Chapter 25 #2
“If he had already established the foundation of a general brokering network that wasn’t limited to specific locales, however, the established connections that existed could automatically be leveraged, no matter where he was located,” Teagan pointed out.
“Which means,” she raised a brow at Drew, “your little moonchild has been frying a much bigger fish, cuz. She was never a bad boy chaser. Kilgore was simply her ticket to infiltrating something a whole fuck of a lot bigger.” Drew nodded, her face thoughtful.
“Body brokering is an industry worth billions and billions of dollars, in all its guises,” Teag continued.
“Now that Rob’s dead, though, his personal network may have died with him. ”
Running her hands through her light auburn hair, Blake asked, “How long had he been running this scam without his partners knowing then? That’s what I want to know.
I realize, however, this isn’t something of concern to APS anymore, as intrigued as we might be.
Kilgore, frankly, is pushing up daisies.
Langston, Norris, and Berger just found out about his body brokering grift and haven’t been involved, so they don’t know dick.
But…those remaining three partners will be going down for their Tampa embezzlement and money laundering con tomorrow, which means Gene and Sandy Wheeler and their microbrewery will be safe. My woman will be ecstatic.”
“She deserves it,” Jaime told her. “No one has a bigger heart than Brooke. All of our femmes have huge hearts. Those hearts lead them to do stupid shit that results in spankings sometimes,” the corners of her mouth tilted up, “but I would never want them to be any different than they are, even if they do give us heart attacks on occasion.”
Blake checked her phone. “Nothing from Brooke yet, but she’ll text when she and Indi are on their way back to APS.
Jesus, I hope to hell she’s found her artwork intact, or else it may get ugly.
She hates Reflex with a fire in her soul that won’t bode well for their continued survival if they’ve managed to piss her off even more than they already have.
” She chuckled, her sunlit green eyes glinting.
“Then again, those might be easiest odds I’ve ever calculated.
We should be thankful and take the guaranteed win because easy money like that doesn’t come around too often at APS. ”
?ω?ω?ω?
A shadowy figure slipped noiselessly across the dark room of the cheap motel room in St. Petersburg, scarcely glancing at the two bodies lying on the floor, and listened cautiously at the door.
Hearing voices in the hallway, the figure stopped moving, waiting for the moment he could slip out of the room, unseen.
It was almost over. After tonight, everything would be his.
No more pretending. No more goddamn babysitting.
No more sharing the spoils of his hard work with fucking idiots who didn’t deserve them.
He was The Salesman. He was the one who found the marks and hooked them on the line, luring them with promises of possibilities and opportunities.
The rest of them had done nothing but get in his way.
There had been hope for one of them once, a thought that a permanent partnership between just the two of them would be possible after they had shaken off the dead wood.
Until, out of the blue, he’d found out he had been bent over and fucked up the ass in a deceit he had foolishly never seen coming.
Whoever the mysterious ‘Cherry’ had been, he owed her for exposing the duplicity that could have sunk him before he knew what hit him.
It was just as well, he speculated, still listening with his ear pressed against the door.
How much worse would it have been if he’d gotten rid of the idiots so he and the turncoat could form their new partnership, only to find himself robbed blind, a bullet in his head in the end. No, thank you.
Now, he only had one more thing left to do before the muscle he’d hired would lift the microbrewery assets and deliver them to their prearranged disposal locations while he “disappeared” into the sunset.
Killing women wasn’t exactly high on his priority list, but Brooke Marino had far outlived her usefulness and was the last stumbling block to his escaping unscathed.
Lying in wait for her at Cask & Canvas—because he knew she would go there to look for the artwork she had left at the microbrewery—he could take care of her, then inform his hired muscle it was open season on APS and Infinity Security associates.
Hearing silence, then slowly opening the motel room door, he peered through the open crack.
Seeing the hallway was deserted, he slipped out, pulling the door shut behind him, and started walking briskly down the corridor toward the stairs.
Maybe he would take a vacation after this, somewhere out of the country where he could spend a few weeks in the lap of luxury—Michelin-starred food, booze, women, and a high-end gaming establishment—until it was time for him to plan his next grift.
For now, however, he had a date with a troublesome gray-eyed blonde, who would soon cease to be a problem for him in every single way possible. And then…then he would finally be free.