“If you no longer want my work, say so.But don’t insult me and say that I have to take orders from a man who thinks with his small dick.Your son is a detriment to the business that you’re trying to grow.If that’s who I have to follow, I will walk away right now because I’m not letting that man fit me for a pine box.”
Dusan frowned, pulled his fingers from the girl’s pussy, and smacked her on the ass.“Leave us.”
She sauntered off on her too-tall six-inch heels.
“Explain these words to me, Lance.”
“You want to discuss this here?”
Dusan shrugged.“They know who I am and what happens if they talk.”He narrowed his eyes.“Like you do.”
Just more reason to get this fuck off the street.This bastard was so arrogant the thought of discussing something like this in public didn’t cause even the slightest bit of hesitation.Granted, it wasn’tanywherein public, but certain businesses.
In a way it made sense.The man had more spies than Lance wanted to think about.It sucked because being undercover here meant zero contact with anyone other than his handler, and those contacts were few and far between.
He was ready to finish this and move on.With what he wasn’t sure, but this case had begun to take its toll on him, making him wonder if he needed to simply get out of the business altogether.
“Not sure how else you want me to explain it.Your son thinks he’s untouchable.He’s very vocal about the young girls who are picked up and sold.I’ve heard him going on about it to other girls, threatening their little sisters with phrases like, ‘I can make them disappear’ or any number of things that includes him actually fucking them.”Dusan’s gaze darkened but Lance pressed ahead.After all, the man had asked.“You have people loyal to you in the department, yes, but there isn’t going to be anything they can do when your son mouths off in front of the wrong people.As powerful as you are, there are others in this city who hold more power.We both know this.”
He sipped his drink, staring around the bar briefly, glossing over the women in their skimpy outfits both inside and outside of the establishment.
“Why have none of the ones around him come to me with this?”
Lance shrugged.“Can’t speak for them in that regard.My guess would be that they have a job to keep him alive.They’re loyal to him and answer to him.”
“But you?”
“Like I said before…” He frowned as someone caught his attention.A tingle of recognition hit him, but she was gone seconds later, before the recognition could manifest into a name.“Like I said, I work foryou.Not him.I told you when you came to me I wasn’t taking orders from anyone else.Only you.”
“What are you looking at?”
“Thought I saw someone I knew.”He held Dusan’s stare without blinking.
“Cop friend?”
Lance didn’t worry, the man always wondered if people were cops.If they weren’t on his payroll, he was suspicious.“Hardly.She was on this side of the law, drug running, carjacking, that kind of thing.”
Dusan scratched his jaw.“She good?”
“One of the best.”Lance shrugged.“Doesn’t matter.She’s not there and it may not have been her.”
Even as the words fell, she stepped into view once more.Damn it!Itwasher.He’d recognize her anywhere.Ever since she’d propositioned him back in Atlanta to let her go instead of arresting her, he’d been unable to get her out of his head.Just another thing to be pissed about in the long line of things that angered him.Having a hard-on for the untrustworthy, partially psychopathic twin of a woman he’d been watching.Of course, at that time he had thought the woman under his watch was the crazy drugged-out one.But the second the real Jasmine had touched him, he’d knew it hadn’t been her.Lance had felt like he’d been stabbed by a handful of lightning bolts at that simple contact.A feeling he’d been unable to forget.
“Does she have a name?”
“Yes, she does.My woman,who I haven’t seen in a long time because you keep me busy.”
“Didn’t know you had a woman.And why would you say someone you knew instead of just that she was your girl?”
“I don’t share my life with you.Like you point out all the time, there is work and there is family.Right now, I’m on the work side.”
That woman he had identified, well, she was something all her own.A woman he would be smart to forget even existed.
And she was a piece of work for sure.
Jasmine Hoyer.
Someone was watching her again.She wasn’t sure who it was.Yet.Jasmine pushed her hands into the pockets of her white jean shorts after she tucked some hair behind her ear.Moving slowly, she paused to look at some postcards.You could always find these items along a beach, even though it seemed they were dying in this modern age of doing it all on your phone.Seemed the art of sending a card was going the way of the dodo.Or her.Old and outliving her usefulness.
