Vice (Tortured Heroes Book 1) (13 page)

* * *

T
his time
, Stan didn’t even get out of his car. He parked beneath a weeping willow in the corner of the lot. I pulled into the lot on his passenger side and rolled down my window. He was alone, puffing on a fat cigar as he watched the courtyard in front of us.

I spotted Rachel right away. She sat in her wheelchair with one of her nurses beside her. With great effort, Rachel lifted her arm and pointed her wrist at a flock of geese flying overhead. Her laughter carried across the yard and made Stan smile if just for a moment. Then his face grew hard and he leaned across the front seat and pushed his passenger door open. Nodding, I stepped out of my car and got into his.

“Thanks for showing up on short notice. I know that’s dicey for you.”

I closed the door and rested my arm against the window. “I’m here on your dime, Stan.”

“Right.” His bitter laugh didn’t bring me any comfort about what the hell he wanted. “My dime.”

“Stan?”

He ground his cigar out in a plastic tray on his dashboard. It looked like he lived out of his fucking car. Fast food bags crumpled at my feet. He gripped the steering wheel and swore under his breath.

“You set up another meeting with Kinney’s contact?”

I pulled my phone out and unlocked the touch screen. It wasn’t quite eight a.m. “That’s on today’s agenda.”

“Good.” Stan nodded but didn’t look at me.

“You bring me all the way out here to ask me that?”

He shook his head. “I got a call today. Special Agent Cutler. Smug prick.”

My blood ran cold. I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for what I knew came next.

“How long?” I asked.

“Yesterday,” he answered. “Mayor approved it. The feds are flying down tomorrow morning for a meeting. They’re taking over, Jase. I’m doing everything in my power to postpone but I can’t do shit.”

“Fuck.” I slammed my fist against the dashboard. “Do they know about me?”

Stan shook his head. “Not yet. I’ll keep it quiet as long as I can. That’s why you need to set up this meeting with Kinney’s supplier now. Tonight if you can.”

“Even if I do, it might not be enough to make an arrest.”

“Jase …
make
it enough. We aren’t going to get another chance. When I said I don’t know how high up the stink goes in my department, I really meant it. I can’t be sure the feds aren’t part of it.”

“Goddammit, Stan. Even if I make an arrest tonight, that’s not going to be enough if the supplier isn’t willing to flip. Either way, Marsh will know what’s going on.”

“You think I don’t know that? I told you. This is a fucking disaster. I’m scrambling to salvage what I can. And right now, we have jack shit. Just get the buy set up. Is that going to be a problem?”

I didn’t answer. Instead, I pulled up my contacts and called Kinney. Fuck the time of day. He answered on the third ring, groggy. Probably half wasted.

“What up, Jase?”

I didn’t see the point in wasting time with pleasantries. “You know what I’m calling about.”

Kinney laughed. “You’ve got some balls, Jase. You stood me up.”

“Don’t even start with me, asshole. That’s on you. You’ve got one last chance to make this shit right or I’m out. Today, Kinney.”

“Shit. Trust was built, Jase. Now I’m not so sure.”

“So you fucking
fix
it, man. You think I don’t have ways to get the word out about you? Be smart.”

“Calm the fuck down. We’re all on the same side, aren’t we? Lemme get back to you.”

“Not good enough. I need a commitment. The other night set me back too.”

“All right. All right. Imma text you. Time and place.”

“
Tonight,
Kinney. Guaranteed.”

“I said I’ll see what I can do, man.”

“If I don’t hear from you in the next ten minutes with a confirmation, I’ll make other plans. Your choice.”

“I
said
lemme get back to you.”

“Ten minutes.”

“Yeah. Yeah. Ten minutes. Though I’m not promising it’ll be what you want to hear.”

“I have faith in you, Kinney. Looking forward to your text.”

I clicked off the phone before Kinney could say any more.

Stan sighed. “You sure you played that right?”

“Guys like him need a short leash, Stan. He’ll text me back.”

“I hope so. You know the drill though. You hook up with Gates.”

Stan reached across me and opened the glove box. He pulled out a clunky black watch and tossed it in my lap. “You wear it,” he said. “No arguments, you’re going in wired. Work out a code with Gates. This is a deal breaker.”

Nodding, I tapped the power button on the watch and slipped it over my left wrist. “Not a problem, Stan. I’m not putting my life at risk even for you.”

Stan held out his hand to shake mine. His eyes glistened with emotion that twisted my gut. I knew how much this case meant to him. If I needed a reminder, she was sitting in a wheelchair a hundred yards away. For me, it was about getting back my badge. For Stan, he’d never get back what he lost.

“You’d better go,” he said.

