Storm's Rite by Mary Stone & Amy Wilson

Author:Mary Stone & Amy Wilson [Stone, Mary & Wilson, Amy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-08-09T23:00:00+00:00

16

By the time Neil Rosford arrived at his favored spot in Washington Park, the snowfall had rendered visibility less than a couple blocks. He hated when the weather impeded his vision. The corner lot and its decrepit, abandoned three-story apartment building were the perfect location to spot people well before they reached him.

Looming trees and buildings lined the street, providing him a sheltered vantage point to watch for suspicious characters. He’d also memorized the immediate area, and he had multiple paths of escape if anything went south.

But when he couldn’t see past the damn block, the entire purpose of his station was defeated.

As he heaved a sigh, his breath formed a thin cloud before it was whipped away on the cold wind. After what he’d seen the other night, he didn’t want to get stuck anywhere he could be caught off guard.

Neil had never known Lars’s last name until he saw the guy in the news. Poteracki sounded Polish, but Neil always figured the tall, lean man with shoulder-length blond hair and bright blue eyes was Scandinavian.

Hunching against the cold, blowing wind, Neil pushed aside the inane thought and scanned the immediate area. No customers had approached him yet, but despite the weather, he knew they’d show up soon. He didn’t want his mind to wander too far while he worked.

But forgetting Lars Poteracki’s abduction wasn’t quite that simple. Neil had no reason to think he, personally, was in the shit with anyone in the neighborhood. Ever since he’d started slinging drugs out here, he’d kept his head down, and he’d stayed away from other dealers’ businesses.

The portion of Washington Park where Neil sold wasn’t the most lucrative, but it was enough to pay his and Erika’s bills—barely. Unlike so many of the kids Neil saw trying to prove themselves as some sort of badass, to climb their way up the hierarchy of illegal drug trafficking, he didn’t care.

Barely paying his bills was enough. Anything more would be taking on additional risk, and that wasn’t why he was here.

Neil didn’t want a position of authority in this world. Anyone who called shots around here ended up dead or in prison.

Was that what had happened to Lars? Had he pissed off the wrong person?

In a sense, Neil hoped that was the case. If Poteracki had gotten on the bad side of one of the city’s organized criminal enterprises, then Neil had nothing to worry about. Sure, Lars’s death didn’t sit well with him, but he’d mind his own business if it meant he’d keep his head attached to his body.

Cops had pulled Lars’s corpse out of Lake Michigan last night. Though not many details had circulated yet, there was enough information in the article Neil had read on his phone to shake him.

Lars’s throat had been slit, and the wound was so deep the spine was visible. None of the reports were sure of the motive behind the killing, but considering Lars’s criminal record, they’d all jumped to the same conclusion.

Drugs. A feud.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.