Page 20 of Fool Me Twice
“Explain it to me,” Cane demanded in a menacing voice. “You have one chance.”
Raph opened his mouth and closed it, trembling. “I need the money.”
“Why?” Cane growled, squeezing tighter.
Raph shook his head. “I…I just need it. I know I need it.”
“You’re going to tell me why or your sister will have to scrape you off the floor,” Cane told him. It wasn’t an idle threat.
He kept close tabs on all of his employees. Debts. Connections. You could never be too paranoid in this line of work. Paranoia was just good sense. Raph had nothing. Had done nothing but come to work and collect information to pass to him.
Yesterday he had been fine and now he was fucking everything up for the couple hundred slates he’d get for whatever shit he was trying to peddle.
It couldn’t have been a coincidence.
Maybe if it were an isolated incident, he could believe that he had been betrayed by the brat, but there was just too much evidence and not enough answers.
“I need it,” Raph whispered, almost fanatic as his eyes darted around. “I need it.”
The kid wasn’t even acting like himself.
Just like the others.
“Fuck this,” Cane said, pushing Raph away. “Go home. I don’t want to see you here again tonight.”
Raph struggled to keep his balance, looking woozy and disoriented. He hurried away from behind the bar and out of the warehouse. Cane watched him go with a clenched jaw.
Motherfucker.
There was no way this wasn’t a curse.
It was impossible.
“TYCE!” he boomed, voice echoing off the walls.
His huge enforcer and one of his best fighters stepped down from the office. His biceps and pecs were straining his simple black shirt, ready to tear it at the seams. “Boss?”
“Is Ares still on Hart?”
“Yes, Boss.”
“Text me their location.”
“Yes, Boss.”
Cane was already on his way toward the exit. He checked he had his weapon loaded and tucked it back into the small of his back under his jacket. He whipped a cigarette out and lit it as soon as he got outside, passing the garage with his illegal cars.
With the way this fucking curse was going, he didn’t want to risk being pulled over right away for driving without a license to own and drive in the city. He was working on getting a good forgery made, but it hadn’t come through yet.
He made his way along the dirty streets, sending passersby scurrying across the road to avoid him. It didn’t bother Cane, in fact, it was damn useful.
He’d smoked almost half his pack by the time he reached the train station. Cane glanced at the giant, circular metal legs holding up the platform and track overhead, the bolts rusted with age, the surface covered in years’ worth of grime and graffiti. Some even used them as free advertising, putting up posters and business marketing. Currently, a bunch of nightclub posters had been pasted up, but they had been spray painted over with a huge red eye.
Fucking weirdos.
He joined the line for the escalator that would take him up through the metal-and-glass lined tunnels into the sky where the platforms were. He stayed vigilant, even as he casually looked at his phone, ready for anything at any moment. The skin on the back of his neck prickled and he took a covert look around himself.
It wasn’t the first time he’d felt like he was being watched. He usually attributed it to looking the way he did. But with the shit going on around him recently…fuck knew.