Chapter 29 Ryder #2
“Can we keep the commentary to a minimum until I’m done?
Gage already tore my ass up over it,” she says dryly, shooting a glare at a smug Gage.
“I met with Zane today.” I bite my tongue so hard it hurts.
Not only did she meet him, but she also met him alone.
“I gave him the info on the foster home because we can’t be near that shit. He said he would take care of it.”
“It’s about fucking time he makes himself useful,” I grit out. Just the mention of his name makes my skin crawl and the fact he was alone with Les? I want to rip his fucking head off.
“That’s not it. Zane had his partner with him, Jay Hoover, and he gave me an uneasy feeling.”
“What do you mean, Baby girl?”
“He didn’t give me that begrudging respect that I usually get. He didn’t even try to hide his hate.”
Jay Hoover. Why does that name sound familiar? It hits me like a ton of bricks.
“Hoover. As in Hoover enterprises?” I ask, picking up my phone and shooting off a quick Google search pulling up his dad’s picture, Gregory Hoover. I slide it to Les, and it takes her two seconds for it to register.
“We went to school with his younger brother Trevor.” She buries her face in her hands. “Fuck.”
“Someone want to explain?” Leo asks, spreading his hands out.
“We went to a private school with Trevor Hoover. He got initiated into the Poletti family his senior year,” Les answers, looking at me. “He was killed a year later.”
“What would Poletti's need with a high school senior?” Leo wonders, completely confused. It’s going to take him forever to catch up to everything.
“Les runs smaller factions, kind of like gangs in the smaller parts of the city to handle the street shit,” Dex comments. “That’s where I started.”
Leo’s eyes widen. “I’m never going to figure all this shit out.”
“You will,” Gage says with confidence, squeezing his shoulder. “It’s a lot to take in.”
“So, do you think Jay is pissed about Trevor?” Holden asks Les, speaking up for the first time. I’m surprised he’s still sitting here when he usually bolts during these meetings.
“That would be my guess. It was more than me being a criminal that crawled under his skin.”
“What do we do about him?” I’m not against killing a fucking cop if he is coming for her.
“We watch him. Holden will get all he can on him. I’ll talk to Zane.” She holds a hand up when Gage opens his mouth. “I won’t go alone again. Save it.”
“You lit into her for going alone?” I ask Gage, and he nods. “Good.”
Her eyes narrow. “I get it, okay. Save the lecture and the back-patting.”
I hold my hands up. “We just want you safe, Il mio sole.”
Her eyes soften. “I know, and I’m trying to make better decisions about running off alone. Like I told Gage, you have to be patient with me.”
“We can do that, Baby girl,” Dex says, looking around the table. “I have news too. I went to the casino on the boulevard for a security issue and found something else.” He pulls his phone out, scrolling through until he finds what he’s looking for, then slides the phone to Les.
She squints at it. “Was he the security issue?”
“No, we took care of that. When I was looking at the cameras, I spotted him.”
She grunts and slides the phone to me. “What the fuck is Xander doing there?” I ask. Xander is the leader of the Vipers, who has no business in her casino.
“I don’t know, but I say we go find out.” Her smile is feral, and I love it.
We all get dressed and head toward Xander’s garage. Holden is back at the house, watching through the street cameras to ensure he stays there.
We load into Gage’s Range Rover since mine is shot to shit.
He lets me drive so he can squeeze between Les and Leo.
Leo was warned about what would happen but insisted he that he can handle it, and I had to give it to him; he has so far.
We pull directly in front, pulling on gloves and doing a weapons check before we pile out.
The guys he has watching the garage start scurrying inside to warn him.
We fall into formation around Les, and she walks straight into the garage like she owns the place.
“Xander,” she calls out in a sing-song voice, making Gage chuckle. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”
He walks out from the back of the garage, his black hair in its usual fauxhawk.
His green eyes light on Les, lingering a little too long.
