“Can I have my shotgun back?” Dandridge asked.
“No,” Margot and Stone said at once.
“I’m going to still want the money you promised me,” he said to Stone. “I did my part. It’s not my fault your girlfriend’s daughter couldn’t stay quiet.”
“I never said it was your fault. Right now, Margot and I have to talk.”
“I’m taking orders in my own house now?”
“You are if you want to get paid. Now go.”
Dandridge took his time about it, but he eventually sauntered off to another room.
Stone sat down on the couch and Margot sat on the chair across from him. When he sat down, she saw a bandage on his shoulder.
“You were the one shot in Jennifer’s house.”
“Yeah, a mere flesh wound, nice through and through without hitting anything major. Hurts like a mother, but you should have seen the other guy.”
“I did. Nice shot.”
“At that range, I couldn’t miss, but thanks.”
“I thought you were dead,” she told him.
‘Yeah, well, that was the idea. It looked like everyone except the people who needed to think I was dead thought so.”
“Is that how you got shot?”
“Yeah, the guy tracked me to Jennifer’s place—or he was watching her place. Either way, he was there. I was being extra careful or he would have taken me out. I’m guessing he’d done the same to Jennifer and Chrissie if he had the chance.”
“Good thing you’re extra careful then, but wouldn’t it have been better and more careful not to show up at her place at all? You had to know that’s the first place they’d look.”
“Yeah, well hindsight being 20/20, I can’t argue with you on that. I’d have to say though, when Chrissie suggested her best friend's dad’s place in Riverside, I thought this would qualify as the last place they’d look. I figured we’d all be safe here.”
“Did it occur to you that Chrissie and Jennifer might be safer with the police? You too, for that matter.”
“If I really thought it was safer, I might have considered it.”
“Why wouldn’t it be safer? It sounds like your colleagues are hunting you down for being a rat whether you actually rat or not.”
“You’re missing the point.”
“Enlighten me.”
“The point is, someone on that side of the fence already tried to kill me. I’m not going to walk in the front door and give them another chance.”
“By ‘that side of the fence’ you mean the police?”
“Could be, but it’s more likely the Feds. How do you think they got to Katrina so fast? How do you think the cartel knew before I did?”
“Could be because Lefty was ratting you out. Karina never should have met that guy at Lefty’s.”
“I agree, but that’s not what got me in trouble. I have no doubt that the old fat piece of shit Lefty would call both the cops and cartel, but I hardly expect anyone would listen to him. He’s a joke.”
“He was trying to take over your business.”
“Try is probably too strong a word. Lefty might be a decent bartender but in my world? He was a joke. Lucky for him, he failed in his little coup, Those youngsters would have eaten him alive within a week. No, I think this was an inside job.”