was intoxicating.
But this had to come to a stop. She wasn’t here to seduce the king himself. No, she wanted answers and there were many messes she needed to clean up.
Just as quickly as she’d gotten him under her spell, she pulled back. “I’ve had friends, Boss. I’ve watched them come and go so fast. It’s always interesting when it’s their ass or yours, how easy it is for them to turn on you. I’ve experienced it all. I’m better off alone. You should know that. Nice seeing you again, and tell El Diablo I’ll see him around.” She took off, running in the opposite direction as far as she could.
If Boss knew anything about the drugs, then it meant they were infiltrating the city. She’d been warned about tampering with drugs years ago. So far, her one act of stupid vengeance hadn’t cost too many lives, but people took drugs. She knew that. She understood the lure of a few hours of peace. If the drugs were the same ones from Colombia, then a lot of people were at risk. She’d been tracking these drugs the moment her science guy disappeared without a trace. The lab where they’d concocted this scheme had all of the formulas taken and her man was missing. What would Boss think if he knew she was the person who’d come up with the drugs that were now killing people, potentially innocent people? Possibly even kids. They did stupid shit at parties.
Pulling out her cell phone, she gritted her teeth as she dialed a number she’d promised herself she’d never, ever call. It was the one man she owed a great deal of debt to, the one man who was the complete opposite of Boss, and the only man she trusted with her very life.
Chapter Three
Twenty-four new reports in the past two days.
Boss didn’t like how quickly this was spreading across his city. Fortunately, the media hadn’t caught wind of it yet. Junkies overdosed. Junkies died. Only it wasn’t just junkies in the hospital now. There was a politician’s wife, a night-school teacher, and two fucking high school boys amongst the new numbers.
His intel guys were keeping careful track of the tainted drugs and its victims. Hospital and clinic admissions, new deaths, and underground channels were being monitored all day, every day. Anything new and he was the first to know.
He filed through the contract requests. Business was booming at Killer of Kings. All his men had one or two jobs on the go, and the backlog was growing. A few hitmen were overseas, following leads or tailing their marks. He pulled a contract that looked interesting, printing off the paperwork. Some hotshot executive had gotten himself into hot water with insider trading. He’d paid his dues, but a couple of big players were after his wife and daughter in the name of revenge. Mr. Blane Mitchell wanted them safe and wanted the men after them handled. The bounty for this contract was impressive.
Boss did some preliminary research, pulling up pics and history of the man’s family. The wife was thirty-two and the little girl was ten. Cute family. Then he looked into the two killers after Mr. Mitchell. They represented two of the large companies he’d fucked over with his illegal dealings. This would require more than eliminating the muscle.
He was starting to think the payday for this one wasn’t high enough after all. He’d demand more before he put in the effort.
Boss grabbed his cell.
“Maurice, I want a workup on Tyson Black and Edward Seer. I need to know their patterns over the past two weeks, firepower, family, the usual.”
“Let me jot this down,” he said. “Oh, by the way, Widow Maker made a local call from the lobby of her condo late last night.”
“And?”
“Viko Fedorov.”
Boss frowned. “Any recording?”
“We didn’t have the lobby tapped. She always uses her secure cells.”
“She must know we’re tracking her. Why the fuck would she call him from a public place?”
“When I traced the call and saw the name, I thought you’d be interested.”
“Send the bios of the men to me when you have everything,” said Boss. “But Viko and Widow Maker are top priority. Get all hands on this.”
He was pissed off Maurice had waited this long to tell him about the call. And why the fuck would Graciella be involved with the Circle of Monsters? The call had been local, which meant Viko was in his city. Boss didn’t like to be in the dark about