by Matt Rogers
‘Wait,’ King said, and forced a laugh. ‘You need our help?!’
‘Depends whether you’re actual gangsters or just pretenders.’
King ignored the question. ‘What on earth would you need us for? After all you did to us.’
‘You’re all I got,’ Gates said. ‘My back’s to the goddamn wall. You’re all I can think of. You like money?’
King thought, Is this really going to fall into our laps?
He said, ‘Yeah, we like money.’
Across the kitchen, Slater raised an eyebrow.
‘I know you’ve got enough of it,’ Gates said. ‘But there’s always room for more. I can give you fifty k cash. For an hour’s work.’
‘Get to the point, Armando.’
Gates said, ‘That sheriff I’m in a war with … he’s got some internal conflict going on in his ranks. One of my software guys just picked up some weird shit on CCTV in Arden, southwest of Vegas. A junior officer — his name’s Alan Ward, my guy identified him by the plates — was in such a hurry to get out of Arden that he bumped three cars and blew two red lights. He’s completely blown his cover. He’s one of Ray’s boys, and he’s fucking wilding out. Like he was running away from something.’
King said, ‘Is this going where I think it’s going?’
‘It’s an open offer,’ Gates said. ‘Take it or leave it. You said you’re staying in Summerlin — that’s closer than I am, and I’ve got my head buried in the sand while I’m on “Keith Ray’s Most Wanted” list. I can feed you live intel that my software geek’s feeding me. If you’ve got guns, take them. But bring me that motherfucker.’
‘You want us to kidnap a cop?’
‘I don’t know how tough you two are,’ Gates said. ‘You’re a dog and I’m throwing you a bone. I’m at the end of the line here. Help me and there’s a whole lot in it for you.’
‘Didn’t you mention something about a DA?’ King said. ‘Call her. She has more resources than we do.’
‘You don’t think I have been?’ Gates said. ‘She’s gone radio silent. This is a nightmare.’
King almost smiled.
‘Let me get this straight,’ he said. ‘You want us to find him, ram him, grab him in broad daylight and bring him to you?’
‘He’s wilding,’ Gates hissed. ‘He’s scared for his life — my geek showed me the footage. You’ll be able to do it. I’m sure of it.’
No you’re not. You’re not sure of anything. You’re desperate, and you’ve been ringing your so-called “boys,” and most of them aren’t answering. Because they’re understandably scared of Keith Ray.
King said, ‘Seventy-five.’
‘What?’
‘You heard me.’
‘I can’t throw that kind of cash around.’
‘We don’t need the kind of cash you’re offering. Especially for a job like that.’
‘Sixty. That’s my max.’
‘Your max is whatever we want it to be,’ King said. ‘The alternative is you keep making calls to lesser and lesser folk until your options are completely exhausted and this ex-sheriff wipes out the rest of your boys and then breaks you.’
Gates said nothing.
King said, ‘You were right. We’re not who you thought we were. In fact we’re pretty damn good at jobs like the one you just proposed. So it’s seventy-five, and that’s a discount. And you’re going to give us as many of your girls as we want, free of charge, for the rest of our lives.’
Slater shot him a look like, What the hell are you doing?
King shot him a look back. This is a test. If we roll over too easily, he’ll get spooked.
Gates said, ‘Alright. Seventy-five. Alan Ward. Bring him to me.’
‘If he’s running, then Ray won’t want him. He’s useless to you.’
‘He has information. That’s what I really want. Then I’ll bury him.’
‘Right.’
‘How soon can you move?’
‘We’re already moving,’ King said. ‘Ring me as soon as you get an updated location.’
‘Okay. Thank you, brother. You know, I never asked. You and your friend. What are your names?’
‘That doesn’t matter,’ King said, and hung up.
Slater said, ‘Was that what I thought it was?’
‘Sometimes we get lucky,’ King said.
He gave Slater and Violetta a thirty-second synopsis of the details.
Violetta said, ‘Arden?’
‘Arden.’
‘That’s where Alexis will be. That’s where Blue Diamond Road goes.’
‘There’s a ton of establishments out there,’ Slater said. ‘We won’t be able to fluke it.’
‘So we get Ward,’ King said. ‘He’ll tell us.’
They both looked to Violetta.
She was the brains.
The ruthless analyser.
The detached observer.
She said, ‘Go. Snatch him. I’ll keep an eye on Kerr.’
They ran for the garage.
40
Alexis didn’t have a moment’s opportunity to try and escape.
She watched Ward sprint out the side door and vanish round the corner in seconds, gone as if he’d never been there. She thought about following, but one of Ray’s goons had a gun on her before she could blink.
She put her hands up. ‘Don’t shoot me. I’m not going anywhere.’
He was shaking with adrenaline, but he nodded his understanding.
She sat down in the dust and put her head in her hands. Men streamed past her, chasing after Ward, paying her no mind. Five of them went tearing out into the afternoon heat, hot on the cop’s heels. One man up the back of the warehouse barked, ‘That’s enough,’ and the rest of the thugs planning to join the pursuit held back. A sufficient army had been dispatched to chase down the traitor. The rest could stay.
