Pike (The Pawn Duet #1) - T.M. Frazier Page 0,12

do I.

Nine’s shoulders straighten, and he nods.

King turns to me with his eyebrows narrowed. “Don’t fucking stop looking until you’ve talked to everyone in this town, until you’ve turned over every grain of sand on that fucking beach. Don’t stop until you have a name or, better yet, a body.”

Nine stands. “You got it, Boss.”

“So, what do we know?” King asks.

I push off the wall and wring my hands. “We know that those fuckers were wearing masks. Skeleton ski masks of all fucking things. They didn’t sound or look familiar. If you ask me, they’re hires and not affiliated. The way they jacked us was reckless and not well planned. They shot up the truck tires from behind the guardrail, and we crashed into the median. They surrounded the truck before we could fire back and ordered us out of the truck. When Badger told them to go fuck themselves, they shot him.”

“How’s he holding up?” King asks, dropping the anger for a nano-second. He looks genuinely concerned.

I light a joint. “It was a through and through. We got him over at Nurse Jill’s spot. He’s on a half a bottle of Jack and some blues. He’s been whistling Dixie for the last six hours. Literally. So, I’d guess that it’s safe to say he’ll be alright. Well, after the massive hangover I suspect the fucker will have.”

King nods. “You said they didn’t sound familiar. So, what did they say?”

I hesitate because saying words out loud that I know will only enrage King further isn’t exactly on the top of the list of shit I want to be doing right now.

“Tell him,” Nine prompts.

I blow out a breath. “One of them said to tell you that there’s a new King of the Causeway in town, and he’ll take everything from you, unless…”

“Unless what?” King asks, his biceps look as if they’re about to rip free from his skin. “Out with it!”

I meet his enraged gaze. “Unless, you give him what he wants.”

“And what the fuck is that?”

“I asked the same thing. He said you’ll be finding out soon enough.” Nine reaches up to his forehead and touches the angry red knot right below his hairline. “Then, he used the butt of his gun and knocked me the fuck out.”

King thinks for a moment before spouting off our orders. “Hack into every security camera from here to fucking Miami. Find out where that fucking truck went. Pike, call up every blood-sucking connection you have from street dealers to the cartel. Get me a fucking name. And when you get one”— he takes a deep drag, blowing the smoke out slowly through his nostrils like the angry fucking dragon he is—“you call me first.”

“On it,” Nine replies with a curt nod.

King leaves and we both blow out a breath, although it brings no relief because we already know we’re neck deep in shit. We head out of the addition and down the driveway, ready to start digging our way the fuck out.

Chapter Four

Pike

“What you got?” I ask, stripping off my leather jacket and tossing it onto the counter.

Nine stands up and moves to the side so I can take a look at his laptop. “It’s a live feed from the warehouse in Coral Pines. The van is there. Now, all we have to do is wait for someone to come out, and we got ‘em.”

“Can that thing travel?” I ask, pointing to the computer.

Nine rolls his eyes and holds up a tablet. “My tech can go anywhere.”

“Then, pack it up. We’ll roll up as close as we can to the warehouse without being noticed. The second someone gets in that fucking van, we’ll take ‘em.”

Nine nods and shuts his laptop, tucking it under his arm. He drains the last of his beer and sets it down on the bar with such force the bottom of the bottle cracks. “Let’s go kill these motherfuckers.”

“I’m glad you’re just as eager as I am, brother,” I say to Nine as we head out to my own van. I get in the driver's seat and shut the door. I start the engine and turn toward my oldest friend. “But we can’t go killing them.”

Nine raises his eyebrows. “That’s a very out of character thing for you to say. You feeling okay?”

I’m feeling great, the best I’ve felt since our shit was jacked. The road to revenge has been cleared, and I’m about to head down it at full fucking speed. “I mean we can’t go killing