Nodding, I reached over and slapped him on the back. “Piece of cake, Stan. I’ll get us what we need.”

“I hope so. Because tonight’s probably our last best chance.”

D
evin

I was done worrying what everyone else thought about Jase and me. The good I felt when I was with him outweighed the judgment I might get from everyone else. This might be how other girls felt. The giddiness. The anticipation of seeing him again. But we had to work together tonight. Even though I felt sure in my decision to take the next step with him, that didn’t mean I planned to drool all over him at the bar. Business was business. And it would be that much harder to deal with Kinney and the others. I’d only put up with so much of their bullshit on the subject.

I tied my hair up and laced up my black combat boots. Tonight would be a bit of a battle. But I braced myself not to cave. I
did
deserve to feel like other girls did, dammit. I just wished I had someone to talk to about it. Floyd didn’t count. I missed my sister. I won’t lie and say we were close like other sisters were. We never had late-night gabfests where Mandy braided my hair. I had no memory of waiting up for her when she went on dates. But we survived the trench warfare that was our shared, turbulent childhoods. I missed being able to share a little of the good stuff too.

“Looking good, Dev,” Georgia called out as I walked in the back door of the bar. I don’t know why she said it. I didn’t do anything special. I’d worn my favorite green leggings and a short-sleeved white tee shirt like I did a hundred times. I gave her a shrug and a ‘what the hell’ gesture with my palms upturned.

Georgia laughed. “You’re smiling, Devin. It looks good on you.”

I shook my head and waved her off. Floyd wouldn’t make eye contact when I walked through the kitchen. That was the first thing that happened to dampen my mood. Jase wasn’t here yet. He wasn’t due for another hour. Still, I missed him, even though I knew that might be dangerous.

“Maintain,” I whispered to myself. This was still new. There were still a thousand things that could go wrong and if my luck and history were any indication, he’d break my heart. For right now though, I wanted to trust it. At least for today.

“Evening, Floyd,” I said, slamming my palm against the food counter. He grumbled something but didn’t turn to face me. I decided to take that as progress too.

“Hey, Dev,” Kinney called out from behind the bar. I hadn’t really had a chance to deal with his current status on my shit list. For not fixing the damn basement door and for calling off last night without telling me. Time to remedy that lest the rest of them think I’d gone too soft entirely.

“Kinney,” I said brightly, while keeping a scowl on my face. He knew that look and his face fell. He tried to smile back but also knew that wouldn’t cut it. He lifted his hands in surrender.

“I know. I know. You’re hating my ass right now.”

“Hate is such a strong word, Anthony.”

“Yeah. Look. I’m sorry. Woke up with a stomach bug. Didn’t think you’d want me to risk coming in and exposing everyone else.”

“You look fine today.”

“Yeah. Twenty-four-hour thing.”

“Lucky that, Kinney. Listen, we need to talk about a few things. Have Roy finish your prep work. Let’s talk in my office.”

Kinney sucked air through his teeth and cocked his head. “Sure thing, boss. Except, we can’t do that right now.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. I was about to come find you. Maybe we can find a few minutes after we close tonight? Your office is kind of occupied at the moment.”

“What the hell?” I shrugged my shoulders and headed toward the bar. I passed by the front window and turned my head. My heart sank. Uncle Cy’s BMW was parallel parked right in front of the building. I whipped my head around and glared at Kinney. “Kinney, you’re on about my last damn nerve.”

He nodded and shrugged but pointed toward the closed door of my office. Uncle Cy was waiting. Once again, I knew he wouldn’t show up here unless he had something important on his mind. In my experience, it was never anything good. I hadn’t seen him since our last spaghetti dinner.

“Uncle Cy? Didn’t know you were planning to stop by.” I put on a smile as I walked into my office. Just like the last time he dropped by, he sat behind my desk with his feet propped up.

“And you know I don’t like to announce my plans.”

His smile was just as fake as mine and it answered the main question on my mind. Whatever set him off the other night, his fuse was still burning.

“Well, it’s nice to see you just the same. Are you here because you missed me or is there something going on?”

He leaned forward and pulled his feet off the desk. “Both, Devin. It’s always both. Have a seat.”

I reached behind me and closed the door. Smoothing a stray hair from my eyes I took a seat in front of him and crossed my legs. I had the feeling this conversation might take a while.

I was wrong.

“Your new dishwasher punch in yet?”

A pit formed in my stomach. This was about Jase. Uncle Cy’s interest in him couldn’t be good. This was my fault. I’d asked Cy to go ahead and look into Jase’s background. With everything that happened over the last couple of days, I’d pushed it out of my mind.

