Tattoo (Take It Off #7)(10)
Author: Cambria Hebert

Over by the wall were quite a few black duffle bags full of stolen money. It was ironic really to see such riches in this rundown, ghetto space.

I glanced at Taylor, making sure her arm wasn’t bleeding through the dressing and shirt that covered her. So far I saw no signs of renewed bleeding, but she needed things that this place didn’t have.

I shouldn’t have brought her here.

I should have just told the crew I was a cop and let them shoot me. At least then Taylor would have gotten the help she needed. And I… well, I wouldn’t have to wonder about where to go from here anymore because I’d already be gone.

Thinking like that was a waste of time. The fact was I didn’t tell them I was a cop because I wanted them to assume I was an ally. I did nothing but cultivate my identity as Slater Bass for years, even before going completely into their world and cutting off all ties to my old life. So when they started talking to me like I was one of their own, I fell into the role with ease.

I saw it was my opportunity to find out what they were up to, why they were stealing money, what they were doing with it, and what was going on within the organization since me and my buddy Gray brought down a huge drug ring, and along with it, the crew’s main operator, Pike.

By the time I realized they would expect me to bring Taylor with me, I was already in. Backing out wouldn’t have just gotten me killed, but Taylor as well. She was now connected to me, and my actions would follow her.

What I needed to do was win their trust, then get the fuck out of here and take Taylor somewhere safe. If I moved fast, I could have a raid descend on this building before anyone could even think I wasn’t coming back.

The money would be returned. More of Pike’s crew would be off the streets, and Taylor would be safe.

And I could finally go fishing.

Overhead, the echo of heavy footfalls vibrated the floorboards. Taylor stiffened and glanced at me. I hoped that meant she trusted me enough to keep her safe. Hell, I couldn’t blame her if she didn’t trust me. Since I showed up, she had gotten shot, kidnapped, and dragged into some dungeon with a bunch of gang members.

Snake walked down the stairs, carrying several more black duffle bags full of cash. He walked over to the pile and tossed them on top, his eyes raking over the massive haul.

He and Tommy fist bumped over their success and then Snake grinned. “Smooth as butter,” he bragged.

One of the guys from the couch gave me a cold stare. “Except for the fact we picked up some extra baggage on the way out.”

Every crew had a guy like him. A guy with a chip on his shoulder and an ego the size of a small elephant. The only thing a guy like him liked was violence and making everyone else as miserable as he was.

My bet was he didn’t even care about the money; he was just in this for the thrill of the kill.

After all, he was the one who shot Taylor.

“You gotta problem with me?” I said, turning full on to face him. I’d take the challenge in his eyes and raise it some. He thought he had a chip on his shoulder? He was the reason Taylor was bleeding. He was the reason I wasn’t on the shore fishing right now.

Guys like him were dangerous, but I wasn’t exactly Suzie Homemaker.

He pushed up off the couch, dropping his phone on the cushion. “Yeah, maybe I do.”

I stepped around the framing toward him. This jackass did not intimidate me. I was pretty pissed off and if he was looking for a fight, I’d sure as hell give him one.

Snake stepped between us and I suppressed an eye roll. I’d wipe the floor with his ass too. “Leo, this ain’t the time.”

Leo eyed Snake with barely veiled anger. I was waiting for them to start throwing punches at each other. They were young and just pulled off a big heist so I knew their blood was pumping.

To my surprise, Leo backed down. “I don’t trust him,” he told Snake.

“He helped us get out of the bank,” Snake began.

Leo snorted. “It ain’t like he shot a bunch of people to clear a path. He made a suggestion. A suggestion any one of us could have made.”

“Then why didn’t you?” I said, hard.

His eyes narrowed on my face and his hands clenched at his sides.

“Are you saying you don’t respect the mark?” Snake challenged, stepping toward Leo. “Are you saying the symbol tattooed on his back isn’t a sign he earned his way in, a sign that he already proved his worth to the crew?”

In any other world, a tattoo might just be a piece of art, a means of personal expression. But here, on the streets, in the gang world… a tattoo was literally life and death. It marked a man clearly on what side he belonged.

“Naw, man.” Leo relented. “I know the tat’s for real.”

“Then what’s your problem?”

“The problem is our cut just got smaller.”

“But now we got startup fees and another set of hands to get things going.” Snake reasoned.

So clearly, Snake was the mastermind of this little group. He was the one in charge.

“Startup fee for what?” I asked, interrupting their little guy time.

Snake swung toward me, eyeing me up like it was the first time he saw me. I didn’t squirm under his gaze. In fact, he didn’t make me uncomfortable in the least. This guy was small potatoes compared to those I’d worked with before.

“You said you worked for Pike?” he asked, answering my question with one of his own.

“Indirectly. We all worked for Pike, didn’t we?”

“So you weren’t on his crew in Myrtle?”

“I was for a while. Then I moved to Jacksonville to be part of supply.” Basically, I went there to get large shipments of drugs in and take them illegally into Myrtle Beach. But really, that job was just a cover for my real job, solving a murder that the Jacksonville crew leader had committed.

In the end, we brought down that man and he handed over evidence that brought down Pike. All those years of living on the wrong side of the law actually counted for something. And it earned me some time off.

Time off which was now being disrupted.

“You were part of the crew that was brought down?” Leo said, a little bit of respect creeping in his tone.

“Yeah, but I wasn’t around the night the busts went down.” I lied. Actually, I was right in the center of it all, but they didn’t need to know that. And all the men who now knew I was undercover were in jail, shipped off to another state. Luckily, the bust went down in Jacksonville and not in Myrtle Beach, so Pike and his inner circle still had no idea who I really was.