I shrugged as I slid my hands into my pockets. “Someone’s been stealing from us recently. We haven’t really been on lockdown, but we’ve been on high alert. We have yet to catch who’s stealing our money.”
He scribbled some things down. “Why didn’t you call us about the theft?”
I sighed. “I mean, the numbers have only been off by a couple hundred or so for the past few nights. Not much, by our standards. But enough to keep us on watch.”
“Uh huh,” he said as he kept scribbling, “so if we search every inch of this club from top to bottom, we won’t find anything else suspicious?”
I shook my head. “Nope.”
“And if we check your financial logs—”
“You’d need a subpoena to do that.”
His gaze flickered up to mine. “Are you not cooperating with us? Is that what this is?”
I shook my head. “No, this is me knowing my rights. We’re more than happy to show you our financial records once you obtain a subpoena.”
The officer slid his stare down my body before he flipped his notebook closed. “Stay close and don’t leave town.”
“I never do, Officer…?”
“Franklin,” he said flatly.
I committed the name to memory. “Wonderful, Officer Franklin. I’ll be close if you need anything.”
One by one, the cops dismissed us from our interviews and most of the men got on their bikes to leave. Even Viper, who was usually one to stick around. They knew something was up. They knew something was wrong. And as more cops from other precincts showed up to aid in the search, our numbers had dwindled until it was just me and Fangs there.
President and Vice President, trying to keep a fucking lid on things.
“So, what do you think?” he asked as he folded his arms across his chest.
I drew in a deep breath through my teeth. “I think we owe our clean-up crews a hell of a lot of money this time around.”
He held out his fist for me. “Right on with that one.”
I bumped mine against his. “Did you get questioned?”
He scoffed. “Yeah. I saw you were questioned, too.”
“Yeah, by a new officer. Franklin? The name ring a bell?”
“Nope. But that doesn’t shock me. They laid off three guys last month, so I figured we’d start seeing new faces sooner or later.”
“Any of our guys?” I asked.
He grinned. “Never.”
“Does someone want to explain this!?”
One of the police officers stood on the top step that led toward the front doors of our club, and when she held up a bag of white powder I froze. I slowly looked over at Fangs while someone charged up the steps with what we knew was a drug-testing kit, and the panic that rushed behind Fangs’s eyes set me on edge.
“Those slimy motherfuckers,” he growled.
“It’s positive!” the drug-tester called out. “We’ve got cocaine, you guys!”
I looked at Fangs and he looked at me. Every single officer out there turned their attention toward us and we had two choices: we either went with them quietly, or we hopped on our bikes and tried to make a break for it. But we knew the drugs weren’t ours, so the two of us nodded at one another.
Before we both put our hands in the air to be arrested.
