Page 53 of Insidious Heart
I’ve been able to get to the scenes before the cops—thanks to my current company—and really take a look at how The Ripper operates. I haven’t been able to come up with any sort of pattern unfortunately, nothing that indicates a hunting ground or any particular events leading up to when he strikes.
It’s incredibly frustrating because this idiot is unorganized as fuck and seems to kill when the mood hits versus any sort of planning, and though it’s confirmed my initial profile about him ten times over, it hasn’t led to any way of predicting when he’ll strike again. And that means I’m no closer to figuring out who it is and putting a stop to it than I was when he crashed my fucking crime scene.
And again, I can find a glimmer of positive in all of that because it’s allowed me to tail Beau the Butcher closer than I was before I became addicted to his daughter.
Which is exactly why we’re here right now because I forfeited the opportunity to kill Beau last night in favor of keeping him alive a little longer to get more information from him. Unknowingly, of course.
“Assuming you’re aware that the Cobra Cons appointed a new president, not all of this will be news to you.”
“Jesus.” Marbles rolls his eyes. “Twat waffleis more like it. Dude can’t tell his dick from a hole in the ground.”
My brow furrows at that backwards turn of phrase but agree no matter how poorly executed it was. “He seems to be a dumbass for sure, but the would-be messiah has made one relatively smart move recently.”
“He got into bed with The Butcher,” Spider says with a sigh.
“He did, and those two idiots have been meeting right under your noses.”
At this, all four of the Kings scowl in my direction. Marbles’ expression turns from regular crazy to a rage-filled crazy even I haven’t seen before as Pork Chop angrily pushes up from the table and begins to pace. Spider silently seethes, the big-ass Viking looking more like he’s about to set out to pillage the city than he normally does, but Pope just leans forward and levels me with those gun metal grey eyes.
“What do you know, Tor?”
Aw, he’s using my nickname. We really are friends.“I followed them to the remnants of your former clubhouse, tapped into the listening device, and watched as the two talked. It seems Jesus is looking to move a rather large shipment, one that includes lots of warm bodies and a fuck ton of drugs, but since the Cobras were all but snuffed out—”
“Thanks to you,” Pope grunts.
“Thanks toallof us,” I correct, even though I know the club was busted after I left those two prospects for everyone to find. “But he’s looking to cut Beau in on this deal. Jesus will have the manpower to move his product and The Butcher will get a fat payout.”
Pork Chop stops pacing and looks at me. “Ultimately this doesn’t have anything to do with us. They might be meeting in a fucked up location on our turf and we need to handle that, but preventing a human trafficking deal seems a little more up your alley, doesn’t it?”
“Yes and no.” I sigh and slump in my chair. “I could kill Jesus and Beau, stop the deal from happening, but there was more to it than that.”
“More to the two of them becoming business partners?” Spider scoffs. “Seems like that’s enough for me.”
“You, my Goliath Birdeater, present a good point, but something is telling me this situation is going to involve more than just the Cobra Cons and the Demon Seeds.”
“You think… “ He drops back back in his seat. “Fuck, you think they’re going to try to pin this on us, don’t you?”
I nod as I pull a cigarette from my pack and light it. “It’s not for sure, neither of them said as much, but after they hashed out some of the details of the deal, Beau went right into talking about some birthday party he’s planning.”
Spider rolls his eyes. “Hisownbirthday party. Fucker has done it up huge to celebrate himself for years.”
“Even though no one else wants to celebrate that douche canoe,” Marbles grunts.
“And you, my lucky, lucky friends, are getting invited this year.” I smirk as all four of them throw out a fewfuck no’s oryeah fucking right’s, but I shake my head. “Don’t be so quick to turn it down.”
“Why the fuck would he invite us in the first place?” Pork Chop asks with a confused look on his face.
“To make nice. Offer the olive branch, if you will.”
He blinks. “And why the hell would he do that?”
I roll my eyes. “Why would any evil bastard do something like that?”
“Total takeover,” Spider grunts. “Beau is going to try to get us to let our guard down, pretend like he wants peace between clubs, then he’s going to frame us for this bullshit deal he and Jesus are cooking up so they can have free reign of El Paso County.”
I point to the genius across from me as I drag my cigarette. “Exactly. He didn’t say as much, but I’m inclined to think that’s exactly what the Butcher’s plan is. And inviting you to his party is step one.”
Marbles blinks at me. “And you think we should actually go?”
