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And the minivan?

Empty.

See, these guys are street smart only to the point of what they think they know from shit they’ve watched on television.

Ten years behind bars and I know how to survive.

Weapons or not.

I swing the wrench and hit another one in the jaw.

Instantly broken.

He falls into a heap of himself, the pain far too great to worry about pulling out a gun and shooting me.

The other guy has his gun but I make my daring move of grabbing his throat with my left hand and swinging the wrench down and across my body, knocking the gun out of his hand. I walk the guy back to one of the closed garage doors and slam him hard.

His face turns red and then to purple really quick.

I guess I’m choking him that hard, huh?

Oops.

I release my hold and step back.

I place the bloody wrench under the guy’s chin.

“Can we talk?” I ask.

“Jesus, man, who the fuck are you? We’re just running orders. That’s all. This is our route. Our territory.”

“Not anymore,” I say. “Now, this isn’t exactly a hostile takeover here. We need to make a few things right. So I need you to go back to your boss and have him come my way.”

“You don’t get it, man. He’ll kill me. He’ll kill all of us. He’ll kill you.”

The guy with the broken jaw makes a weird groaning noise.

The other guy is sitting up, completely dazed, obviously concussed.

Mutt is back on his feet. “Corbin, what’s happening here?”

“We’re cancelling our current contract and going to negotiate a new one,” I say. “Years of being fucked over end right now.”

“You won’t get away with stealing the product,” the guy says.

“I’m not keeping it. I’m not even going to sell it. I’m just holding it safely. That’s all. Understand what I’m saying? So here’s what we do now. Scoop up your friends here and get them the fuck out of my garage. I’ll have my cousin pack up a decent size bag of heroin to take with you. No need to start a war here, is there?”

“Too fucking late, man,” the guy says.

“Well, if we’re getting down to it, you’ve started the war. But I wouldn’t call it that yet. Nobody is dead. Yet.”

I tap the wrench under the guy’s chin.

I whisper to Mutt where the heroin is hidden and he goes to pack up a bag of it.

I need these assholes out of here. There’s still a lot of legit work to do.

I also want to sit and look at that picture from my Katie girl some more.