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The rest of the trip was taken in silence. Then he pulled into the dump of a restaurant out of the way that Trace told him was being used for the meet. For the setup. Not a restaurant. A dive bar that was just as dark and ominous feeling during the day as it would be at night.
If anyone thought it was odd these three men were here, no one was going to say a word. He had trust in the detectives he’d spoken to last night.
These guys they should be meeting, they had no idea what he looked like.
Right now, all he wanted was this messy shit behind him so he could move on.
He’d listened to everything Heather had said and then thought on it. She was right. It was time for him to do one thing and then wipe his hands of it.
It would all be in his mother’s hands now what she did next.
He was positive he’d know the outcome, but he could have a clear conscience.
Or at least try to.
They pulled into the parking lot, found a spot and made their way to the front door of the small place. It was dark inside, the three of them found a booth in the back, and no one even asked or said a word to them.
“They are used to this,” Trace said. “Lots of things go down here.”
“You’re eating this up, aren’t you?” Zane asked.
“Shit yeah,” Trace said. “I could totally geek out and start taking notes, but I’ll do it on the drive home. No reason to draw more eyes to us.”
Luke wasn’t sure how he could laugh at a time like this, but he wasn’t as wound up as he’d thought he’d be.
Then he reminded himself that he’d been told by Zane enough he had ice in his veins when the time came and that was exactly what was happening now.
No one came over to see if they wanted a drink and that was fine with him. There were two other tables with men at them. He figured out easily which ones were law enforcement and which ones were muscle.
A man walked in dressed exactly as he’d expect a john to be. Even down to the flashy ring and gold chain. He could almost see the itching of Trace’s fingers wanting to take notes.
The man looked around, made eye contact with the table two over from him. “Remington?” the guy asked. He was probably in his late forties. “Thought you were coming alone.”
“We both know you aren’t,” the undercover detective said. NYPD didn’t even know he was here watching this to see it was taken care of in his own eyes. They’d tell him to stay out of it, that his part was done and this was their bust. He could only hope Trace wasn’t recognized. But Trace had assured them no one knew him on the force, just his father and even then not many of his dad’s colleagues were left.
The man looked at another table and nodded his head for his friends to stay seated.
He and Zane had pegged it immediately when they came in. They didn’t even need to say a word; it was a signal they’d used before. So yeah, just like old times.
“Do you have the money?” the man asked the undercover officer.
An envelope was slapped on the table, pushed forward, but the undercover officer wasn’t letting go. “If I hear of this again, you’re going to regret it. Buddies at the table or not.” He knew they wanted the guy to admit what the money was for before they could go further.
“What are you going to do about it?” the man said.
“Do you want to try me?” the officer asked. “I’m all for making an example of people. Women beaters included.”
“What’s Sugar to you?” the man asked. He didn’t think the john would fall for it that easily.
That told him that this guy had no idea what his mother’s name was and wouldn’t put the two of them together. It was for the best that greed and getting his money was the only thing this scumbag was out for. It worked in their favor.
“It doesn’t have anything to do with our transaction,” the officer said.
“We know people who know people on these streets,” another officer said. “If one of your women ends up back in the ER, we’ll know.”
The piece of shit pulled the envelope closer to him and stood up. “There are plenty of places to go that you can’t watch. I’m not worried. Tell Sugar when she needs a high, go to another dealer and not the one setting up her scores. If she can’t honor her debt, then let that be a warning to her that maybe the next time she won’t walk out of the hospital.”
His heart was racing over the ice cold threat against his mother, against any person, and it was all that was needed for the two officers to stand up, flash their badges and pull their guns.
