As soon as he answered, I asked, “You said Stilettoes on North, right?”
“That’s the one,” Viper answered. “You here?”
“Yeah, just pulled up.”
“Good. I’ll meet you around back.”
I ended the call, then drove around the back of the building and parked. I went around and grabbed my things, then headed inside. I’d barely made my way through the door when Viper and Hawk came rushing up to me. Viper sounded troubled as he said, “Hey, brother. Wish I could say that it was good to see you.”
“Same.” Time wasn’t on our side, so I asked, “So, what are we dealing with here?”
“Come on.” Viper motioned me forward as he continued, “I’ll show ya.”
He and Hawk led me through the crowd and down the hall to the private rooms. They were all blocked off and were being guarded by Country and Lynch. As soon as he saw me, Country, my soon to be son-in-law, gave me one of his friendly smiles and said, “Billy, my man! How’s it going, brother?”
“It’s going.”
Before I could say anything more, Viper walked by me and said, “Back here.”
I followed him to the last room down the hall, then waited as he opened the door. When I stepped inside, I found a man in his late fifties with a Burt Reynold’s mustache and a protruding beer gut sitting in one of the plush chairs. When I stepped closer, I saw that the guy had a large knife wound in his neck and had bled out all over the place. “Damn.”
“Yeah, I knew she wasn’t ready.”
“Hold up... One of your girls did this?”
“Yeah, she sure as fuck did, and that shit’s on me. I knew better.” Viper’s tone grew angry as he said, “It’s only been a couple of months since that asshole fucking raped her, and Misty shows up here acting like everything’s right in the world. All was good until this motherfucker decided to get handsy. Misty lost her shit and stabbed him.”
“No kidding?”
“I wish I was.” Viper glanced over at Hawk, then back to me as he said, “Menace checked him out. His name is Brian Miller, and the guy’s a real piece of work. Been locked up for all kinds of shit, from domestic assault to distribution. As a matter of fact, there’s a warrant out on him now.”
“He married?”
“Nope,” Hawk answered. “No kids either.”
“So, how do you wanna play this?”
“I’d say the usual, but I don’t think we can just up and make this guy disappear. Someone might ask questions, and the last thing we need is this thing coming back to bite us in the ass.”
“We could make it look like he got in a fight in the alley.” Hawk glanced over at the deceased, then continued, “Or maybe a car hijacking.”
“A car hijacking could work, but if you want it to look legit, we’re gonna need to get on it.” I looked over to Viper as I added, “And I do mean we. I can’t pull it off without a little help.”
“Just tell me what you need us to do.”
“You can start by getting our friend out to the van.”
“Sure thing.” Viper opened the door and called out, “Hey, Lynch. Come give us a hand.”
“You got it, Prez.”
As soon as he stepped into the room, Viper announced, “We need to get Miller out to Billy’s van.”
“Whoa, you mean now?” Lynch asked with surprise. “While the club’s still open?”
“That’s exactly what I mean.” Lynch didn’t question him further. He simply stood there and listened as his president explained, “Menace already killed the cameras, so we just gotta walk him out of here without drawing any attention. You think you can manage that?”
“Won’t know until we try.” Lynch motioned his head toward the door, then said, “Let’s do this.”