Layne turned back to Jeremy.
“You’re goin’ down,” he informed him and Jeremy’s eyes cut swiftly to Layne. “Now, though, now you gotta decide how far down you’re goin’.”
“I –” Jeremy started but Layne cut him off.
“I’m not done talkin’.” Jeremy snapped his mouth shut and nodded. “We’re workin’ with the cops on this and now you’re workin’ with them too.” Layne watched Jeremy gulp and he kept at him. “You’re gonna leave this office and you’re gonna convince Towers and Rutledge that everything is just fine. You’re gonna tell them you’re close, Giselle is breaking, they gotta give you some time. A week, they don’t go for that, a few days. In the meantime, you gotta know, you’re blown. Pastor Knox is changin’ the locks on the church as we speak. The Speakmon and Emmerson families know what you did and they’ve both agreed to hold fire and wait for Towers and Rutledge to go down. You’re blown but you convince your partners you’re not even though you don’t get near any of those girls, any kids from Youth Group or anyone under the age of eighteen in this town or out of it. You work with us, you don’t go down all on your own and trust me, man, Towers and Rutledge get a whiff that their scheme is goin’ south, they’ll bolt and they’ll leave you to swing.”
“What… what do you want me to do?” Jeremy asked.
“You get me what she’s got on Rutledge and in about fifteen minutes, you and Ryker are gonna take a ride. At the end of that ride, there’s gonna be a cop. You’re gonna tell him everything you know about Rutledge and Towers. Then, we’re gonna let you go. You get them talking in the apartment about what you’re doin’, where you’re doin’ it and when it’s gonna go down.”
“I… they’re… she’s not stupid. She’s –”
“I don’t give a fuck what she is. You’re not a good actor now, you got an hour to learn to be one and you stay in character all the time. When you get up, when you go to bed, when you eat, when you take a shit, when you’re fuckin’ sleepin’. All the time. Towers gets tweaked, we’ll take it out on you.”
Jeremy didn’t move, didn’t nod, didn’t blink. He just stared at Layne.
Layne continued. “What you gotta know is, we let you go, you try to disappear, we’ll find you. We find you, we’re not cops, we don’t have rules and when we find you, we’ll do you a favor. We’ll make it so you won’t be so attractive, and we’ll make that permanent, so when you do time you won’t be instantly made into somebody’s bitch.”
“I –” Jeremy started, that one syllable a squeak but he stopped when Layne bent over him, getting in his face.
“You’re good, we’ll talk to the cops, see what we can do since you cooperated. You’re not, Towers and Rutledge disappear, this gets fucked in any way, our sole focus, our only reason for living, is to find you and fuck you over so bad, Jeremy, swear to God, you’ll regret bein’ born. You get me?”
Jeremy didn’t answer, he just stared into Layne’s eyes, his Adam’s apple bobbing.
“You played with girls, young girls, you fucked with their heads, you freaked them out, you betrayed their trust, you took advantage and you did it through a church,” Layne whispered. “Young girls who should be worried about a pop quiz of if some boy is into them not worried about bein’ caught up in the shitty, creepy, fucked up games you’ve been playin’. That’s some fucked up shit, you asshole, and you’re gonna pay for that. But I’m givin’ you a break, a break you don’t deserve, and you get to decide how much you’re gonna pay. Now, I asked you, do you get me?”
“I get you,” Jeremy whispered.
Layne straightened away from him but looked down at him as he crossed his arms on his chest. “I’m glad to hear that, Jeremy. Now, I know you’re not too bright but I want you to concentrate real close on what I’m sayin’. We got you covered. We know your every move. We know where you live, what you drive, where you hang and who you fuck.” Part of this was, of course, a lie but the look on Jeremy’s face said he bought it. “So, just to repeat and make sure you get it, you are on our radar and there is no hope of camouflage. You’re playin’ our game now.”
“Right,” Jeremy was still whispering.
Layne stared at him a second then he cut his eyes to Devin and Ryker and walked out of the room.
On the landing outside his office, he turned to both men when the door closed behind Ryker.
“Find out everything you can from him,” Layne ordered Devin. “Dave Merrick should be here soon. He’s going to be listening to the bugs and he’s got two friends by the names of Ernie and Spike who are gonna be helping him. They’re all ex-cops, they know what they’re doin’ and they’ve been briefed.” Devin nodded and Layne carried on. “And I want a device on his car. You’ll find them in the storage room.”
“Key,” was Devin’s answer and Layne dug his keys out of his pocket, twisted the key to the storage room off his ring and gave it to Devin.
Then his eyes went to Ryker. “You’re gonna get a call from Garrett Merrick in about five minutes. He’ll tell you where to meet him. You take Jeremy there. You don’t have to handle him with care. He falls down half a flight of stairs, shit happens.” Layne watched Ryker smile his ugly smile and kept talking. “He’s scared but I want him shit scared. You stay while he talks with Garrett then you take him back to his car and turn him loose.”
Ryker nodded.
“Game on, men,” Layne whispered.
“Fuckin’ A, bro,” Ryker grunted.
Devin just stared at him then nodded.
Layne turned away and walked down the stairs. The Bachelor Auction Powwow would be done soon which meant Rocky would be alone soon and he needed to get to his woman.
*