Shotgun glanced over his shoulder at Viper and me, and there was no missing the anger in his eyes. Tracy had been working at Stilettoes for over a year, and we’d always thought she was one of our best girls. As far as we knew, she was a good kid, always on time and did as she was told, so hearing that she’d been running her mouth was difficult for both of us to digest. “You telling me that Starlight called you and warned you about the coke being counterfeit?”
“Yeah. She was worried you guys would think it was me who fucked with the product. But it wasn’t me, I swear it!”
Shotgun took a step back and glared at Danny, mulling over everything he’d admitted. “So, I’m supposed to believe that when you delivered our two hundred grand worth of product that you didn’t have any idea it’d been fucked with?”
“Look, I know it might be hard to believe, but I didn’t know shit about it. I just did what I always do. I placed the order and went to pick it up.” Danny actually sounded sincere as he continued, “I ain’t stupid. I’ve been working with you guys long enough to know what you’d do to me if I tried to pull some fucked-up shit like that. Besides, you guys tested the shit, same as I did. You saw for yourselves that it was the same as always.”
Viper stepped forward and asked, “Which brother tested it?”
“The guy who came to my place. The one I shot. He tried it out and said we were cool.”
“He’s right,” Shotgun replied. “But he didn’t test each bag. With the size take we had, there was no way we could test it all.”
“I’m telling ya, what I tested was good. I assumed it was all good.” Danny repeated once again, “I’m telling ya, it wasn’t me who did this shit.”
“If it wasn’t you, then who was it?”
“I got no idea. Maybe it was somebody on your end.” Shotgun started towards his tools, this time grabbing his blowtorch and carrying it back over to Danny. “Easy man ... I didn’t mean that shit. Maybe it was my handler or even the man at the top. I don’t know. I’m just the go-between. They don’t tell me nothing.”
“Who’s your handler?”
“I don’t know nothing about him. Just that he goes by the name Miller. I meet up with him in Pine Bluff when I need to pick up a shipment.” Blood trickled down from his lip as he spoke. “I just text what I need and meet him a day later with the cash.”
Danny had barely gotten the words out of his mouth when Viper stepped forward and asked, “The number still on your phone?”
“Yeah,” Danny answered. “Last time I used it was when I made arrangements to pick up your take.”
Viper turned to Shotgun and me and nodded his head, signaling us to follow him out of the room. Once the door closed behind us, he turned to me and said, “Get the phone to Menace. Have him track the number and see if he can find out anything about this guy Miller or their main supplier. We need to know exactly who the fuck we’re dealing with.”
“You got it.”
“It’s late. Let’s call it a night. We can get back at it early tomorrow morning.”
I could tell by Shotgun’s expression that he wasn’t ready to stop. He was finally making some headway with Danny, but he’d never go against orders. “You want me to let him down or leave him strung up for the night?”
“Leave him. It’ll give him some time to think things over before we start in on him again.”
“Understood.”
Once we’d retrieved the cellphone from Danny, Viper and Shotgun headed out, while I took the phone to Menace. After I gave him the rundown of what we needed, I went to check in on Delilah. It was late, and just as I’d expected, when I opened the door, she was sound asleep. Deciding it was best to let her get some shuteye, I closed the door and went to the room across the hall. I hoped by staying there I could keep a closer eye on her. Besides, I was too fucking exhausted to go back to my place, so I left the door open and collapsed on the bed. As I lay there, I thought back to my earlier conversation with Delilah. Hearing her talk about being there for her brother got to me. Delilah didn’t care if her brother was in the wrong or that he should take the responsibility for his own actions, she wanted to support him just the same. It was rare to find an outsider who held the same beliefs about loyalty and family as my brothers and me. Our whole life was driven by the brotherhood, always having each other’s backs and being there for one another when times were rough. It had me wondering if there were other things we had in common. With each moment I thought about it, I found myself becoming more and more exhausted. I could barely remember closing my eyes when I was jerked awake by the sound of Axel’s voice saying, “Hey, brother. Viper’s called us in.”