6. Tate
CHAPTER SIX
TATE
I ordered for the two guys to be ushered through the back, up some stairs, and into a room where we strapped them to a chair and began questioning them. One is unconscious as he was running his mouth until Rick knocked him over the head with the base of his gun. The other is a cocky fucker who thinks this is a game, and he’s testing my patience. He’s not giving up anything without a fight.
I’m trying to keep my cool, but the fact that he keeps laughing in my face is tipping me over the edge. If I didn’t need information from him, he'd already be dead.
“Tell me who you work for,” I roar in his face.
“I ain’t tellin’ you shit.”
“That’s too bad.” My fist connects with his jaw. He cries out as the pain rips through him.
“If you think that was bad, you don’t know me very well.”
“I know exactly who you are, Tate Matthews. The famous drug lord and master of his craft. We were told everything about you on our recruitment day.” He has the audacity to snigger loudly like he’s mocking me. That’s my undoing. I ball my fists up and go to town on his ribs and face. I can feel the bones in his cheeks breaking with every point of contact, and it feels so fucking good.
I give him a moment to get his breath back and remember where he is. I begin processing what he’s just let slip.
“You say our . How many?”
He doesn’t say anything, just spits blood out of his mouth and looks up at me through swollen eye sockets.
“Like I said before, I ain’t tellin’ you shit.”
He isn’t going to give us anything. He’s loyal to his master. It’s a shame he works for the enemy; he’d make a good addition in my ring. Too bad for him.
I grab my gun from my waistband and point it straight at him. He can stare death in the face.
“Fine. Then you’re no longer of any use to me.” I move my finger over the trigger.
“No, no… wait. I─”
I pull the trigger with no mercy. I don't even blink before I move on to the next guy.
“Wake the other guy up,” I order one of my men. They push a small bottle of smelling salts under his nose, and within seconds, his head snaps up and his eyes are wide.
“Welcome back.” I smirk.
My head whips to the door at the sound of something smashing.
“Go check it out,” I tell Clint, leaving just me and Rick, and another dead man if he doesn't give me something.
I turn my attention back to the guy who is strapped up. “Where were we?”
He whips his head around to the guy he came with. His breathing increases when he sees he’s dead and there’s a bullet hole in his forehead.
“Oh, fuck. Shit,” he pants.
“As you can see, your friend wasn't too helpful. I’m hoping you will be.”
“I don’t know anything, I swear,” he begins.
“I haven’t asked you anything yet, so how would you know? Relax, I just have a couple of questions for you.” I grab a chair and scrape it across the floor purposefully. “What’s your name?”
He eyes me for a second, unsure of my approach. He seems to settle down a little. “Joey.”
I nod. “Joey. Okay, and do you know who I am?”
“Ye…yes. Tate Matthews.” He gulps.
Good, he's afraid, which means he knows more about me than his friend did. He knows what I'm capable of and that I don't mess around.
“How old are you, Joey?”
“Twenty.”
I angle my head and look at Rick. “What I wouldn’t give to be twenty again.” I laugh, and Rick huffs, smiling wickedly. “Why are you selling ecstasy in my club?” I dart my eyes at him again, my calm side evaporating, my dark side now looming.
“I… I don’t know what─”
“Cut the shit. You were caught red-handed dealing, and the stash we found in your little hip bag tells me something different.”
Rick holds the black bag up for the guy to see.
He drops his head. “Fuck… please. I was just doing as I was told.”
“Told by who?” I ask, feeling like I might be getting somewhere.
“I don’t know any names. I’m just one of the small guys.”
“Explain how you receive your drop.”
“They’ll kill me if I say anything else.”
I point to his left. “Have you seen your friend? I’ll kill you if I don’t get what I’m looking for.” I move the chair and sit closer to him. “Give me something useful and I might be able to help you out.”
“What… what do you mean?” He looks suspicious, but I know he’s intrigued at a way for him to leave here alive… for now.
“You tell me something, and if I think it’s good enough, I’ll do something in return for you.” I lean back on the chair.
He thinks about it. “Okay. What do you wanna know?”
“Where do you collect the drop from?”
“I didn’t, he did.” He nods over to his buddy.
“Well, unless you can talk to the dead, that’s not helpful. How many of you were in my club tonight?” I ask, moving on to the next question.
He gulps. “This one?”
“Yes.” My nostrils flare. That’s confirmation that they’re hitting multiple clubs of mine like we thought.
“Four, but the other two will be long gone by now.”
“Why my clubs?”
“All I know is that it’s personal.”
“Personal how?” I narrow my brow, making a list of all the people I’ve pissed off in my lifetime. The list is long, but it’s a start.
“Shit, man. I don’t know who you’ve upset. I’ve never met the boss man. Never spoken to him, let alone seen him in person. He has his guys passing on his shit to the middlemen, who pass it on to us.”
