Page 28 of Griffin
“She’s not wrong,” Tonio said.
“Then it’s good the universe handed me a gift this morning.”Knight grinned.“I intercepted a comm out of the Ballwell hub forty minutes ago.Which is why we’re all here right now.There’s a transport scheduled.Tomorrow.Two passengers.Special handling.They’re moving north along theÉclipsecorridor between eleven and midnight.”
The room went very quiet.
“Who’s the buyer?”Gunnar finally asked.
Knight clicked one more time.A single capital letter “I” sat in the buyer field at the top of the manifest.The same letter in the buyer’s column next to my sister’s name on the screen beside it.
“Same one who was supposed to buy your sister,” Knight said.“Same fuckin’ one.”
Chapter Ten
Griffin
We only used this basement room when the person we “invited” inside wouldn’t be leaving alive.Didn’t happen often, but when we used the place, the person being worked over inside deserved everything we did to them.The prospect limped between Inferno and Tiny, acting like he still had something left to bargain with, but you could see his fear, if not his resignation.I watched Knuckles shut the door and heard the lock click.Now, we’d find out what this guy knew.
Tiny shoved him into the chair bolted to the concrete floor.The kid was mid-twenties, mouth swelling from where Diesel’s elbow had found him in the hall back at Veda’s, right eye half-lidded.He wore a Steel Serpents cut.A brittle kind of cockiness had him raising his chin.Maybe he thought this was the start of a negotiation.He’d learn different soon enough.
Tiny zip-tied his arms at the forearms and wrists to the chair arms, then pulled the strap tight around each ankle until the plastic bit into his flesh.Tiny could scare most men just by being present.At seven feet tall, Tiny weighed in over three hundred pounds, every single ounce of it muscle.And a lot of it.Every time the prospect glanced up, he found Tiny’s gaze and flinched away.
Inferno stood at the back wall, shadow carved deep across the Phoenix ink on his neck, arms crossed.I grimaced.I liked the guy, but I hated working with him.
I grabbed the battered metal chair from under the worktable and swung it around, sat astride it with my forearms on the backrest.
Knuckles leaned into the doorframe long enough to meet my gaze, arms folded, waiting until I focused on him.“Get it all, Griffin.Every single scrap of information he has.”When I nodded, he slipped back outside, door shutting tight.Just us, the prospect, and the consequences now.
“Name,” I said.Flat, conversational, no threat in it.
He tried a grin, like the split in his lip was a badge.“Blaine.”
“You know where you are, Blaine?”
He spat, the blood dark on the concrete.“In the asshole of the fucking world?”
I smirked and held his gaze until he looked away.“Let’s talk about the shipment tomorrow night.”
“Don’t know shit.”
“We both know that’s a lie.”
He snorted out a nervous laugh.“You really think I’m gonna roll over just ‘cause your fuckin’ muscle breathes on me?”
“Here’s your shot,” I said.“Talk to me straight, I see if I can make your night a little less… final.”
“Why the fuck should I?Iron takes me out if I squeal.You assholes do it if I don’t.Looks like my luck’s up either way.”
“It is.”
His eyes widened, like he hadn’t expected me to cop to my plans for his fate.“Then why should I tell you anything?Ain’t nothin’ in it for me.”
“Well,” I said with an evil grin.“You can either die from a bullet to the head, all clean and neat.Or you can last a while.A really, really good.Long.While.”
Blaine tried to stare me down.The effort was almost funny, given the state of his face and the way his hands visibly tightened around the chair arms, straining at the zip ties.He looked at Tiny, then back at me, and I saw the moment something in him realized the magnitude of shit storm he found himself in.He tried to cover it with bravado.
“Fuck you.You wanna scare me, go ahead.I’ve had worse.”He puffed out his chest, but his forehead beaded with sweat to run down his temples and into his eyes.Yeah.He knew.
I glanced at Inferno, letting the silence grow.Inferno moved in a slow, deliberate way to cross the room.In his hand, he carried a butane torch.Crouching in front of the kid, Inferno raised the torch and a blue flame shot out with a softwhooshand a continuous hiss.
