Chapter 57
CHAPTER
FIFTY-SEVEN
WRATH
Leaving Elodie was the last thing I actually wanted to do, but club business calls, and I need to hash out something I hadn’t thought of before with the rest of the men.
Because now I’m beginning to question things with the fucker who hired us, and I have a feeling we’re going to need to dig a little into what happened.
Granted, we can’t dig any more with him, because he’s in a barrel, likely already buried by now, but the ex and her new man? Yeah, there’s some shady shit happening, and now I’m wondering what the fuck and how in the fuck we are entangled in this, and how deep we are going to be buried.
Dare is at the head of the table, and he slams the gavel down, calling the meeting to order.
I listen as he explains the happenings of last night.
The whole room is silent, no doubt thinking about all the money we won’t be getting now.
We all had some pretty fucking grand plans for that cash. I wanted to buy a house.
I wave my hand at him, and Dare narrows his gaze on me, likely because he isn’t finished talking about what happened; he’s just to the part where we killed the contact, although every man in this room must know that was his fate.
You don’t get to attempt to fuck us over and live. That’s just not who we are.
“We got another problem,” I announce. All eyes turn to me, their attention now on me and nowhere else. “Elodie and Alex were paid by check, and the event center was listed on that check. Who the fuck cut it?” I ask.
“Oh fuck,” Dare hisses.
Oh fuck is right. That little tidbit of information did not register last night when I was with the contact. I don’t even know his real name, so there’s zero sense in referring to him as the fake name he gave me.
There is a knock on the conference room door, and we all swing around to look in that direction. All except me. Standing, I walk over to the door. I’d texted my contact with the police department, Officer Lee, earlier and asked him to look into this situation.
I open the door and jerk my chin at him. Hopefully, whatever information he’s found is helpful to our situation. He’s wearing a serious expression on his face, and I close my eyes as I step to the side, wondering just how much of a clusterfuck this is going to be.
He walks into the room and closes the door behind him, and then he clears his throat, crossing his arms over his chest, his feet planted wide. We are not going to like this, not in the fucking slightest, I can tell by the way he’s carrying himself.
“We got a problem,” he states.
“Fuck,” Dare hisses.
Officer Lee jerks his chin upward, his gaze scanning the room before he continues. “The wife was in on it all.”
I blink. “What?” I ask on a hiss.
“The line he fed you about wanting to ruin her was bullshit. They were conning the new husband. It was a long-game con. She married him, and they were trying to figure out how to get his money, but he couldn’t just hand her cash. It was tied up in stocks and shit like that.
“So they took a loan out against the investments for this event center. She didn’t use a dime of the ex-husband's money. It was all bullshit.”
Well, I don’t feel bad about killing that jackwagon then. Now I gotta figure out what to do with the wife. So the wife is the one who cut the check for the cleaners, which means she knows everything.
“And the wife?” I ask.
He shrugs a shoulder. “She’s been running cons like this for years. Arrested about a dozen times. Lots of fraud and embezzlement. This time, she just turned up the heat and played a long game so she could get millions.
“That’s the information I have for you. I’m going to let you do with it what you wish.
Just know everything in the investigation is copasetic so far.
They got nothing on her yet, nothing to get, really.
She’s married to the guy, they used his money, and the place had an accidental fire.
There’s not much else to say about it at this point. ”
I thank him, and Lee lifts his hand, gives a quick wave, and starts to walk away. But he stops, turning his head to look back over his shoulder at me. His eyes find mine before he clears his throat.
“You guys need to be careful, yeah?”
“We do?” I ask.
He hums. “The guy she’s married to. He’s not nobody,” he states.
“Who is he?” I demand.
My voice sounds as gruff as it feels coming out, but I clench my jaw, gnashing my teeth together in anticipation of what is about to come, because there is no way in fuck this can be a good thing that Lee is about to say to me.
“He’s the second-in-command of the Perov Bratva.”
With that, he tugs the door open and walks away, after effectively dropping a goddamn bomb on us.
I stare at the closed door, wondering just how in the actual fuck this is going to play out.
This is the second fucking time in a couple of weeks that we're getting somewhat mixed up with that damn group, and it cannot mean good things.
Sinking back down into my chair, I press my fingers together in front of my lips and stare straight ahead. I don’t know what to do or how to do it. This is a conundrum that I’m not sure we really had thought out, especially with our new guest in Chassis and her ties to the Perovs.
“Well, what the fuck do we do now?” Loot demands from the end of the table.
I don’t even look at him because I’ve got the same question. I just couldn’t actually say it out loud the way he did. Pressing my lips together, I wait for Dare to respond, because I’ve got no goddamn clue how this is going to work out.
“I wish I fucking knew,” Dare murmurs. “But we’re not leaving this room until we have some kind of plan, I know that fucking much.”
With a collective groan, we all settle in for a brainstorming afternoon.
It’s really not that big of a deal, and it doesn’t fuck with our schedules too much, but it’s still not fun being cooped up in a room while we talk about how to get rid of this fucking bitch without pissing off the Perov Bratva.
Double fucking damn.
I knew that payout was too fucking good to be true. I should have turned it down instantly, is what I should have done. We would have never been in this fucking mess had I not gotten a hard-on for money.