I sat forward and turned to the handsome man. “How? How would Boyd ever convince my brother to launder money for him?”
Hardy cleared his throat. “If the governor never reported the blackmail, then the money he paid to the blackmailer could be deposited in an offshore account. Then the dirty money could be filtered through the account and come out clean. It’s not pretty, but if there are no flags on the blackmail money, it’s possible.”
“Except I took the money from the blackmailer and beat the shit out of him. Turns out, I don’t think it was Boyd Newton. There’s someone else involved.”
“What did you do with it? With the money?” Hardy stared at me.
“I gave it back to Thomas. He’s naïve. He thought Boyd was a good guy. Obviously, he was wrong.” The more I said, the more pissed off I became.
The bell over the front door rang, and Dixie, the office mascot, began barking like crazy before she flopped on her back and exposed her belly. A tall man reached down and scratched her, and that tail pounded the floor like a drum beat. He was a big bastard with a gorgeous smile.
The lady who sat at the desk walked over and hugged him. “Sawyer, honey, how are you?”
“I’m good, unless you’re gonna tell me something happened to Fitz. I haven’t heard from him since yesterday. Tell me there’s no bad news.”
Sparky walked out of the office and stepped over to the man. That’s when I spotted his missing pinky. “Fitz is just fine. I wanted to talk to you about the Viper Kings. You got a minute?”
The man followed Sparky back into the office and stared at Jagger and me as we sat at the table with Hardy.
“I’m Sawyer Abbott.” He extended his right hand. I shook his hand as would be polite.
“I’m Bailey Gregory, the governor’s twin. It’s nice to meet you.”
Jagger stood and shook his hand. “Good to see you, Sawyer. How’s the club?”
The big man laughed. “I guess they’re okay. I’m running the dispensary for them, but I’m not exactly hanging out with them.”
I had no idea what that meant, but I had more pressing issues on my mind. “Okay, so the Viper Kings. What do you know about them?”
The man, Sawyer, turned to Sparky. “Are the Viper Kings involved in one of your bail cases?”
Sparky nodded. “Sort of. It appears someone is trying to blackmail the governor, but we’re not making that public.”
Sawyer nodded. “Okay. What do you want to know about the Vipers? They’re into some heavy shit.”
I turned to Jagger, seeing his grin. “As much as you can tell us.”
Sawyer Abbott had a lot of information on the Viper Kings, which wasn’t a surprise. The tie to a Colombian cartel wasn’t a surprise either. His willingness to share, though, was.
“It should be no surprise that the Cartel would be in on a blackmail scheme. The Vipers do everything the Cartel orders. If they roped Boyd Newton into blackmailing the governor, then Newton owes the cartel or the Viper Kings for something.” Sawyer scanned our expressions and nodded.
“Do you think what Boyd owes the Cartel is close to what he tried to get from my brother?”
Sawyer sat back in the chair, his gaze fixed on the ceiling of Sparky’s office. “It’s possible.”
I turned toward Jagger. “So, what do you propose we do now?”
Jagger grinned. “I suggest we show up at Glory Hole Studios and make Boyd Newton tell us what he’s done that would cause him to blackmail someone who cared about him.”
Yeah, that was an option.
Chapter Eight
Jagger
We went to The Old Strip and parked in an open-air lot near the Golden Nugget Casino. “Glory Hole Studios is a block over.”
“How do you want to play it?” I’d never been to a pornography film studio, so I had no idea what to expect.
