Page 17 of Rock the Boat
He gritted his teeth and tried to shuffle backward. I followed him. “Matt-Matthew doesn’t know what he’s saying!”
“Oh, but I think he does. You see, I might have played with your formula a little bit. Add a little bit of this and take out a lot of that. I made my very own truth serum.” I grinned and lifted an eyebrow.
“You?” Helena scoffed behind me.
I released my cousin temporarily, taking immense joy when he fell to the ground, cupping his family jewels. Whirling around, I faced the bitch. “Yes, me. I have a Ph.D. in chemistry, if you will recall. I know how to compound medicines and other chemicals together to get them to do what I want. Next time you want to try and screw someone over, you might want to do your homework.” I held my blade in front of me and stepped closer, pressing it against her neck. “Oh, but there won’t be a next time. I’m here to make sure of that.” I absolutely loved the fear I saw in her eyes.
She swallowed hard and winced, feeling the prick of the blade, but there was no blood, only a tiny red mark that would disappear in seconds. “We don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sticking to your guns till the end. I kind of respect you for that.” I dropped the knife and opened another file on my tablet. Emails and text messages popped up on the screen. The final one had been sent between the conspirators only days before.
Steven:Did they ever find Nell’s body?
Helena:What made you think of that bitch?
Steven:My aunt said something about Nell coming home soon.
Matthew:No way she is coming home. Animals probably dragged her away.
Clod:She is out of our lives for good. This cannot bite us.
Steven:I still don’t understand why we killed her. We’ve found girls before.
Frank:Her fault for looking.
Leon:Too nosey. Delete your text history and wipe your phones. Never discuss again.
I’d read this exchange a million times, but it still didn’t give me the answers I sought. What did I see? A box with stuffed animals. My guess was there had been something hidden inside. Probably drugs. Why me? Why did I have to die? Why couldn’t they just leave me none the wiser? I would have been heartbroken, but I would have moved on with my life and never thought about Matthew ever again.
Leon had been difficult for me. I’d seen him in the picture, read his message to them, but how did he fit in? It turned out he was in charge of everything. But it was so much more than that. Sergio and the others had agreed to help me because this man was trying to move into their territory, selling to kids and others.
Sergio and his boss had known someone was moving in. They also knew that Matthew and Clod had something to do with it, but they never believed those two idiots could be trusted to organize their own closets. But then, as if karma was ready to bite Leon in the ass, Sergio’s team got the proof they needed. Leon approached one of Sergio’s men and propositioned him, and the whole conversation was recorded.
“Emil, I know you are loyal to your bosses, but I can pay you more to come work for me. I just want some information, and when we make them disappear, you can be my second in command. My future nephew thinks it will be him, but he screws everything up, forcing me to clean up his mess,” Leon said.
Emil cleared his throat on the recording, and the sound echoed through the room. “I don’t know. How much more?”
“Double.”
“No shit?”
“No. I need them gone, and I need your help to do it.”
Personally, I didn’t know who the bigger moron was: Leon or Matthew. Did Leon really believe it would be that easy, that he could simply lure someone away with empty promises? Did he think he wouldn’t be busted?
Emil stood next to Leon, his hand on his gun, ready to shoot if necessary. Hell, he was probably just ready to shoot. I was almost certain he didn’t need an excuse. I knew Sergio didn’t. He had been told to get rid of the problem, and if I didn’t follow through, he would.
