, not mine. Phones stay in the car, so do weapons.”
I nodded my agreement.
“Nickel.” He pointed to one of the guys. “Stay with them. If they do anything besides look for the kid, shoot them.”
“Got it, boss.” The guy on the right stepped up to me, and Flame and the other two turned away.
CHAPTER 14
DOMINIC
Bailey wasn’t there. Neither was O’Malley, just like Flame had said. It wasn’t a surprise, but I was shocked about how cooperative they were. Flame seemed way more concerned with O’Malley taking off and backstabbing them than anything to do with the Sullivan brothers. I confirmed that Joey Bryne was dead, and he only shrugged and said, “Good.”
He met us back at the vehicles when we finished our search with a proposition. If we found O’Malley, we handed him over to Flame, and in exchange, he’d forgive Byrne’s debt and leave Jamie and Bailey alone. If it was his men that found O’Malley and Bailey, he’d hand Bailey over to us and was willing to work out a deal with me to pay off the debt. One that utilized my services. I had no idea what he thought my services were—he asked no questions, but he had preconceived notions and an idea I could be useful. By some of the comments he made, it seemed like he thought Gid and I worked for one of the crime families that ran this city, and we didn’t discourage thatthought. I agreed to the terms without even thinking about it. It took me by surprise how easily I’d entangled myself with Jamie, but it hadn’t even been a question. Jamie, on the other hand, was pissed.
The Wraiths let us leave without an issue. Once we were gone, we scanned the SUV for a tracker and weren’t really surprised when we had to remove one. We would’ve done the same.
“Okay,”Ari told us once we pulled away from the dump. I had him on Bluetooth. Jamie was looking out the window, his knees in his chest, and refused to talk to me after I’d taken on that deal without discussing it with him first. Usually, I wasn’t bothered when people were mad at me, but Jamie’s anger hit differently. I wanted to make it right, but I had no idea how.
“While the two of you were searching the property, I heard back from my contact, Luca Castellano. His new hacker agreed to look into things as well. They have more resources than I do, so I was happy to let him share the load. They also have a file on Slash that Luca just sent over. I’m reviewing it now. Luca also agreed to send some of his guys to help out if we need it.”
“Good.” I looked at Jamie. He was steadfastly ignoring me, but he was paying attention. “We’re going to head over to the shore house. Gid has to stop at his cottage, but then he’s going to meet us over there as well. It’s not far from the docks and it’s stocked. It’s a good base.”
