Page 71 of Next Level
I fire back, “But I thought you said three guys tried to jack your stuff?”
“Yeah, it was. If you got pictures of them, I’ll explain it better.”
I pull the photos of Garrett and Jared from my file, and everyone gathers around the desk. Betty leans over and points to Jared. “He ran before anything happened.” She places her finger on Garrett. “This motherfucker is the one I fought with, and I’m pretty sure he was jacked up on something.”
I then show her a photo of George. “Nah, it wasn’t him. The third guy was closer to this guy’s age.” She points to Garrett again. “The third guy wanted to fight me. I hit him once, he put up his hands, grabbed that guy,” again she indicates Garrett, “and ran off. I didn’t know if they were trying to lure me away from the load, but if that was their plan, it didn’t work. I stayed with the load and called for backup.”
Lip rubs his chin. “Fuck so there’s another person we need to be looking for?”
Betty shrugs. “I don’t know. Weird they were trying to fuck with us right before taking her.”
My first thought is to call Sammie and make sure she’s okay, but I spoke with her earlier, and she was with Mike and Brooke, watching movies at home. She’s safe.
Joe speaks up. “That’s kind of what I wanted to talk to you about. See what you think. I’ve put extra men on the dock since this happened, but if these guys are in jail, do I need the extra security?”
I’m lost in thought.
“Level?” Dawg’s voice snaps me out of it. I glimpse at the four of them, looking at me.
“Yeah?”
“What do you think?” Lip asks
So many thoughts are running through my head, and I begin to ramble off what I’m thinking. “I don’t know. They could have been trying to get the drugs because Garrett is using again, but who’s the third guy? I don’t think you need extra security. Just be vigilant. I don’t know how the two are related just yet. I need to think about it a bit.”
Betty speaks up. “Well, if you need me to look at any other photos, just let me know. I’m here to help. I’m just glad you got Sammie back, and she’s safe.”
I acknowledge her words with a quick bob of my head.
Joe chimes in next. “Yeah, let us know if you need us for anything. We’ll keep searching ourselves and let you know what we find.”
I stand up, extending my hand to shake Joe’s. “Thank you for coming to me with this.” Joe accepts my hand.
I turn to Betty. “Thank you for helping search for her and noticing this. It’s a piece to this already fucked up situation. So, thank you. Now, both of you go enjoy yourselves.”
Betty shakes my hand, and they both exit the office.
I sit back down in my seat. Once Lip shuts the door, I say, “We need someone watching Sammie at all times until we figure this out.”
The door flies open, and I’m about to yell at whoever’s rushing into my office without knocking, but I see Cherry’s face and know it’s bad. Chewy escorts Cherry inside.
I jump out of my chair. “What happened?’
Chewy puts his finger to his mouth, shushing me. “It’s a collect call from Garrett.”
I motion for Lip to leave. Dawg moves to the corner of the room, giving Cherry space to move around.
Cherry has the phone to her ear and her finger in her other ear, trying to hear.
“Yes, I accept the call.”
I move out of Cherry’s way, guiding her to sit in my seat.
She places the phone on the desk, putting it on speaker.
When the phone connects, we hear a scruffy voice. “JJ, you there?”
I see red. It takes everything in my whole body not to grab the phone and lay into him, but we need answers.
