I chuckled and slid my gloves off my hands. “I hear those seven words a lot, and do you know what happens after they’re uttered?” I stepped closer, knowing Alex, Danny, and Jeff wouldn’t let Parker even touch me. “Hmm, do you?”
“What?” His jaw was clenched, and he was hating every moment of this…Good.
“A lot of pain, Parker…and eventually, I get exactly what I want.”
He spit right on my cheek. I took a step away while Alex and Danny explained with their fists why that was a stupid thing to have done. Using a tissue Jeff handed me, I wiped my face and cleared my throat. I tossed my cigar to the ground and flattened it.
“Parker.” Alex and Danny moved to either side of him. Parker was now sporting a bloody lip, and yeah, that eye was gonna swell. “What are you paying Lorcan for?”
“Protection,” he answered, way too quickly for it to be the truth.
I glanced at Danny, who rolled his eyes. “I’m going to go right ahead and say you’re lying.”
“I don’t give a fuck what you think. It’s the truth, and you can kick my ass all day; the answer won’t change.”
Alex went to strike, but I halted him with a wave. “Parker, Parker, Parker. I think you’re putting on a show of false bravado. You’re terrified, likely two seconds from peeing your pants. I ask that you please don’t because it’s quite disgusting.” I motioned to the dusty TVs. “You haven’t sold a damn thing in this shop in months. You’ve let it fall to disrepair, and why? Well, I’ll answer that for you. See, I wasn’t sure until I stepped foot in here, but this is clearly a front.”
“You can shut?—”
Danny swiftly shut him up with a blow to the face.
I didn’t slow down. “You’re selling drugs out of here, drugs that Lorcan supplies, and you’re getting a decent cut. Probably, more money than this store has seen in years.” I lifted a brow. “Am I warm?”
He sneered at me. “Fuck you.”
“Hmm…I’ll take that as a yes.” I turned to Jeff. “Check the other room, upstairs, everywhere. I’d bet he has a nice inventory here.”
That was the moment Parker lost it. He tried to charge Jeff, but Danny grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, hoisted him up, and body-slammed him into a glass display case.
“Stay.” Danny had him by the throat. I hovered above the bruised man.
“Your biggest mistake, Parker, was allowing the idiot that dwells within you to surface.”
He was either smartening up or in a lot of pain, because he didn’t say a damn thing. The four of us stood there waiting, and about three minutes later, Jeff waltzed in holding a box.
“Just this.” He placed it on a counter, and I peeked inside.
“Well, damn, Parker, you’ve got a variety in here. This box alone is worth a half a mil.” I picked up a bag that was clearly cocaine. “So, you peddle this, pay Lorcan, you take your cut, and with the funds he rebuilds his territory.”
It was a pretty great strategy—likely would have worked too, had I not figured any of this out.
I dropped the bag into the box. “Bring this to the car.”
“That’s mine!” Parker shouted, and I snapped.
I gripped him by the shirt and hauled him up, slamming him against the wall. “No! It’s mine. This is my territory and I never bothered you, let you go right ahead and do business. Didn’t squeeze you for a dime. This is how you thank me, by selling drugs on my street, and filling Lorcan Anders’s pockets!”
“I had nothing before he came into this shop, nothing!”
I pulled him to me, then hurled him into the wall again. “That’s when you come to me. I help you. Now, I have the drugs, and you have nothing. If you want to get out of this alive, you’ll tell me where the drugs come in from and who brings them to you.”
“I…”
“Don’t waste my time, Parker.”
“I just know they come in through that club Slice. A guy brings me the box once a month. Another comes to collect the money. That’s it.”
I released him, stepped away, and he slid to the floor. “I’m sure you’ll call Lorcan after I leave. That’s fine. Go about business as usual with him.”
