Page 30 of Six
“We are close to getting Lenny and whoever else is behind this,” my brother whispers, reading my mind.
“Do you want to back out? I can manage by myself at this point,” he offers.
“Fuck no. Lenny is mine!” I growl menacingly, trying to keep my voice down. Rami doesn’t look convinced, but he doesn’t voice his doubts.
“Let’s get out of here. Go somewhere we can talk.” Rami gestures to the bathroom door. He’s right, it’s too risky to discuss this here.
Lenny is nowhere to be seen when we make our way back into the gym. I grab my bag from the locker room and walk to my car.
So much for keeping an eye on his office.
We drive for a while, me following Rami’s car until it stops in the back of a large Walmart parking lot. I leave the engine on, the hot air coming from the vents creating a warm cocoon in this cold winter day. Rami knocks on the passenger window, and I let him in.
“Did you dig more into Ollie’s background? Find anything of interest?” I ask.
Rami hands me a bottle of water, and I drink avidly. I forgot mine at the gym.
“Ollie, eh?” He raises a brow at the nickname. “Not much that you don’t already know. On Richard Truman, though, he and Lenny go way back. Grew up in the same neighborhood and were arrested together for possession of heroin. He might be into this fight ring shit as well. Since his son is.”
“Yeah, I think he’s got some kind of arrangement with Scorpion’s manager.”
“Bill? He’s a greedy, depraved piece of shit. Had to shower twice after chatting with him.” Rami shudders dramatically. “He got on my donor list.”
“Text me date and time.” I’d like to use a couple of knives on him. “I found him talking to Ollie about something.”
“You seem to care about him.”
I grunt. “Whatever Bill told him, it made Ollie uneasy.”
“Hell, I fucking hate to work like this,” Rami swears. “Also, the new drug we found in the dead boys’ blood has hit the streets. I asked Serena to alert me in case something about that sedatives mix came out. And it did. In the last few days, three victims of rape had traces of it in their system.”
“Fuck!”
“Exactly. We need to find the evidence and through Lenny, get to the root of this clusterfuck. I got a peek at his office when I arrived. I had a chat with him on the stairs—while you weretrainingwith Ollie. Didn’t see any computer or phone in there. But there’s a big-ass desk.”
“We should just break in,” I told him, full of impatience.
“I thought about it. You could take care of the guards, and I could divert the police to another address and bypass the alarm. But what if there’s no evidence in there? As Uri said we’d spook him or blow our cover for nothing. We need to wait.”
I growl angrily, halting his words for a second.
“Wait for Clover. Or for Lenny to trust us enough to let us in and place a bug.”
“It could take ages. We still don’t know what is actually going on.”
“Yeah, but this could be bigger than we anticipated, and we need to tread lightly.”
“They beat young boys to death, Rami,” I vent in frustration.
“Seven boys, I know. I saw the pictures. I hate it just as you do, Rague.”
I know he does. Maybe even more. After a minute of silence, I say, “I think his father is forcing him to fight.”
“Ollie?” He cocks his head with curiosity.
I nod, looking absentmindedly at the people leaving the big store. They are so blissfully ignorant of the malevolent evils that lurk close by. But I know what malignant looks like, feels like, sounds like. I was too weak to stop it at the time, only a kid. But I’m a huge motherfucker now, and I’m going to crush it over and over and over again. Until my last breath.
“I’ll ask around, but Lenny invited us to watch Scorpion’s next fight…against Ollie.”