“I don’t think so. I can go back and check if you’d like.”

Cy shook his head. “No. It’s better this way. It’ll give us a chance to talk before he gets here.”

“Okay.”

“Let me be blunt, Devin. When he gets here, I need you to fire Jase Randall.”

My heart dropped into my shoes. “Why?”

Uncle Cy steepled his fingers under his chin and leaned back in a chair. “I’m going to need you to trust my judgment on this. Guy’s bad news. I don’t want him around my bar.”

“Your bar?” I felt like I was underwater. I tried to breathe but couldn’t seem to move air.

“Devin, don’t start with that again. Yes.
My
bar. Our deal is still in place. Until you pay off my capital investment.”

“I’ll have the money next month.” My words came out in a rush. I hadn’t planned them. But the moment I said them, I couldn’t turn back. I
could
have the money next month. It would be a risk. A huge one. I had enough banked. I’d wanted to wait until I had a surplus saved for quarterlies and a buffer in case we had a slow month, but right then, none of that mattered. And it wasn’t even about Jase. Not completely. But something low in me burned hot. I wanted my freedom. I wanted to stop having these kinds of conversations with Uncle Cy. It was now or never.

His face hardened. I don’t know what I expected him to say. Anything but what he did. He slammed his fist against the desk and rose. Just like the other night at dinner, he came around to me and caged me in my seat with fists gripping the arms of my chair.

“I said I’ll have the money next month,” I said. “Then you won’t have to concern yourself with any of my personnel issues.”

“
I
said I want Jase Randall’s ass out of here. Today. Next month is next month.”

I met his eyes. His blazed fire. “Why?”

“What do you mean, why?”

“I mean, if you’re so desperate to have me fire a good employee, I at least need to know why.”

I’ll admit, I was afraid of the answer. A vein popped out on Uncle Cy’s neck. His legendary temper was about to flare. But if I backed down now, I might never gain back this ground.

“You want me to do it for you?”

“No. Dammit. No.” I pushed my chair back, daring Uncle Cy to advance on me. He stayed hunched over for a beat, then straightened and stood up. I slowly rose. “I said I’ll have the money to pay off your loan next month. I can show you my bank balance now if you don’t believe me. I can’t have you charging out on the floor firing Jase. It would undermine my authority.”

“I’ll leave this bar to you when it suits me to do so, Devin. That’s not a term you get to dictate.”

My blood ran cold. For months, I’d suspected this. Cy never had any intention of turning the bar over to me outright. I would
never
get out from under him unless he wanted me to. So many years ago, I remember hearing this same argument between him and my father. In my dad’s case, he gave up trying. I wouldn’t.

“What did you find out about Jase? You need to tell me. What’s he done that makes you think he’s not fit to work here?”

His silence felt like poison, working its way through my veins. God, what was it? Was Jase a serial killer? A criminal? My head spun its way through a kaleidoscope of horrible answers. But none seemed worse than the answer standing right in front of me. Uncle Cy would
never
let me go. This month, it was Jase. Next, it would be something else. A thought crystalized in my mind. The instant it did, I knew it was true.

“Mandy left because of you, didn’t she? You had a falling out. She
knew
you never intended to turn the bar over to us. She left and went somewhere you couldn’t find her. Did you ever really look? Was that just a lie you told me to keep me quiet?”

I couldn’t breathe. I could barely see. Breathe. Just breathe. My knees felt like they would buckle. I gripped the side of the desk for support.

“Grow up, Devin.”

“Tell me the truth. What really happened with Mandy? What do you know about Jase?”

“You’re too close to this. It’s clouding your judgment. On both Mandy
and
Jase.
You refuse to see either of them for who they really are. Mandy was a junkie. She latched on to some loser-of-the-month boyfriend and you know it. You’ll hear from her again when she runs out of money. She’s just like your father. And I don’t owe you any explanations about the other one. That’s the end of the discussion on both fronts. You either get rid of his ass tonight or I will. If it matters to you to save face in front of
my
employees, you’ll handle it like an adult. And
that’s
the reason why I’m not handing this business over to you right now. You’ve proven to me today you’re not ready for it.”

He shook his head and grabbed his suit jacket from the back of my desk chair. Twirling it around his shoulders, he stabbed his arms through it. My fingers dug into the smooth wood of the desktop as he came around me. He wasn’t done. Uncle Cy got right in my face, his breath blowing hot against my cheek.

“And this is the last time you challenge me like this. Understand? You’re nothing without me. If I didn’t support you, you’d be trash just like your mother. Don’t push me, Devin. Or you’ll end up on the street turning tricks just like she did.”

He turned and left me there, gasping with rage in his wake.