kidding me? Are you really asking me to steal?” I asked, completely stunned. “You know I can’t do that!”
I was in shock. I couldn’t believe that he even considered asking me to do something like that. He knew how I felt about my job, about helping those kids. There was no way I would ever do anything to jeopardize my career.
“Allie… they’re going to kill me! Hell, they’ll probably come after you, too, if I don’t get them this money. These guys don’t fuck around. They will come after us. I promise you that.”
“Who? What have you done? What have you gotten yourself into? Why would they come after me? How do they even know about me? You hide your whole life from me. I don’t even know any of the people you associate with. You’re scaring me, Tony,” I told him. I tried to fight back my tears, but there was no use. The thought of someone hurting him made my chest ache. I couldn’t even process the fact that I had been drawn into his mess. All I could feel was my heart pounding, each beat striking harder than the last. What was I going to do? He was the only family I had left, and I couldn’t lose him.
“You should be scared, sis. Hell, I’m scared. I’m scared to death. I’ve gotta get this money fast, or we’re dead,” he stressed.
I was completely overwhelmed, but I knew I had no other choice. I had to try and help him. “I’ll see what I can do,” I told him.
“Thank you, Allie. You’re my last hope,” he said as he reached over and squeezed my hand.
“Can’t promise you anything, Tony,” I told him. “I have no idea if I can pull this thing off, but I’ll do everything I can. You can’t expect me to steal from my work, though. That’s not an option, but I’ll do what I can. I love you. You’re not alone in this,” I promised. “I’ll contact you as soon as I know something.”
He quickly stood up and towered over me, his eyes glowing in urgency. “You have to, Allie. You have to!” He slammed his fist against the table, causing everyone in the bar to look in our direction. When he saw them looking, he lowered his voice to a strained whisper and said, “I’ve gotta get out of here. I’ll be in touch… and Allie?”
“Yeah?”
“Hurry!” he pleaded before he turned and walked out of the bar.
Shit…. it was so much worse than I thought.
* * *
Chapter 6
Guardrail
‡
A s soon as I left Allie, I headed straight to the clubhouse. I had to get to Big Mike. After hearing that Tony had contacted Allie, it was on. Even though she told me he didn’t plan to meet up with her until Sunday, I wasn’t leaving this in the prospects’ hands. Tony was desperate and could turn up at any time. I wanted to know the minute he showed up, and Big Mike was the best man for the job. In addition to being one of the bigger guys in the club, he was also our best hacker. He could get into any computer system in just a matter of seconds, so I knew he wouldn’t have any trouble getting into her phone messages. Luckily, he wasn’t hard to find. After pounding on his door, I walked into his room and found him hacking away at his computer.
“Hey, Big Mike. Tony contacted Allie. It’s time to move on this. I need you to hack into her phone and monitor all of her calls and texts from this point on.”
“You got it, brother. I’m on it,” he reassured me. “I’ve got this.” He patted me on the shoulder. “You don’t have to worry about me monitoring it. Here’s a shadow phone. I’ll have it up and running in less than an hour. You’ll be able to monitor her yourself directly. It will automatically ring when hers does. Every phone call or message she gets will come through this phone as she gets it, instantaneously. You can answer, and she won’t even know you’re listening.”
“Perfect. Let me know if anything else comes up,” I told him.
“Will do,” Big Mike nodded. “I’ll check every angle and go through the numbers that Tony used
John R. Little and Mark Allan Gunnells
Sean Thomas Fisher, Esmeralda Morin