CHAPTER 25
Dylan
We spent the next half hour digging through the mountains of crap. And they were, largely, crap. That’s why we, meaning law enforcement, mostly let Black Dog slide. The bulk of the stuff they peddled was harmless shit and as they were a known quality, we let it slide. Better to deal with the devil you know than the devil down the road. The gambling… that, on the other hand, was pretty new. Tom and I were going to have words about that when I got out of here.
I watched Zoe sift through piles with at first trepidation, and eventually with an angry zeal. She was one determined gal. Didn’t hurt that, as she bent over the junk, her mini skirt rode up, revealing a tiny black thong — one I wouldn’t mind taking off a little later.
My musings about her tempting underwear were interrupted when she picked up an object and held it out to me with horror.
It was a gun. A gleaming black gun.
“I never knew these were so heavy.”
“What the fuck,” I muttered angrily.
I walked over to her and took the weapon from her outstretched hand.
Had Black Dog got into the arms dealing business? That, compounded with the gambling, meant shit was gonna get real, and fast. And a thought occurred to me. The gun looked oddly familiar. I mean, all handguns look relatively similar, but this jogged my memory.
I moved from behind the folding screen into the back of the den area. Best not to be examining potentially faulty guns in Zoe’s presence. Something told me a girl from NYC wouldn’t be big on firearms, especially ones with questionable composition.
The gun was heavy in my hand, and I weighed it, trying to reach further into my mind to pull out the relevant details.
I remembered. Slowly, I turned the gun over in my hand to examine the trigger. I knew what I would find, but I needed to make certain I was correct. Sure enough, if I tilted the gun to the light just right, I could make out the tell-tale sign — a ruby-inlaid trigger.
I didn’t waste time. “Bull!” I shouted. “Get over here!”
The gang lackey raised his head from one of the poker tables, sneered and pushed away from the table, making his way over to me. He looked pissed at being called like a dog, but I didn’t care. Eventually, his gigantic form stood only inches from my own.
“What is it, Dylan?” he growled. “You interrupted my game.”
I held up the gun, until it was positioned between our two sets of eyes. “Notice anything familiar?”
“No,” he lied. It had taken me only one or two trips to the Black Dog to figure out that Bull was the worst liar out of them all. That’s why he’d never rise in the gang, always stuck playing page boy.
“Oh yeah?” I pressed. “You don’t recognize the specialty custom gun from the Damascus case? The one that would’ve put Colin away for the rest of his sorry life?”
“Huh,” he replied moronically. “Guess it does look a little familiar.”
“You’re about to get anally fucked.”
“Am I now? Interesting.” He turned his head and let out a piercing whistle. A handful of men appeared as if out of nowhere, all dressed in black with buzzed heads.
“Gentlemen,” Bull said to the men. “Grab the girl.”
My world tilted on its axis as I watched the guys race behind the folding screen. I quickly stuck the gun into the back of my jeans. I tried to follow them, but Bull grabbed me by the neck, saying, “I don’t think so.” He landed a jab on my orbital socket, and I reflected that that was gonna be sore in the morning.
A scream pierced the room, and I knew, as if by instinct, that it was Zoe.
“You stupid sonofabitch,” I shouted in Bull’s face, my spit speckling his cheeks. “You hurt her and I’ll kill you.”
He laughed, and I watched helplessly as the group of men in black dragged Zoe out by her armpits, kicking and screaming.
“Dylan,” she cried.
The plea was cut off by a man covering her mouth and pulling her to his body. I’d seen enough.
I broke out of Bull’s chokehold, ducked a blow, and coming briefly out of my crouch, delivered a solid punch to his jaw. Bones cracked beneath my knuckles, and Bull roared. In the confusion, the lackeys let go of Zoe. She sprinted to me and grabbed my hand.
“Let’s go!” I told her. I didn’t wait to see her response, time was of the essence.
Together we ran through the poker tables, upsetting several drinks and raising angry hollers from a number of patrons. Needless to say, we didn’t stop to apologize. We went through the steel door, and I let go of her hand just long enough to usher her up the ladder.
“You go first,” she panted.
“No.” End of argument.
There wasn’t time for a fight, so she tacitly agreed and began to climb. I could hear Bull’s men gaining behind us, judging from the sound of smacking shoes and gambling chips being scattered on the floor.
We scrambled up the ladder, and once we got to the top, I slammed the trap door shut and moved the cardboard boxes over it as Zoe grabbed her stilettos.
“That should give us some time,” I said, grabbing Zoe’s hand again. “But we gotta move quickly.”
We raced out of the Black Dog Tattoo Parlor and down the block in the frigid winter air. I doubted we’d make it into our respective cars and start them up before the men found us, so I pulled Zoe into a nearby alley. I pressed her close to the wall, using my body as a shield.
“Don’t move a muscle,” I whispered in her ear.
Soon, we could hear the men spilling out of the shop and searching the streets for us. We had the advantage of smarts on our side, these boys were dumb as bricks.
“Hey, Bobo, I can’t find them anywhere!” called one.
“Same here,” another replied.
“Maybe they ran real fast,” returned yet another.
I rolled my eyes. No wonder the Black Dog’s ‘secret operations’ weren’t all that secret. These kids hadn’t had the thought to check the damn alley. But it wasn’t wise to underestimate a group of possible drug addicts, armed with handguns. So, Zoe and I waited them out.
Minutes passed, until at last their apparent leader shouted, “They’re gone. No use tryna find ‘em now.”
“Okay, boss, whatever you say,” said one.
With that, they moseyed back inside the shop. The tell-tale bell jangled as the door shut behind them.
For the first time since we’d entered the Black Dog, I took a deep breath, looked at Zoe, realizing our bodies had been practically flush against one another during the excitement. And now, other parts of me were, well, excited.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“You were so brave back there,” she replied shyly.
“Just doing my job.”
I felt her shiver, and realized she was still wearing little to no clothing.
“We’ve gotta get you warmed up,” I said.
“Oh yeah? How do you plan on doing that?”
“Let’s go back to your place.”