Quiet enveloped everything.
Beside her, Keith Ray sat up.
He groaned as he undid his shirt buttons, lifting one flap aside to expose the bulletproof vest beneath. What Alexis had mistaken for musculature was actually Kevlar. He was still a big guy, but not as solid as she’d thought. He rubbed a finger on the bullet lodged in the vest and winced as it inadvertently prodded the swelling flesh underneath.
He looked over, met Alexis’ gaze, and smiled a sick smile. ‘Thank God for caution, huh?’
She was speechless.
He got shakily to his feet. One of his men came over to help him but he swatted the hand aside. He straightened up and stretched his shoulders back, complete with a bigger wince. He said, ‘Feels like I’ve cracked my chest.’
The helper checked him. Poked and prodded and came away satisfied. He said, ‘You’ll be fine.’
Ray’s mood blackened. ‘That boy’s a dead man walking.’
‘We’ll get him,’ the underling said. ‘You can be damn sure of that.’
‘I want him alive,’ Ray said. ‘I want him to hurt.’
He reached a hand to the back of his waistband, and Alexis braced herself for her own execution. Somehow she’d accepted it. The last hour of her life had been so surreal that it verged on dream-like. Maybe it’d stay that way, even when the gun came out, even when the barrel settled between her eyes, even when Ray pulled the trigger and blew the top of her head off.
She hoped it didn’t hurt.
She hoped it was a quick departure.
But instead he came out with a small baggie filled with fine white powder. He flicked it to settle the contents, took out his keys, heaped a mountain of the cocaine onto the flat side of a car key, and sent it straight up his right nostril.
He came alive.
Didn’t shout or whoop or holler like in the movies, just lit up from the inside. His eyes flared and he started talking at warp speed.
‘Okay,’ he said. ‘How many went after Ward? Six?’
‘Five,’ the helper said.
‘I want constant updates on their progress. How many we got left here?�
� He did a head count in less than a second. ‘Six. Okay, great. What’s the latest on Gates?’
‘He’s gone to ground, boss. The conflict’s settled for now. It won’t stay that way for long.’
‘Not if five of my men are on a wild goose chase out there,’ Ray said, and his face darkened. ‘Fucking Ward. Has to make everything so complicated, doesn’t he? Couldn’t have just rolled over and died like a good little boy.’
‘We’re winning. It might be the right move. It might flush the rest of Gates’ forces out in the open.’
Ray scoffed. ‘What forces? He’s a common criminal.’
The helper said, ‘You have to admit he’s done well with what he’s got.’
Alexis almost expected Ray to execute the man for his disobedience, but then she remembered that real life isn’t made up of caricatures. Ray took the criticism on board and nodded. ‘He’s a tough cookie. Are you still trying Gloria?’
The helper nodded. ‘No answer. She always answers. I don’t like this.’
Alexis hid a smile.
Ray said, ‘You think Gates has gone after her?’
‘I don’t see any timeline where that makes sense.’
‘It’d fit his recent behaviour,’ Ray said. ‘What the fuck is Armando doing? I thought we had a good thing going … then he turns around and launches an all-out assault on me. Christ. Do you think it’s the drugs?’
‘The drugs?’
‘You know he’s a coke fiend.’
The helper looked at the baggie between Ray’s fingers.
Ray rolled his eyes. ‘This helps me. I see clearer. With Gates … it just makes him angry.’
‘He’s sure angry now.’
For the first time the two men seemed to notice Alexis sitting next to them, another henchman training a gun at her face.
Ray leered down at her. ‘Well, that’s unfortunate, isn’t it?’
She said, ‘What?’
‘So much just happened … I forgot you were there. I might have let you run away after Alan betrayed me like that. You don’t seem to have much to offer me now. But … well, you know how it goes. Now you know who I used to be in bed with. And you know about the DA.’
‘What DA?’
‘Gloria Kerr.’
She said, ‘I have no idea who that is. I don’t want anything to do with this.’
‘Too bad,’ Ray said. ‘And there’s also the little fact that you dropped my name to a junior officer. You really shouldn’t have done that, Alexis.’
She stiffened.
He said, ‘And you’re just so beautiful, aren’t you?’
She wanted to shrivel up and die.
He patted his helper on the shoulder. ‘Lock her up for an hour or so while we figure this out. Then I’ll get to her and sort out what she knows and what she doesn’t.’
The man nodded and hauled her to her feet.
She went willingly.
She had no choice.
Her footsteps echoed through the space.
41
The house felt staggeringly empty.
Violetta tried to concentrate on the programs flashing across her laptop screen, intelligence piling in as she narrowed search fields and focused on the geographical region of southwest Vegas.
But every sound echoed, and every tap of her finger on the keyboard reminded her it was just her and Kerr, alone in the house.
She tried.
She really did.
But she couldn’t resist.
She had to know.
She called Slater, only minutes after they’d left the house, and said, ‘You good?’
He said, ‘King’s on the phone with Gates. We’re getting a running commentary on Ward’s movements. It won’t take us long.’
