Criminal Instinct Read Online Free PDF Page B

got.”
    “Shit.” He snorted, stuffing the bill into his pants. “Older dude, blond hair. Tail down his back. Thinks the chicks dig it. Who knows if they do, they’re just tradin’ a piece of ass for free shit.” He chuckled at his own joke. Snot dripped from his nose and he wiped at it with his sleeve. “Ain’t too tall, ’bout your height, I guess.”
    “You say he’s here a lot at the arcade?”
    “Yeah.”
    Short or not, without a picture she could pass the dealer and not realize it. “Look, I’ll get you a hot meal if you come and point him out.”
    “No way, man. I don’t get involved in people’s shit.”
    “What shit? I want to score. You point him out from a distance and he never knows.”
    He scrubbed his fingers over his mouth, eyes shifting. “Forget the meal. I want cash.”
    Ana hesitated. Mouse wanted to feed his drug habit and she would be helping him. Not that it was her problem or her business. So why did she feel like a jerk?
    “How much?” she asked.
    “C-note.”
    “Get real.” She scowled when he shrugged. “I’ll see what I can come up with. Let’s go.”
     
    Jonas halted at the entrance of the arcade, dug out a few loose bills and dropped them into a guitar case laid out in front of a scruffy man strumming a beat.
    The man coughed. “God bless, sir.”
    Jonas stepped into the crowded building. The pings and bells of electronic entertainment floated in the air, along with the scent of buttered popcorn from a nearby snack bar. His shoulder brushed an obese man as he took a spot in the ticket line, blending in with the assorted game players packed inside the large two-story building.
    Stevie’s file named the arcade as Dolini’s usual haunt.
    Peering around heads, Jonas stuffed his hands in his front pockets. He would allow himself one hour here, then he needed to get to the club to finish preparations for the opening. And to hook up with the feelers he sent out this morning.
    Did Stevie’s death tie in with the Ecstasy shipment?
    Over the years, in order to protect his family and move forward with his operations, Jonas had made plenty of enemies in the drug trade. It wasn’t a far off possibility someone could be after him to seek revenge for a past partnership gone sour. His muscles bunched in his back. He needed to find out who before they got too close to Kara or Elliott.
    A teenager cut in front of him, stepping on his foot as she passed through the line. At the same time someone knocked him from behind. Irritated, he glanced over his shoulder. A small child stood behind him in line, looking in the opposite direction.
    Jonas turned back to the kid walking away. Little brat didn’t look back or apologize. Just kept walking. A backpack hooked on her slim, petite frame, ebony hair swaying as she swung her head left to right. Something tattooed on her back peeked out from under her little sweatshirt and baggy pants. Jonas couldn’t see her face but she looked like one of those pissed-off-at-the-world teenagers. He should know. He’d been one in his day.
    Then he saw it.
    She bumped a guy wearing a suit jacket and executed a quick slip of her fingers as she braced herself, gripping one side of his coat so she wouldn’t fall. Some skinny kid strolled behind her and she slipped him a couple of wallets with the other hand as he passed.
    Quick and clean. The mark flicked an annoyed look at the kid before taking off as if all was right with the world.
    Wait a minute.
    Jonas’s hand darted to his back pocket. Empty.
    Shit. He scanned for the skinny kid, but lost him. The raven-haired thief, on the other hand, stopped next to a short guy playing a video game. Two adolescent girls draped themselves on either side of him.
    Ready to pull the thief aside, Jonas stopped short when he saw the sleaze she stood with. Narrowing his eyes, he matched the jerk’s face with the picture burned into his brain.
    Tom Dolini. Right in front of his face.
    Tamping down a spike of tension,