Tattoo (Take It Off #7)(11)
Author: Cambria Hebert

Yeah, Pike was in the slammer, but that didn’t mean a guy like him didn’t have connections on the outside, which is why it was so important for my identity to remain under wraps. The department took a lot of measures to make sure the guys who went down while I was there keep their mouths shut.

And situations like this were exactly why.

“Lucky you,” Snake said.

I shrugged.

“So what have you been doing since then?”

I came back to Raleigh. And I did paperwork. Then I did more paperwork. I was debriefed and had my head looked in to make sure being undercover so long hadn’t fucked me up too bad.

The thing with being a liar for a living… no one found out anything I didn’t want them to know. Even the department shrink. So after the paperwork, the trial, and the mandatory mental health checks, I was cleared to go back to work.

“Laying low. I was on my way out of town today, going fishing.” The best lies always have a seed of truth. I glanced back at Taylor, who hadn’t moved from the cot. “I stopped in to see my girl before I left.”

“Your girl should know better than to step in front of a man with a gun,” Leo said from his position on the couch.

God, I hated him.

I turned from Snake to glare at him. “Maybe you should learn to control your twitchy trigger finger,” I said, anger veiled in my words.

“Shoot first; ask questions later,” Leo drawled.

“You’re an idiot.”

He burst up from the sofa, challenge in his posture. I stayed relaxed, like he didn’t even bother me. I glanced at Snake. “Hotheads ruin good partnerships.”

Snake looked at Leo. “We ain’t got time for this.”

Tommy walked over to the fridge and pulled out a couple beers. I noted there wasn’t any water as he passed some of the alcohol to Leo and his buddy on the couch.

“Now that Pike is gone,” Snake began and I looked away from the fridge, “there are some vacancies at the top of the organization.”

Organization = gang.

“And you got your eye on the throne,” I said.

“I got the ambition, the crew.” He gestured toward the duffle bags. “And now I got the capital.”

And I had the opportunity to take him down before he even got started.

“I like being on the winning team,” I said. “So where do we go from here?”

“Plan is to lay low for a couple days, let the heat die down from the robbery. Then we’ll turn some of this money into product and start to expand.”

Product = drugs.

Paying cash for a huge shipment of drugs was also a good way to spend the stolen money without raising any red flags, because it would all be done under the radar. And this type of guys wouldn’t just walk into a bank with their cut of the profit. These guys would hold their cash and not flaunt it.

I had to admit I was impressed. It was a fairly solid play for one of the top spots in the organization. It was timed right as well. The dust was beginning to settle from the busts, and people within the crew were likely starting to go hungry. Hungry for cash, hungry for work, and likely hungry for someone to call the shots.

Being in the drug business, in an organization like this, was profitable… I should know. I took money from it. That hefty bank account Taylor pointed out wasn’t just a product of police force salary alone.

“Solid,” I said, letting them know I liked the plan and I was in.

Taylor made a small sound and it put me on alert. This conversation had been damn informative, but it lasted too long.

“Got any water around here?” I asked.

“Got plenty of beer,” Tommy offered.

I made a show of grabbing one from the fridge and popping the top. I took a generous swig, casually making my way over to Taylor, when really I wanted to move a lot faster.

Her face was flushed. I knelt down beside her and she stared up at me with pain-heavy eyes. I pressed the back of my hand to her forehead. It was hot.

She was running a fever. Infection was likely taking over her insides like wildfire.

“How ya doing, Tay?”

“Peachy,” she replied, her voice low.

Time to go.

I pushed away and went back into the other room. “I’m going to take her to the hospital, drop her off. We don’t need a woman with a bullet wound slowing down our plan.”

“We could just take her out right now,” Leo offered.

I moved so swiftly no one had time to react. My fist pummeled the side of his jaw, smacking his head to the side as I straddled his body and delivered a few more blows to his face and head.

Snake yanked me off, towing me backward as the other dude on the sofa moved between me and his buddy.

“I swear to God,” I growled in his direction, my chest heaving. “You so much as look at her again and I will fucking kill you.”

“You’re fucking crazy,” Leo yelled, dabbing at his bloody lip.

“Chill, man,” Snake said, releasing his grip on me. “No one’s gonna take out your woman.”

Gee, that made me feel a shit ton better.

“I’m taking her outta here,” I said, flat.

Snake exchanged glances with Tommy, then looked back at me. “You know you can’t take her to the hospital right now. She knows where we are.”

“She ain’t gonna tell no one.”

“She says that now. Then she’ll get some feel-good drugs running through her system and her tongue will loosen.”

“She needs antibiotics and pain meds,” I said.

“So get her some.” Snake reasoned.

“You saying I can’t take her out of here?”

“I’m saying wait a couple days. On our way to our new location we can drop her off. By that time we’ll be on the move and she won’t know where we’re going next.”

“And if I don’t like your compromise?” I asked.

The sound of several cocking guns made me glance around the room. All four men had drawn on me.

Snake gave me an apologetic look. “It’s just business, man. You understand.”

Oh, I understood I was going to nail his ass to the wall for this. “If we’re gonna be here a couple days, I gotta go get some supplies.”

Snake smiled. “Van’s parked about half a mile away.” He tossed me the keys. I caught them in midair.

I started toward Taylor, sorry I was going to have to move her but seeing no other choice.

“Leave her,” Snake’s voice stopped me in my tracks.