“Grouchy today, aren’t you?” Razor commented.
“I don’t know. He seems a little frustrated to me,” Ink added. “He needs to relax. You know what helps me relax—”
“I don’t need to get fucking laid,” he snapped, knowing what Ink was going to suggest. “And if I was going to get laid, it wouldn’t be with Sunny. She’s my employee and neighbor. She’s not a fucking one-night stand kind of girl.” Unlike the women Ink slept with.
“Can we please stop talking about the fact that Duke needs to get laid and get on to business?” Reyes spoke up for the first time. The rest of them grew silent. Although Ink sent him a sly look.
Fucking bastard.
“We had another warning from the Fox,” Reyes stated. He turned his phone around, showing them an image of a Fox’s head that had been spray-painted onto a wall. “One of the prospects found this on the outside wall of the compound this morning.”
“Fuck, he’s getting ballsy,” Duke commented.
Reyes tapped his fingers against his desk. “There was nothing written there but it’s pretty clear he’s showing us he can get to us anytime he wants.”
“We need to know more about this fucking asshole,” Jason stated.
Spike nodded. “He’s an enigma. Nobody knows who he is. You get in contact with him by leaving a message via voicemail. You can only get the phone number from one of his former clients. Then he decides whether to call you back or not.”
“Did you have any luck getting the number?” Duke asked.
“Yeah. Called him yesterday and left a message. Haven’t heard back. Then he leaves this. Pretty obvious he doesn’t want to fucking chat. We can’t underestimate this guy,” Spike warned.
A headache throbbed in Duke’s temple. This was the last thing they needed. They’d just gotten rid of Bartolli’s hold on the club when Reyes had killed him. Now this.
“Could he have been in league with Bartolli?” he asked quietly. “Worked with him?”
Reyes continued to tap his fingers, looking thoughtful. “Bartolli’s dead. If he hired the Fox for some reason then why would he still be on the job? And Bartolli is unlikely to have hired him when he had us to do his dirty work.”
“Do you think the senator hired him?” Jason asked. “As protection?”
Spike frowned. “Don’t think it would be for protection. But maybe to find out who was blackmailing him. Senator Robins likely doesn’t know the person behind it is dead.”
Reyes nodded. “We got anything more on the senator? Or the girl in the photos that were being used by Bartolli to blackmail him?”
“Other than his holiday home in Maine where’s he’s been these last few days, the senator doesn’t own any other property that I can find,” Jason told them. “Neither does his wife. And I can’t find who the girl was.”
“The senator would cover his tracks,” Ink said slowly.
Reyes stared out the window in Duke’s office that led out to the back alley. Duke glanced out to see that homeless guy, Marv was pulling on a jacket that looked brand new. He wondered where he’d gotten that.
Reyes turned back around. “She must have come from somewhere.”
“Still want to know how Bartolli knew what the senator was up to
,” Duke commented. “Did he have a tie to the senator?”
“Or the girl,” Jason suggested.
“Maybe he supplied her,” Spike rasped. “Or knew who did.”
“Do we still want to keep going?” Reyes asked. He looked each of them over.
“Don’t see how we can fucking give up now,” Ink commented even though he’d been arguing against stopping a fortnight ago. “Would be a fucking itch we couldn’t scratch.”
“The senator should be back tonight. Duke, you and Ink take first shift. Oh, and I told Rory that he and his friend, Horse weren’t being accepted as prospects.”
Duke nodded. He’d expected as much. But now he had to listen to Rory whine about it.