“We have a situation that needs to be handled immediately.”
I swiped my hands roughly down my face hating that Adrianna was in the next room with her ear pressed up against the door. I didn’t discuss my business with A for a number of reasons. I didn’t want her to realize the animal I was or the shit that I’m capable of but mainly because she was already at risk by being Vic’s daughter. She was already deemed a weakness in the eyes of the enemy as the daughter of the mob boss. Add her being my girl, she’s a prime target for anyone who wanted to fuck with Vic or me. The less aware she is the better off she was, the safer she could be. If an opposing family wanted to bring us to our knees, she’d be the way to do it. I’d sing like a fucking canary if her life depended on it. That being said, discussing business with her in the next room didn’t sit well with me. I pushed the grim thoughts of someone capturing her, torturing her until she gave up what she knew out of my mind and set my eyes on Vic.
“A body has surfaced,” he said slowly. “It’s bad, real bad.” He sighed.
“I take care of my shit, Vic. So if you’re here to point fingers I’m telling you flat out it’s not one of mine,” I’m on point with my marks. The ground could settle, the earth may part and you wouldn’t find my shit.
“I know,” he said. “It’s one of Jimmy’s.” He lifted his eyes to mine. “It’s the hitman that murdered Val.”
“Fuck,” I growled. After Val died, Vic lost his mind, to say he became crazy with guilt would be an understatement. The entire organization devoted itself to avenge Val’s death and Vic wouldn’t stop until every man that played a part in his underbosses death paid. He ordered the hit on the man that riddled Val with bullets, tortured the son of a bitch and he deserved it. Vic didn’t care about the repercussions, he should’ve waited until the dust settled on Val’s death, but there was no talking to him. It didn’t matter that the police were sniffing around, waiting for Vic to make his move, they stalked the fuck out of him. After Jimmy did the job, they brought all of us in for questioning on the disappearance. They knew Vic was responsible but without a body, there was no case.
“I’ve had an unmarked car tailing my ass since yesterday morning. “I’m not sure what they have, if they even have anything. My guys say it’s out of their hands and has become a RICO case.”
“Fuck,” I said. RICO charges were no fucking joke, Racketeer Influenced and Organized Crime was federal and provided a loophole for extended criminal penalties. Vic didn’t just have the cops breathing down his back he had the feds. He was fucked. We all were. Because if they were investigating him for a murder that took place years ago that meant they were sticking their noses in a lot of other shit. My guess was they were going to be building a case against him and this body surfacing was just the beginning of what they were going to uncover. We’d all go down with Vic, myself included, and this time I’d go down for shit I actually had been ordered to do.
All the Feds needed to do was prove, within a ten year period, two crimes under RICO activity on a list of thirty-five crimes, twenty-seven of them being Federal and eight being State. Two crimes. Vic’s list was a hell of a lot longer than thirty-five crimes – shit was going to get ugly for us.
“I called in a favor to Jack Parrish, he’s got a guy on his bank roll that can get us the intel we need.”
“We’re taking this to Satan’s Knights?” I asked, trying to shut down the million fucking scenarios running through my head. “You sure that’s wise?” It’s not that I didn’t trust Jack or his brothers. They’ve helped us out of a lot of fucked up situations. I don’t know why they’d get in deep with the Feds when it had nothing to do with the MC.
“It’s our only option. He’s willing to help in exchange for the warehouse in Jersey, seems like a fair enough trade. You know what we have to do, don’t you?”
I stared at him knowingly but I didn’t say a word.
“We take out the pig investigating the case and wipe out whatever shit he has on me.”
He wanted to kill a fucking cop, possibly a fucking Federal Agent, and there was no “we” in the equation. He was sitting in front of me for no other reason than to order me to be the one who commits the crime.
“There’s a meeting going down, Jack will clue you in. He’s expecting you at the dog pound in an hour, he’s prepared to do the job himself, I need you there as a watchful eye.”
I stared at him for a moment digesting the bits and pieces of the plan he divulged. I didn’t like not knowing what the endgame was and leaving Adrianna to meet Parish at his compound wasn’t how I planned to spend my morning. I cupped the back of my neck, shaking my head at how fucked my life was. The quicker this shit was buried the sooner we’d be able to move on… hopefully.