“So, you take all the risks for them. How much?”
“How much what?”
“What’s your cut?” I reach for the bag Rick’s still holding and pull the contents out. “This stash alone sold on the streets I’d estimate between seven and twenty dollars per tablet, depending on the purity. Let's say there’s two hundred tablets here, give or take. What’s that, Rick?” He’s good with numbers. Me, not so much.
I give him a second. “Lowest price, one thousand. Highest price… four grand.” He shrugs.
“Hmm, and there were four of you in this club alone. So, I’ll ask again… what’s your cut from this stash?”
“Ten percent.”
“You’re risking a lot for four hundred dollars, don’t you think?”
“Maybe, but it helps my mum put food on the table for her and my little sister, and towards paying the bills.”
Nice snippet of information. I’ll store that for future use.
“What if you could double that?” I ask.
“How?” I’ve gained his interest. His hopeful eyes can’t lie.
“You’d work for me.” I hear Rick’s feet shifting against the floor. His way of saying ‘what the fuck are you up to?’
“You’d want me to work for you, even after all… this?”
“Yes. You’d have to earn my trust, of course.”
“And how would I do that?” He narrows his brows.
“First, you’d get me the information I’m seeking. I don’t care how you do it, but you need to work your way up the ladder. I’ll turn a blind eye, and I’ll let you use my clubs to continue what you’re doing… for now. They’ll see how hard you’ve worked and offer you a bigger role. That’s your way in.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that,” I repeat.
“You want me to double cross them? Why would I do that when it could get me killed?”
“Because if you don’t, I’ll pay a visit to your mother and sister. You know I can find them with ease, Joey.”
He gulps. “Please. Fuck… okay, I’ll do it. Just don’t hurt them.” His panic is clear, and I know that’s my way of controlling him and keeping him in line.
“You stay on my good side, and I’ll keep away from your family. Do we have a deal?”
He hangs his head again before shaking it in frustration, but he knows I've got him. “Yes. You’ve got a deal.”
“Good.” I stand and clap my hands. “And Joey… if I find out you’ve told anyone about this, I’ll kill your family slowly and make you watch. Then I’ll kill you… extra slowly and painfully.”
Clint chooses that moment to enter the room. Perfect timing.
“Clint will be your handler from this point on.” I give Joey clear instructions on what I expect of him and begin cutting the ropes around his wrists. Clint sets him up with a burner phone and programs the only number he needs. He rubs his wrists where the rope has caught his skin. “You call him with any information you have,” I add, throwing the bag at him. It hits his chest and lands in his hands.
“How do I explain this?” He casts his gaze over the dead body.
“Don’t overcomplicate it. If anyone asks, you both got caught, but you got a lucky shot in and made a run for it. You have your stash, minus one bag that I’m keeping, so they should buy it. Anyone else would have kept it.” I shrug.
Joey takes one last look at the dead guy and leaves.
Once he’s out of sight, I turn my attention back to Rick. “No one outside of this room is to know about this. If we do have a rat, then we can’t have them knowing about this. Where’s Liam? I need him to look into the security cameras and find out who was sneaking around.”
Rick nods. “I’ll make sure he gets straight on it.”
“Have you noticed a change in his behavior? What’s going on with him?” I ask.
“Haven’t noticed anything. You want me to make it my business?”
“No, not yet, but let’s not tell him about the deal with Joey. If he’s seen us dragging the lads in here on the cameras, he gets the same story I just told Joey.”
He nods again, then goes to say something.
“What?” I ask.
“Not that I’m questioning your motives, but what the fuck are you doing?”
“It’s called making the most out of a shitty situation. That kid is our only way to get any information. Whoever is messing with me knows what they’re doing. They’re smart. We just need to be smarter. Joey doesn’t want anything to happen to his family, so that will be at the back of his mind whenever he feels like crossing me. If he doesn’t turn out to be useful, he's easy to dispose of. Simple.”
He huffs deeply. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“I do. Now, brace for impact.”
“Impact? What──” I ball my fist and clock him on the chin.
He stumbles back and rubs his chin. “The fuck?”
“I need to sell Joey’s story. He got a lucky shot at you.”
“Well, that’s going to bruise my ego.” He moves his jaw until it clicks but doesn’t say anything else. He’s taking one for the team.
“Get someone to clean this mess up, and find Liam. I’ll be in the office.”
“On it.” I watch his retreating back exit the room as if nothing happened, look at the mess over my shoulder, and close the door. When I get to my office, I pour myself a generous-sized whiskey and down it.
What a fucking night.
My mind wanders back to Sian and the way she looked at me from the balcony. She saw what I did to that guy, and from the shocked and fearful look on her face, she detested my actions and, quite possibly, me.
She doesn’t understand.
She doesn’t know who I am or what I do for a living, and I plan on keeping it that way.