Page 88 of Switch
I’m honestly starting to wonder about him.
Brennan slams a clip into a gun.“Matches with a lot of what I’ve heard.This guy’s selling junk that’s killing people.And the rumors that if you piss him off, you disappear?Maybe he’s killing them, maybe he’s trafficking them.Either way, my intel says there’s a big shipment going out tonight, and I intend to head him off.Gonna burn his whole operation to the ground.”
“I told you I wanted in if you were taking someone down.Why did I wander in here and find you fingering your gun collection?”
“It’s called taking inventory, you little weasel, and you’d have known about it if you’d checked any of your messages in the past few days.”
Oh.Right.I pull up the messaging app on my phone.Between Brennan and the group chat I have hundreds of them.
“I saw you sent me some stuff,” I admit.“I assumed it was for jobs, so I didn’t read them.”
“Suddenly found yourself a sugar daddy?”
“No.”
Never once did I think of Fallon as a sugar daddy.Hell, I wouldn’t have wanted him to be.I’ve taken care of myself for a long time.Would I have given it all up for him?I certainly thought about it.And after Fallon came to stay at my place, I didn’t want to go out without him.
The night he touched me with shaking hands before fucking me into the mattress assaults my memory.All that trust and love feels like a lifetime ago.
“Well, if you’re going after this guy, then I’m coming with you,” I tell Brennan.“I want to fucking kill him.”
He’s a danger to Fallon.He was such a horror to Fallon’s late wife that she tried to murder him.He’s terrorizing the entire East End.He has to die.
Brennan raises one dark blond eyebrow.“You don’t look like you could manage stomping a cockroach right now.No offense.”
Ravi holds up a finger.“To be fair, cockroaches are notoriously hard to kill.”
“I hate it when people say no offense.They only say it because they know they just said something offensive.”
Brennan laughs.“I’m telling the truth.If you’re offended, no skin off my ass.”He looks me up and down.“Can you shoot?”
“Not really.I’m good with a knife, though.”
Nobody would’ve let me have a gun when I was in foster care, and they’re fucking expensive.
“I can shoot.”Ravi holds up his hand like he’s ready to answer a question in class.
My head swivels to face him.“You can?”
He shrugs.“Sure.My, uh, the guy I was sent to live with after my parents died?He’s some former military something or another.He taught me a few things.”
Ravi knows secrets.Ravi can shoot a gun.What the hell else don’t we know about this kid?
“Look.Real talk.You go in there, it’s a solid possibility you don’t come out.That something you idiots really want to sign up for?”
“Yes.”No hesitation on my part.Fallon needs to be safe.That’s what I know.That’s what matters.
I’m surprised to see Ravi’s head bobbing as well.
“If you can stay the fuck out of the way, I’ll let you ride along,” Brennan says.“But if you don’t know how to fire a gun you’re not going to be the one who kills this guy.I never thought I’d say this, but stay behind Rav.”
I look at my friend, who’s five-foot-five and not even old enough to drink yet.“What are you even doing here?Don’t tell me you came down here to help Brennan kill off his competition.”
Ravi’s eyes get wide.“Oh.Yeah.No.Well, I came down here because we were going to discuss the details for my auction.”
Right.The fucking virgin auction.As soon as I straighten out the rest of my shit, I’m having another talk with this kid.
“But then I stayed when Brennan told me what was going on.This guy is hurting people, PJ.He’s taking people who were already struggling off the streets and putting them on shipping trains to Mexico.That’s so wrong.And when someone is doing something wrong and you can do something to help, shouldn’t you try?”For a second Ravi’s eyes narrow, before he adds, “Besides, I don’t like it when people use their power to hurt someone who can’t fight back.”
