Killer (Savages 2)

What the hell was I supposed to do with this information? I meant it when I told her it was good she came to me, that she was safe with me. She was. But that didn't mean I had any clue how to go about fixing her situation. I mean, the simple answer was to haul my ass back down to Alabama, get my hands on a decent gun, and take out the fuck. But I had no idea what kind of operation he was running there. Were there a bunch of people involved? Christ, did he have townspeople in on it? If he was gone, would the ring keep working as if he was never a part of it? Would she be in even more danger without Luis and his interest in her around to protect her?

I needed to be smart, put some feelers out, figure out what the fuck was really going on. And that shit, well, it wasn't going to happen overnight. Or even in a couple days. That meant that Amelia needed to keep her ass planted in my apartment, in my bed, for at least a week. Couldn't say I was exactly unhappy with that idea. In fact, I was downright tickled with it. Because it meant something that she sought me out, that she would come to me. It meant that, despite her thinking that I was a slut who wanted to use her like a washrag and toss her aside, she still felt something with me; a connection. Her little situation, as fucked as it was, gave us some time to explore things.

Hours later, I slowly untangled myself from her and got out of bed, closing the door and grabbing my cell. "Someone doesn't have you by the balls, my ass," Lo's voice said at me, sounding amused. "Cash came in a while ago and told me all about the brunette with the bedroom eyes who came to see you."

"Yeah, sugar, that's why I'm calling..."

"Need to talk to Cash?" she asked, picking up on something in my tone and losing the humor, sounding all business.

"No, Lo. I need to talk to you. How far across the country does Hailstorm keep tabs on the criminal empires?"

"We try to keep an eye on any of the big names and maybe some of the smaller ones if they are especially violent or seem like they are waiting to make a play to become bigger. Why, what's up?"

"Amelia's got a problem."

"So now you got a problem," she finished for me.

"Something like that."

"What's she got herself into? Please don't tell me it's any more skin traders or rapists."

"She found eight kilos of heroin stashed in her wall by someone named Luis Carlos."

"That doesn't ring a bell."

"I carried out a hit for him years back in Miami. He was working for the Diaz crew. He had me take out Diaz."

"That was you?" she asked, sounding impressed. "That was good work, Shoot. They had nothing. I mean not that the cops were crying over the loss of a violent drug dealer, but still... we followed that one, knowing it looked professional."

"Yeah well... dunno why... but Luis must have run off with the connections Diaz had created and for some fuck reason, moved his operation to Ala-fucking-bama. He built an apartment building and hid half a mil of H in Amelia's wall. And my guess... it isn't just her wall that drugs are stashed in. I think he finds the people he thinks he can play, or people he thinks of as weak and he puts his stash in their places. There wasn't any in my father's apartment."

"Your father?" she asked, sounding surprised. Not many people knew about my past, and no one knew every gory detail.

"Yeah that's why I was in Alabama, for the funeral. Don't," I said, before she could, "tell me you're sorry. It was no loss for me. But I was there, sorting out the affairs, staying in his apartment because..."

"Because of the pretty girl with the bedroom eyes next door."

"Yeah something like that," I said, smile stretching across my face.

"Is it possible your dad was in on it and that's why there was no evidence in his place?"

"Definitely possible. He's got a history of boozing but he was supposedly clean. Don't mean he didn't have his hands dirty though."

"So you want me to send out some feelers, see what I can find out about Luis Carlos?"

"I know Hailstorm has its hands full with its own cases but..."

"Shoot, we owe you. I owe you for what you did for me."

"Don't owe me, darlin'. I did that shit because that fucker deserved to die."

"Still. I'm happy to have Janie snoop around online. You should have Alex get in on that too. Between the two of them, they're bound to find something out. If they don't come up with enough, I'll send some men down there."

"You're the best, Lo."

"I'll keep in touch."

"Right, thanks sugar."

"Hey Shoot?"

"Yeah?"

"Admit it."

I didn't have to ask what she meant. A couple of years back when she found herself in a bad way and she needed someone taken out, Cash had called me in to do the job. Like I had told her, I had done it happily. In the process, I had poked fun at her and Cash's budding romance and she had told me that she couldn't wait to watch a woman get me by the balls one day.

"She's got me by the balls," I admitted, shaking my head at myself. It was true. I barely knew her, but she had me more than any woman ever had before. And there had been women, not quite girlfriends but something more than casual who had been around for a while, but not one of them got under my skin the way Amelia had. So it went to follow that she did, indeed, have me by the balls. And I was never really much of a person to try to hide or run from their feelings.

"I knew it. I can't wait to meet her."