Give Me War - Kate McCarthy Page 0,23
get her back.”
“We don’t even know where she is!”
“Or why they took her,” Coby adds. He appears to be doing a better job of locking his own shit down but I’m not fooled. His hands aren’t steady. At all. He seems to realise and shoves them in his pockets.
“I’ve got a fair fuckin’ idea,” Kelly declares, his expression grim as he joins our huddle. “Between you guys and the cops,” he says, waving at all three of us, “the Vipers are hurtin’. Business is not booming. Their reputation in the drug trafficking trade has taken a massive hit and they can’t move forward right now with you shuttin’ down all their shit at every turn. Word on the street is that they are done.”
“So now what?” Coby barks.
“They’ll want to make a deal,” Mitch tells us.
“So we just sit back and wait for them to call? Fuck that!” I explode.
I start for my car, not waiting for them to follow, and not waiting for a break in traffic to jog across the road. Horns blare. Tyres screech. My hand slaps down on the hood of someone’s car as I skirt around it. I’ve already got my keys out when my phone vibrates from the back pocket of my jeans.
I tug it free, reaching the driver’s side door, Kelly, Coby, and Mitch, right on my heels. The screen displays No Caller ID.
Mitch’s eyes drop to the device. “Looks like we didn’t have to wait long.”
I hit the green button and put it on speaker. “Valentine.”
“Jared Valentine?” asks a gritty voiced man.
“Who is this?” I growl.
“You know who it is.”
“Grudge,” I reply, a hard edge in my voice.
“Well how ‘bout that. You do know,” he says.
There was a small part of me holding onto the hope that this was all some idiotic misunderstanding but Grudge’s call has shut that down. Fear crashes over me, almost putting me on my knees.
Kelly curses softly and tips his head, his hand going to the back of his neck. Mitch’s hands go to his hips and his jaw locks tight. Coby’s eyes go cold, his fingers curling into fists.
“Looks like you misplaced somethin’ valuable this mornin’, Valentine.”
My knuckles whiten around the device in my hand. “Where the fuck is she?”
“You’ll get her back soon enough.”
“Anyone who puts their hands on her is a marked man. You hear me?”
“That a threat?”
“Bet your ass it’s a threat.”
Grudge chuckles. “You think I’m gonna take that seriously? You’re a family of fuckin’ cops. You take a Viper down they’ll still put you away.”
“If you think I’m not willing to cross that line then you’re wrong.”
“I’d pay to see you behind bars.”
“Are you done talking shit?”
“Better lose that tone, Valentine. We do have your lovely, in case you somehow forgot.”
My teeth grind together. “What do you want?”
The flick of a lighter reaches my ears. That Grudge is casually lighting a cigarette while turning my entire life upside down makes me want to punch him so hard he never gets up again. He inhales and exhales deeply before he speaks. “We want off your radar.”
“That’s never going to happen.”
He coughs a gritty sound. “Then I’ll make the call and you can say goodbye to your old lady.”
“A minute.” I look around the men in my huddle. They all give me the nod. “Fine. You’re off our radar.”
Grudge laughs, deep and booming. It peters out and he coughs again. “Your word means nothin’ to me, Valentine.”
“Then what do you want?”
“We want a meet. We got conditions.”
“Fine. We meet now.”
“Tomorrow. Christmas Day. Then we’ll hand your old lady over. It’ll be our gift to you.”
“Now.”
“Tomorrow,” he reiterates. “Just you and your two brothers. No one else. Nine a.m. We’ll message a location. You miss the meet, we keep your bitch as a fuckin’ souvenir.”
Grudge disconnects.
“I don’t like this,” Mitch mutters.
“Really? What part don’t you like?” I retort, my tone snide and frustrated. “The part where the Black Vipers have my wife? Or the part where they expect us to turn a blind eye to their drug trafficking bullshit? Or the part where they think they can hold her until tomorrow?”
His hand grips my shoulder and I shrug him off. “Fuck off, Mitch.” I stalk away, breathing deep, eyes turned toward the ocean.
“Get him under control,” I hear Kelly mutter, “or I will.”
Coby steps up beside me, his gaze also going to the ocean. “That sonofabitch has my sister.”
My throat burns.
“My little sister.”
I take a few more deep breaths.
“She’s all I have.”
My head dips down,