Deadly Cocktail (A Witch in the Woods Book 4) by Jenna St. James

Author:Jenna St. James [St. James, Jenna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-06-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

“What do you want now?” Fargo asked as he scowled out at us from his screen door. “I don’t know nothin’ new.”

“I think you do,” Alex said. “You can answer our questions here, or I can haul you down to the station. Your choice.”

Fargo opened his screen door and stepped out onto his patio. He motioned for us to sit in the two folding chairs while he leaned against his railing. “What do you want to know?”

“What was the argument about?” Alex asked. “And not just the threats over the phone.” He motioned to Fargo’s hand. “All the arguments.”

Fargo sighed and looked out over the street. “Treyton Seidon was blackmailing me.”

“How?” Alex demanded.

Fargo’s lips twisted. “Even though Treyton was banned over twenty-five years ago from the merkingdom and from speaking to the merpeople who lived full time under the ocean…” He trailed off. “Well, let’s just say that didn’t happen. King Daddy doesn’t know everything he thinks he does.”

I narrowed my eyes at his diss toward King Seidon. “Explain better than that, Fargo.” I yanked the cuffs off my belt. “Or I’ll cuff you myself and haul you to jail.”

Fargo visibly swallowed and held up his bandaged hand. “Okay, okay. Treyton has a gang of mermen—four of them—who follow some of us fishermen around while we work. If we’ve paid Treyton for the week, these mermen leave us alone and let us catch our fish. But, if we haven’t paid, then they follow us around and make enough of a splash and make enough noise to scare fish away for miles. I’ve gone days in a row where I caught nothing.” He clenched his good hand into a fist. “So in order to keep working and keep a roof over my head, I have to pay Treyton’s protection money. And sometimes if you can’t pay, he’ll have his guys rough you up.”

“Wow,” I said. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

Fargo laughed without humor. “Pretty low, isn’t it? It’s mostly the selkies he picks on.”

“I wonder why Sarabeth Silkstone never said anything to us about this?” I mused. “She’s a siren, but she’s also a fisherman.”

Sarabeth Silkstone was a suspect in a case Alex and I worked back in March. It ended up she was later kidnapped and held hostage. I couldn’t imagine her keeping information like this from us.

“Treyton never picked on strong individuals or their friends,” Fargo said. “Just those of us he found weak. He threatened to kill us and our families if we ever said anything to anyone.” He sighed. “So now I’ve probably just gotten most of my friends and their families killed. Because if you question these other men like you are me, Treyton’s thugs will eventually find out and come calling. It won’t matter if Treyton is dead or not.”

“No, they won’t,” Alex said. “You have my word that nothing bad will happen to those being blackmailed or their family members.”

“How will you stop it?” Fargo asked. “I mean, I don’t know if his partner,

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