Page 86 of Cinder
"If that process worked, then you wouldn’t need men like me."
The sheriff shakes his head as he looks down at the dead man. "You ever think about a warning shot? Or are we skipping foreplay nowadays?"
“Assholes like him don’t deserve a warning.”
“Makes it hard for me to clean up. How am I supposed to explain why he’s missing half his face?”
"If anyone asks, say he slipped."
“Yeah, face-first into a hollow point. Very fucking funny.”
I think about the women inside the truck.
Young women who should never know the depravity of what happened to them.
I crouch in front of the second man lined up with his hands behind his head.
“Where are you taking the girls? And who are you taking them to?”
He screws up his face. He’s not going to play nice. “Fuck you.”
I sigh. “Are you going to tell me who your boss is?”
We already know Viktor is involved.
But I want to know if there is another shark in the fishpond.
Get a clearer picture of what we’re dealing with.
But number two doesn’t want to help. Because he curls his sweaty lip and grits his yellow teeth. “I said, fuck you.”
I nod and then sigh. “Do you know who I am?”
“I don’t give a fuck.”
“Well, that’s rude. But okay. I’ll tell you. I’m the enforcer for this club. Meaning it’s my job to make you tell me who your boss is.” I lean in. “And you’re making me look bad in front ofmyboss. He’s the big ugly one standing behind me wearing the president’s badge. So let me try one more time. Who is your boss?”
“Go. Fuck. Yourself.”
He doesn’t get another warning.
I shoot him in the face.
And when he slumps to the ground, I turn to the third man.
The last one with a pulse.
“Are you going to tell me to fuck myself too?” I ask.
He shakes his head quickly. “No, I will tell you what you want to know.”
I smile. “Thank the Lord.”
He tells us everything.
How Viktor traffics girls and sells them to low-life criminal syndicates around the country. How this truck was heading to a vile criminal called Big Willy in Miami. How the othertwo liked to hurt the girls, but he was just the driver and never touched them.
The desperate lies of a man facing a terrible fate.