Looking from the tips of her high-heeled boots, up her black ripped skinny jeans, and her black leather jacket finally to her eyes.
Whatever he sees there makes him snap out of his fantasy.
I grind my molars to dust, so I don’t shoot him on site.
“There you are,” she greets like she’s happy to see him. “You want to tell your boys to stand down before I clean house?”
“Back off,” Xander barks at the seven guys on edge, hands hovering over weapons. “What brings you to my side of town, Alessa?”
“Can’t I just come to visit?” she asks, tilting her head to the side.
Gage finally steps to the side so he’s visible, and Xander’s eyes widen at Gage’s crazy grin. Xander remembers the mess Gage made the last time he delivered a warning for Les.
“This isn’t a social call,” Xander points out like we’re idiots. Gage starts wandering around the front of the garage, looking under random tarps to get under Xander’s skin. “What do you want?”
Les taps her chin thoughtfully. “A giant birdie told me that you were at Racks today. You were banned from there months ago because you didn’t know how to handle yourself accordingly.
So, Xan, why were you there?” Racks is the casino Xander was spotted at, it used to be a stripper joint before Les bought it hence the name, but it made her laugh, so she left it.
Gage laughs at Les, calling Dex a giant birdie. “Good one.”
She curtseys. “Thank you.”
I shake my head at the antics. These two can play up their crazy so much that people think they are actually insane, which makes people wary of them, and it’s a fun game to watch.
“I thought maybe it was cool for me to come back,” Xander explains, knowing there is no way she would let him back after the fight he started the last time.
“See, I would have believed that,” she says, walking over to where Gage waved her over, peaking under the tarp across a car.
“Except you avoided all the cameras like you knew they were there. There is only one reason you avoid cameras, Xander. You missed one, though.” She peeks under the tarp and whistles.
“What do we have here?” She whips the tarp back with the help of Gage.
They pull it off to reveal a car almost identical to my Mustang Shelby, except this one is silver instead of black like mine.
“Damn,” I comment, walking over. “What did this set you back? Two hundred grand?”
“Nah, bro. That ain’t mine.” Xander waves that away like I’m crazy. “We’ve been working on it.”
Gage pops the passenger side door open, digging through the glove box.
He pulls out a bunch of papers, tossing the ones he doesn’t need over his shoulder until he finds what he’s looking for.
“Xander King.” He looks up from the paper, fake shocked.
“There is someone else with your same name, and you’re working on it.
” He looks at Les. “How fucking cool is that?”
I hear Leo snort a laugh and swallow down one of my own.
“So cool,” Les gushes. “What are the chances?”
“I’d say pretty fucking slim,” Dex rumbles, tossing me a crowbar lying beside him. I catch it one-handed and spin it around.
“What were you doing at Racks?” I ask, pointing at him with the crowbar.
“I told you, man! I thought she wouldn’t care.”
“Wrong answer,” she says, waving her hand at me. I finally let my crazy out to play and swing the crowbar, smashing into the driver’s side headlight.
“Oof,” Gage mutters, “That hurt me.”
Les walks around the front of the car toward Leo who’s standing beside Dex, her heels making an ominous click against the garage floor. “Okay. Next question. I know what you deal in, and I know there is no way you could afford that car. Where did you get the money?”
“My boy Andre boosted it.”
“Wrong answer,” she says again, and I swing at the other headlight.
“Come on!” Xander yells. “What do you want from me?”
“I just want the truth, Xan. You know how much I hate when you lie to me.” She pokes her bottom lip out in a pout.
“Oh shit. You made her sad, Xander,” Gage says. “You know what that means?” Gage grins that crazy grin again.
She takes a step back toward us, and before I can blink, Leo has his Glock pressed against a guy’s forehead that stood up fast behind them. “Sit. Down,” he grits out, and I raise both my eyebrows. Well fuck.
“That was hot,” Gage and Les say at the same time, making me roll my eyes. I hate that.
