Nassir’s arms were crossed across his chest and I noticed he had a new tattoo on the back of his hand. It looked like an ornate lock attached to a chain. The guy could give Cumberbatch and Hiddleston a run for their money when it came to being suave and sophisticated, but underneath that Italian suit was a man ripped from the very bowels of hell and he had the ink and scars to prove it.
Everyone from the Point wore their secrets and scars with pride.
“Maybe I just missed your smiling face.” His voice had the barest hint of an accent I could never pin down the origins of. When he spoke, it was both lethal and lyrical. “Nice face fuzz, by the way. Very mountain man.”
I grunted and put my hands on my hips. I wasn’t worried that they were here to kill me. If Nassir wanted me dead, there would be no conversation, just a bullet right between the eyes. He wasn’t a man who offered explanation or excuses.
“It helps cover up the fact that my head was almost removed from my body while I was in lockup. You have anything to do with that?” I ran my thumb along my scar and narrowed my eyes at him.
He shook his head and looked over at Chuck, who offered up a shrug. “It wasn’t us. We would have made sure the job was done right, not some half-assed shit like that. But you don’t have many friends left back home, so I can’t say I’m surprised someone tried to take you out.”
Suddenly, exhausted from thinking about how hard it had been to keep myself alive for thirty years, I narrowed my eyes at Nassir and copied his pose, with my arms crossed over my chest. Of course, it looked much more intimidating and badass in the suit than it did in the towel, but whatever. “Tell me what you want or get the fuck out. I’m not in the mood for games and if the feds find out you’re here, they’ll send my ass back to lockup or move me somewhere even more remote than this mountain.” My stomach clenched at the thought of how much harder it would be to get to Echo if they did either of those things.
Nassir’s dark eyebrows lifted and Chuck let out a low chuckle. Clearly, putting on pants before confronting two of the most dangerous men I had ever met would have been a good idea.
“I have a problem.” Nassir lifted a hand and ran it over his mouth while looking at me. “There’s a girl that went missing and we’ve been unable to find her. One of my people is heavily invested in locating her and I have no intention of letting him down. All my regular sources have failed, so I’m coming to you. Everyone knows there isn’t a problem you can’t solve, Benny.”
I rocked back on my heels a little bit and blinked at him in surprise. Of all the things he might have said, that wasn’t something I was prepared for. “You have your fingers in every single pot in the Point. How is it you’ve managed to come up empty handed and need a Hail Mary? That’s not your style, Gates.”
“The pots my fingers are in don’t sit on stoves up on the Hill. The only information we have on the girl that’s missing was that she was doing her best to help the mayor’s stepdaughter disappear. The players have dirty hands in an entirely different way than I’m used to dealing with. They are covered in white gloves and go pinky up during high tea.” The Hill was the opulent, expensive part of the city, the polar opposite of the Point. I, however, knew that there was just as much crime and exploitation happening behind those closed mansion doors as there was on the streets. “No one will talk and time is running out. Help me find the girl and I will get you off this mountain.”
I tossed my head back and laughed up at the ceiling. “Right. You’re going to get me out of my deal with the feds like it’s no big deal. You’re good, Gates, but not that good.”
He grinned at me and I felt my blood run cold. I should have known better than to question a man who didn’t flinch when the fires of hell burned all around him.
“I know a Marshal. He helped out when Novak went down and everyone was trying to take over his spot. The city was at war and the Marshal stepped in to try and keep the body count to a minimum. He’s agreed to take over your case, after I blackmailed his boss into agreeing to let me pull you out of the program. You help find the girl and I’ll let you go. You can relocate anywhere in the world you want to, but you still have to cooperate with the feds if they think you have information that might help them take down Novak’s old suppliers and obviously, you’ll owe me a favor if I should ever need your special brand of problem solving in the future.”
I shook my head a little, my thoughts pinging and buzzing around my brain like angry bees. “You blackmailed a federal agent?”