Second Chance SEAL(108)

I took a deep breath, calming down. “I want to give you the Dixie Mafia. I want to get the leaders, or at least the ones who are local, in a single room. Then I want to kill them all.”

I felt Hartley shift her weight nervously behind me. She knew the gist of the plan, but hearing it like that was probably pretty harsh.

“Interesting,” Janey said. I could see the curiosity in her eyes.

“If they die, you can grab hold of the local drug trade in Knoxville and its neighboring counties, no problem.”

“What do you want in exchange?”

“Three things. First, nobody knows we were involved in this. Second, me and Hartley walk away from this. Third, you pay off Hartley’s family debt.”

She looked amused. “That’s all?”

King slowly struggled up to his feet. “I say we kill them,” he said, giving me a pissed-off look.

I ignored him. “That’s all. Hartley’s debt is fifty grand. The drug trade is going to make you way more than that, and we both know it.”

“I’m doing a lot of work in this deal,” Janey said. “There’s a lot that could go wrong.”

“Yeah, maybe, but this is your chance to finally hit back. No more pissing them off. You can win.”

I didn’t know if she’d go for this, but I had a feeling she would.

Janey was a business woman. She was in this for the profit, and she did nothing that didn’t directly profit her. If this went down the way I planned it would, she stood to make a huge profit.

But more than that, she hated the Dixie Mafia. Janey was the type of person that wanted full control and couldn’t settle for a sidelined position. I was guessing that being so out of control in that car with Ray that night had taught her never to let someone else do the driving. She’d walked away from it once, but she might not again.

“It’s an interesting idea,” Janey said.

“You can’t be serious,” King snapped. “This guy is an animal.”

I sneered at him. “Go ahead. Say that again. I’ll break your fucking skull.”

“Jesus, enough you two,” Janey said. “King, get the fuck out.”

King glared at me, spit on the ground, and then hobbled out the back door.

Janey walked over toward us, looking at me curiously. “You don’t seem like the same guy you once were,” she said.

“I’m not,” I admitted. “And you’re not the same girl.”

“No,” she said. “We’ve both changed a lot.” She looked at Hartley. “Why is he doing this for you?”

Hartley looked surprised. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I honestly don’t.”

“You’re pretty; I’ll give you that. But this man is offering to dismantle a very dangerous and powerful gang. All for what, some peach farmer’s daughter?” Janey shook her head. “I’d never do it, no offence. Nobody is worth this much effort.”

“You don’t understand a thing about me,” I said to Janey, “but I think I understand you. Getting control of Knoxville is your dream, isn’t it?”

“Something like that,” she said, nodding.

“I got you your money. I’m for real, Janey. Come into business with me. I’ll give you Knoxville, and you’ll give us freedom.”

She stared at me for a second, considering, and finally laughed. Her face shifted from an intense and dangerous stare to her old cheerleader smile. “Okay then,” she said. “Let’s do it.”

As she reached out and shook my hand, I couldn’t help but feel like I was shaking hands with a snake.

But it didn’t matter. All I knew was that I couldn’t steal that shipment from her, not really. My next best move was to topple the mafia, at least locally, and hope that they’d be too disorganized to realize that it was me who set them up. Then once Hartley’s debt was paid, we’d be out of this, and Janey would have her power.

All in theory, of course. I needed to get the heads of the Dixie Mafia together in a single room, and I needed Janey to uphold her end of the bargain.

A lot of loose ends, a lot of possibilities for failure. But this was the best course of action.

It had to be the best, because I was committed to it.





Chapter 17





Hartley





Something felt off about Janey Caldwell.

I couldn’t tell what it was exactly, but the way she reacted to her brother getting beaten down by Travis was incredible strange.

He didn’t notice it. He was too busy being a macho idiot. But when Travis took King down so easily, Janey actually stood there and smiled.

She watched her brother get hurt, and she smiled.