Dex turns slowly toward the guy. “What the fuck was that?” he asks the kid with greased back blonde hair and completely wasted blue eyes.
He gulps and shrinks back into the couch. “I don’t know.”
“Playboy is just jumpy,” Xander smooths over.
“Playboy?” Leo asks, holstering his gun. “What the hell kind of name is that?”
“A stupid one,” Les laughs, then spins back to Xander. “We’re two for two. Should he move to the taillights, or will you start talking?”
“You know,” I say, spinning the crowbar around.
“I think if we find out how some low-level street creeper can afford this car, we can figure out the rest.” I pop open the driver’s side door and scoop up the keys I spotted lying in the seat.
I have a sneaking feeling, so I unlock the trunk; when I pull it open, my blood boils.
“Les,” I call out. She walks over and looks inside, all playfulness sliding off her, and in its place is the ice queen we joke about.
“You want to tell me why your trunk is full of fucking cocaine? When I know good, and goddamn well I didn’t give it to you?” she barks, and I swear she grows a foot when she’s pissed off.
Xander immediately starts sweating. “I didn’t know that was there,” he stutters.
“Seriously. That’s the best you got?” Gage deadpans. “I expected better from you.”
She pulls both Glocks from her holster. Shit. “This is how this is going to go. You start talking, or I start fucking shooting.” She points her Glocks at Xander and a random guy. We all follow suit leveling weapons on the rest of the guys, the crowbar hitting the floor with a clang when I drop it.
“What’s it going to be?” she asks again.
“Fuck!” Xander runs his hand through his hair. “You’ll fucking kill me.”
She gestures with her Glock. “Who did you get it from?” She knows who it came from but needs him to say it. Xander clams up, and she pulls the trigger on the other guy. His body slams into the far wall, a perfect circle in the middle of his forehead. “Who. Did. You. Get. It. From?”
“Fuck! Spinner! I got it from Spinner Sade!”
“Jacob “Spinner” Sade?” Les asks, and Xander nods. “YOU ARE SELLING COKE FOR THE FUCKING RUSSIANS?!”
Everyone winces at the volume of her voice, and even I eye her warily; she doesn’t raise her voice like that.
“I needed the cash! You kept me on a tight lea….” Xander argues, but he doesn’t finish before Les is on him and smashes a high-heeled booted foot in the middle of his chest, knocking him to the floor.
She presses her Glock to his forehead. “You couldn’t be fucking trusted,” she grinds out. “You were never meant to be more than a fucking street thug.” She presses harder when he looks like he might move. “Tie them up and take their phones,” she tells us without looking away from Xander.
Gage digs through a toolbox and pulls out zip ties. We get them tied up like she asked, and I approach her. “What’s the play here, Les?”
“Get the coke out of that car but take one with us so it can be tested so I can see where it’s coming from.” Her finger tightens on the trigger. “Kill them all. Set it up to look like the Russians.”
“Boss,” Leo says quietly, and I look at him harshly. He holds up a phone. “You might want to see this.”
I nod my head toward him and take her spot, gladly shoving my gun into this motherfucker’s forehead. She walks over and jerks the phone out of his hand; to his credit, he doesn’t react. You just have to roll with it when she is like this; she doesn’t mean anything by it.
“The dime is here. I repeat, the dime is here,” she reads from his phone; she turns to the kid with greasy blonde hair and bloodshot blue eyes. “Who is Z-Mack, and what does the dime is here mean?”
The kid shakes his head, shrinking away from her.
She presses her Glock into his temple. “I’m getting real tired of you assholes thinking you don’t have to answer me.” She pushes harder. “Answer me!”
He folds like wet paper. “You,” he says with a shaky voice. “You’re the dime.”
“Who’s Z-Mack?” Leo asks.
The kid whimpers. “He’s my contact officer.”
“You're a rat?” Dex growls, making the kid shrink in on himself even more. “For who?”
“Detective Ayers,” he answers.
Motherfucker.