‘Do you need me?’
‘Not for now.’
‘Okay.’
She hung up. Put the phone down, closed the laptop, got to her feet.
Took a deep breath.
Then went to the spare room.
Kerr was stretched out where Slater had left her on the carpet. Completely motionless, her limbs wrapped in thick electrical tape, her face covered by the suit jacket. For a horrifying moment Violetta thought she’d suffocated. Not because of the death itself, but the secrets that might have died with her.
She walked over, knelt down, and ripped the jacket away.
Kerr was very much alive.
Very much conscious.
Staring at Violetta.
Kerr said, ‘Where are the others?’
‘Out.’
‘So it’s just you and me?’
‘Sure is.’
‘I—’
‘Where’s Melanie?’
Kerr went silent.
Violetta said, ‘Where is she?’
Kerr actually smiled. ‘If you want me to talk, then make me talk. You’re not touching my family unless you muscle that information out of me. I’d be impressed if you managed.’
‘Oh, because you want to protect them, right? You want to keep your daughter from harm?’
‘Don’t patronise me,’ Kerr said. ‘You don’t know the first thing about me or my daughter.’
‘I know what a mother is supposed to do.’
‘She wanted the life,’ Kerr said. ‘Wanted it more than anything. I don’t know why. That’s not my field of expertise. I let her do what she wants.’
Violetta digested the words.
It was tough, but she did it.
Then she said, ‘Thanks for that. I get it now.’
‘Is that right?’
‘That’s right. You’re a Grade A sociopath. You don’t understand human emotion. You’re damn good at mirroring it and replicating it, but inside you’re a cold shell.’
Silence.
Violetta said, ‘Kids are moulded by their environment. They need to be shown what is right. Sounds like she’s been tumbling down a hill for a long time, but you were the one who first gave her the push.’
‘Get off your high horse.’
Violetta shook her head. ‘You got that part wrong. I’m not on one.’
‘You’re not?’
‘I’m not trying to convince you of anything. I’m not trying to show you the light. You’re irreparable. I’m just voicing my own thoughts. Talking out loud to myself. Trying to get to the bottom of what makes a piece of shit like you.’
‘Are you a mother?’ Kerr said.
Violetta didn’t answer.
Kerr said, ‘You’re not.’
Silence.
Kerr said, ‘I thought as much. You know nothing about being a mother. You know nothing at all. Stay out of my family’s business.’
Violetta didn’t enlighten her with a response.
So much was wrong with Gloria Kerr that she didn’t have a clue where to start.
She opted not to start at all.
She made for the door.
Kerr said, ‘Don’t you want information out of me?’
Violetta stopped with a hand on the knob. She turned back. ‘That’s not my field of expertise. I know the methods, but I’ll leave the execution to my friend.’
‘Which friend?’
‘The one who wanted to hurt you.’
‘The black guy?’
Violetta didn’t answer.
‘What’s his problem?’ Kerr said. ‘Every professional I’ve met manages to stay … detached. He got a history with me I don’t know about?’
Silence.
Kerr said, ‘Is this personal?’
‘He’s got a history with the business you run,’ Violetta said. ‘His mother was sold into it when he was a boy. She was taken overseas, and no one ever heard from her again. It drove his father to suicide. Will took all his anger and bottled it up and became what you were introduced to in your office.’
‘Will,’ Kerr said, rolling the name over her tongue. ‘Has Will got any family left? Any friends?’
Violetta didn’t answer.
Kerr said, ‘Whoever they a
re, I’ll make sure they get hurt. I’ll make sure they suffer endlessly.’
‘And how are you going to manage that?’
‘The three of you are effective, I’ll give you that. But you’re flawed. I saw it first-hand. I’m a terrible person who does terrible things on the regular, right? You should have shot me in my office, but you didn’t. You should be pulling my fingernails out right now to get the information you want, but you’re not. You should have killed the five men your friends roughed up to minimise witnesses, but you didn’t. You’re trying to be good people. You’re trying to do things the right way. So that’s what you’re going to continue doing until your precious morality gets in the way and makes you slip up, and then I’ll be out of here. Whether that’s in one piece, or whether I’m missing pieces, I don’t care. I only need to be breathing to keep going. Then I’ll start in on everyone you know, everyone you care about, everyone that makes your heart flutter.’
Violetta said, ‘That’s a whole lot of words to mask the fact that you’re losing.’
Kerr went quiet.
Violetta said, ‘Good luck with all of that.’
She walked out.
42
King was, indeed, on the phone with Gates.
Who was practically frothing at the mouth.
Gates was shouting, ‘There’s more commotion in Arden. Cars in pursuit. Looks like Ward mutinied. We need that piece of shit before Ray gets to him. He might even come to our side.’
Our side? King thought.
King heard, ‘Wait a second,’ then muffled tapping and shaking, before Gates sniffed hard through one nostril, perhaps a foot from his phone.
Another line.
An excellent method of calming down, King figured. What Armando Gates really needed right now was to jack himself up with more adrenaline.
