Page 135 of To Have and to Stalk
“I told you, you’re asking me to clean a billion dollars with companies that make less than a million?—”
He stepped to me, grabbing my collar and cutting me off. “I’m not gonna be the one dying because you can’t do a fucking job.”
I didn’t bother shoving him away.
“So…we go back to crypto,” I said.
His nostrils flared. “Finish this by the end of the week. Usingthismethod.”
It was an insane request.
Even if we weren’t talking hundreds of millions, cleaning too much money at once was just as big a red flag as leaving it uncleaned.
By now there were hundreds of millions of dollars uncleaned. The longer it sat, the more chance there was to be caught.
Maybe someone up the chain had realized that.
Was starting to ask questions he couldn’t answer.
His grip tightened a fraction of an inch, and he let me go.
I walked to my car and slid into the driver’s seat, looking at Shay’s location again when a notification came through.
I’m sorry to reach out, but you told me to if something happened. Terry came back.
The number belonged to the young woman I’d met the first day I saw Shay—Tish.I rubbed my thumb across my mouth.
I’ll handle it.
“Relationship troubles?” a voice said at my back.
“Jesus,” I cursed.
Butcher sat in my back seat, grinning in my rearview mirror. In his lap, a box of doughnuts.
“Doughnut?” he asked, extending his hand through the gap between the passenger seats, a pink, sprinkled confection in his hand.
“What the fuck do you want?” I said.
He held the doughnut out a moment longer before shrugging and placing it back into the box.
“What the fuck do you want?” I repeated.
“How’s your girl, anyway?” he asked lightly. “Having any trouble at her job?” He laughed at the look on my face and threw his hands up in surrender. “I’m trying tohelp. Your girl is in deeper than you realize.”
“Get the fuck out,” I said. Butcher shrugged, but opened the door.
“And leave the doughnuts.”
Butcher placed the pink box on the seat. “When you need me, I’ll be waiting.”
chapter
forty-six
SHAY
The custodian asked if I wanted to call the police. I didn’t remember if we did. I didn’t even remember how I got home.
