“True. I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m going to find out. Maybe mention to my sister that her friend has an unwanted admirer and let her know to keep her eyes open when they are together.”
The corners of his mouth turned down and his eyes went a scary, flat black. “Dovie gets hurt because someone has it in for her little friend and I will destroy anyone and anything involved.”
Good. That’s exactly what I wanted to hear.
“None of us live in a bubble, my friend. We all gotta look out for one another because no one else gives a shit if we make it out alive.”
He grunted in agreement and turned back to the Jaguar he was in the middle of pulling the engine out of. Bax was always a man of few words.
I went to the Mustang and cruised through the city until I got to the old dog-food factory that was Nassir’s main base of operations. It was the big club, the big draw for kids from all over the city. It was hidden, hard to find, impossible to get into if you didn’t know someone, and totally different on the outside than it was on the inside. In the harsh light of day it looked like any dilapidated building that had been foreclosed on. But at night, when the sun went down and the miscreants came out to play, it was a hive of activity and on trend with any fancy nightclub in any major metropolitan city in the world.
Some nights it was a rave. Some nights it was a disco. Some nights it was a dirty, brutal fight club. Some nights it was den of sex and debauchery. Whatever the masses wanted, whatever the people clamored for, Nassir gave it to them—and then some. He really was a brilliant businessman on top of being a stone-cold killer and a soulless monster.
I walked down a set of rickety stairs that barely felt like they would hold my weight. At the end was a giant metal door that had a keypad entry similar to the ones installed at the garage. I punched in the code and waited for the approval from whoever was monitoring the security on the inside to open the door all the way. The hallways were empty and smelled like sweat and sex. Like every bad thing that had ever been done inside these walls had sunk into the concrete and just permeated the entire place. I went through another secure door, made my way across the vacant floor of the factory, which just looked industrial and run-down in the daytime, went behind the bar, and climbed a wrought-iron set of stairs that led to the VIP section, which was really just the old catwalks of the factory, and to the back office where I knew Nassir spent most of the day.
His office was as different from the run-down, desolate vibe of the rest of the warehouse as it could be. The entire place was enclosed in smoky, one-way glass that I knew was bulletproof and soundproof. He had monitors that covered the entire wall behind his desk that almost gave the security at the garage a run for its money. His desk was a black lacquer behemoth that sat on a polished marble floor. Nassir was a flashy guy, but he was also a lethal predator. No one that walked into this office would ever be fooled into thinking they were just there for a simple business meeting.
I plopped down in one of the wingbacks across from him and just stared at him while he talked on his cell phone. His dark eyebrows were pitched low on his forehead and his hair was standing up in the front like he had been shoving his hands through it, instead of lying flat in its usual ruthless style. I crossed my ankle on my knee and tapped out a random beat with my fingers while he glowered at me. Nassir didn’t play well with others, and now that there was an unknown quantity in the mix, our uneasy truce might prove to be too much for him to handle.
He barked out something in a language I didn’t understand and threw the phone on the desk in front of him with way more force than the action required. He leaned back in his chair and glared at me with glowing eyes.
“If you ask me if I shot that guy, I very well may punch you in the face.”
That made me grin.
“You have any idea who might be behind it?”
“Someone clumsy and obvious. It was foolish and gratuitous.”
“The kid was overkill.”
“The kid was to make a very clear point.”
I uncrossed my legs and leaned forward with my forearms resting on my legs.
“What do you want to do about it?”
He grumbled something I didn’t quite make out and raked his fingers through his dark hair.
“I’m having one of my guys go through the security footage outside both of the clubs to see if we can see anything. We need to know who to look for before we can decide what we want to do about it.”
“All right.”
I didn’t think we were going to be in agreement about it, but so far, so good. Granted, I didn’t trust Nassir, but until he gave me a reason to doubt his judgment, I was okay with handling this one step at a time. It was just logical.
“Now let’s talk about the fights this Friday night.”
His candy-colored gaze went sharp, and the edges of his mouth dug in at the sides.
“What’s there to talk about? I’ve been doing fight nights as long as you’ve been running the streets. This isn’t anything new.”
“Right, but now I’m running the odds and I want to know what magic you’re going to pull so that you have a guaranteed winner. If you’re gonna play dirty, I want the odds to reflect it.”
“That isn’t how you make money, Race.”
“No, but it is how you make the bet clean.”
“Who cares about a clean bet?”
I hooked a thumb at my chest. “I do.”
His frown dug in deeper, and we had a tense moment where we just stared at each other without speaking.
“That is naive and foolish. It isn’t what this partnership is about.”