Page 50 of Twilight Tides
“You’re understandably upset, Mr. Shaw.” Hughes folded himself into the chair, crossing one leg over the other, casual and unbothered as if we were just sitting down to have a normal business conversation. “I want to assure you, however, that our proposal is going to benefit you as well.”
“What exactly is your proposal, Joshua?”
The right corner of his mouth quirked upward and then he looked around the room, glancing up into the corners and then studying the bookshelves behind my desk. “Are there recording devices in the room?”
“Why would there be recording devices?” I asked blandly.
“There is CCTV on the front of the property,” Fraser offered, leaning back against the wall, arms crossed. I was proud of how calm he appeared. Totally unruffled. “So you’ve been recorded coming into the building. But it’s illegal to film your employees without permission, so there’s no CCTV inside since we don’t carry anything of physical value in the office.”
“Even so … before we begin, I’d like to ask you both to hand over your phones to me. Just until our conversation is over.”
“Fuck you,” Fraser replied blandly. “You’re the one who wanted the meeting. You don’t get to dictate shit.”
“It’s fine.” I let out a sharp huff as I pulled open my desk drawer and retrieved my old phone I’d brought along just for this purpose. I pretended to switch it off. “There, it’s even turnedoff for you.” With a flick of my wrist, I sent it spinning across the desk to him.
Hughes caught it with a nod of thanks and then he took Fraser’s phone. “Both switched off. Great. Now we can proceed.”
“Then proceed. I have a business to run.”
“A very successful business, Mr. Shaw. My bosses wanted to send along their congratulations. You’ve taken a small family enterprise and turned it into a fishing empire.”
I felt nothing but contempt for the prick. “Enough blowin’ smoke up my arse. Who are your bosses and what the fuck do you want?”
“Fair enough. I work for the Walsh brothers. They’re enterprising people themselves, and run a very successful organization. The youngest brother, Dorian, had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of your ex-wife Jill.”
“You mean the bastard who’s in prison for drug possession and dealing?”
“Out on bail now. So is your wife, in case you were wondering.”
“Ex-wife. Did you pay her bail?”
“Dorian did.”
“In exchange for her silence?”
Joshua shrugged. “The good news is the mother of your daughter is no longer in jail, which means Kelly can return to Jill.”
I curled my upper lip. “Sorry to break it to you, arsehole, but that’s not how it works. Not even you can pay for Jill to get her parental rights back after this.”
“Well, that doesn’t really matter. What matters is that we’re allbondednow.” He grinned, and that’s when I saw the flash of malice in it. For all his civilized outward appearance, this young lad was a crook. And he enjoyed being one. “My employers need legitimate fishing boats to transport our product acrossthe Islands and Highlands and to Ireland. For a while we were getting away with posting small packages through the post office, but Police Scotland are onto us and it’s a much slower method of distribution than we need. We considered the human trafficking route until the mess last year when the boat of immigrants were rescued, along with large quantities of drugs. Right here on this island, if I’m not mistaken?”
I didn’t correct him that the boat was rescued by the LSLS.
Hughes leaned forward. “Here’s the deal: Our boat goes out from Southport to meet yours just off the coast of Ireland. We’ll provide you with a schedule, and you stop in at multiple ports to offload our product with our people. In exchange for your cooperation, we’re willing to pay you ten percent of the net profit on each of those deliveries. Now that’s a very generous offer, Mr. Shaw.”
Silence fell between us for a few seconds and even though my heart beat hard and fast in my chest, I refused to let it show.
“Let’s be clear: You want me to transport your drugs across the west coast in exchange for payment?”
“That’s correct.”
“And what made you think I’d ever say yes to this?”
Joshua Hughes smirked. “Have you heard of the termcuckooing?”
I gave an impatient swipe of my hand.
“It’s what the police up here call it.” Hughes leaned forward in his seat. “We find someone vulnerable and we take over their property so we can deal out of their house. Sometimes they’re addicts themselves or they have no one to protect them or they’re in financial crisis and we offer to help in exchange for the use of their property.” His eyes gleamed. “What we want from you … well, it’s cuckooing on another level, Mr. Shaw.”
