Page 45 of The Mafia's Property

“There’s something I need you to test,” I said as soon as he answered. “Good morning, boss.” His words were slurred.

“I hope you’re not drunk.”

“At, what is it…” I heard a giggle of laughter in the background. For a man in the later years of his middle ages, he had stamina. He always had a different girl on his arm. “Seven?”

“Nine.”

He burped. “Sorry about that.”

“Be at your workstation when I come over.”

Sunny looked nothing like the slurring, drunk man I heard over the phone. He was already at the lab when I got there in his lab coat and waiting for me at the entrance. The lab was hidden somewhat from the public., but easy to spot if you knew what you were looking for. A dollar store and a nail salon sandwiched the nondescript building that did not look out of place on the strip mall. Dante liked to use the place to test all to test some of the pills we provided for the high rollers and VVIP clients at our businesses. “Odd to see you on your own. Where’s your other limb?”

I don’t think I knew of a person who worked under me and addressed me so brazenly as Sunny did. Most were rightly afraid of ticking me off. “He had things to do,” I replied. Sunny shrugged and opened the door for me. A receptionist was at the front. The place looked like a legal office, but as we went through several doors, down a staircase and past a heavy silver door with biometric security, we entered into a state-of-the-art lab. Sunny went to stand behind a clean counter full of well-organized lab instruments.

“What do you have?” he said. I pulled out the little bottle out of my pocket and placed it on the counter. Sunny frowned and picked it up, inspecting the little thing. He opened it and sniffed. “It’s not eye drops?”

I shook my head. “I need to know what it is exactly.”

Sunny put on some latex gloves, took a test tube from the test tube rack, and dropped the liquid into it. Then he took another bottle of clear liquid from the cupboard, put in a couple of drops in and shook the test tube. The mix turned cloudy. Sunny’s furrow deepened. He opened a cupboard below and took out another bottle of a different liquid, this one blue. He dumped the mix into the sink and repeated the same experiment with a new test tube. This time, the liquid changed to a brown color. He grabbed a microscope and dropped a few drops of the liquid on a slide, and placed it underneath. Adjusting the lenses, he asked. “Where did you get this?”

“Does it matter?”

He straightened. “It kinda does. There are only a few people in possession of this.” He squeezed the vial I gave him onto a finger, dipped it into water and tasted it. “Yep. It’s the one.”

“What is it?”

“A few drops of this stuff into and a person can, let’s just say forget the entire night.”

“Roofie?” What would Freya want with a bottle of roofie? An unsettling feeling pooled in my stomach. Rico’s words came back to haunt me.

“This is way better than that silly stuff, my friend. It gets to the bloodstream faster and it can make the victim— eh, I mean the person numb to the previous night’s activities, if you know what I mean.”

I couldn’t hide my disgust. Getting a woman in this city was easy as pie. There was no need to drug them. “Something like that would be the talk of the town. How come I’ve never heard of it?”

“Because yours truly, Mr. genius inventor made it and has only given it to one other person so far. Although I’m not sure how it got all the way to you.”

“What else does it do besides roofie women?”

“It doesn’t have any real-world applications if that’s what you’re asking, maybe as sleeping medication, but too much of this and it could be lethal. Though I haven’t fully tested that yet. What’s amazing about it, is that you can drink double what you gave me and you won’t taste it. But a dose that high will definitely kill a person.”

My eyes narrowed. “Who did you give it to?” My voice must have been intense because Sunny cowered and seemed afraid for the first time. He blanched and swallowed hard. “You don’t want me to repeat myself.”

Sunny let out a weary chuckle. “A friend of mine.” I went over to where he was standing and he started rumbling. “He wanted it for a night of party. I don’t think he even used it. We haven’t spoken since and it’s not like I distributed it to the entire city or anything.”

“Sunny.” He was a few inches shorter than I was and up close I could see the roots of his hair transplant flooded with sweat streaming down his forehead. The bravado was a put on easily ripped off it seems.

“Fine. Fine.” He raised his hands in the air. “If I tell you, promise me you won’t get mad or ruin my gig, because honestly, I like it here. It’s a good gig, and I would never do anything to jeopardize it. He made me do it. He asked for it.”

I stepped forward, crowding his space. Sunny was too afraid to make even a move to step backwards. “You’re letting out hot air, Sunny.”

“Derreck Garcia! He’s the guy you want. He made me do it.”

Well what do you know? The anger slowly building inside me was threatening to blow up and needed release. I punched the little chemist in the jaw. He crumbled down onto the floor, holding his jaw in his hand. I crouched down. “If I see any of that shit circulating in this city, or any city in the world for that matter, you’re dead. Do you hear me?”

He nodded. The message had reached him, I was sure, but that doesn’t mean he was getting off with just a punch to the jaw. I picked him up and made a call to one of my men. Sunny could be working with Freya. All three of them could be working together. I could not take the chance. He had to be sharply questioned. I was not mad at him. The anger I had was palpable and only meant for one person, Freya.

Rico

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