Читать книгу The Danger Within - Valerie Hansen - Страница 12

“We have to be careful, El Jefe.”

“Now you think of that? I told you not to trust an amateur like Ritchie Stark with a job as important as taking care of Mayor Vance.”

“It’s not my fault. Everything would have been fine if Ritchie hadn’t brought in one of his flunkies to do the job instead of handling it himself.”

“Fine? Hah! The guy botched it. Twice. And that nurse saw him the second time. She can identify him.”

“Chloe Tanner? Not necessarily. He hit her pretty hard. We can’t be positive how much she remembers.”

“All the same, now that she’s tied up with that FBI man it’s even more dangerous for us. We need to eliminate any witnesses who can lead the Feds back to us.”

“Well, don’t look at me! I have a reputation to protect.”

“Never mind,” The Chief, El Jefe’s Anglicized code name, rasped angrily. “I’ll do it myself, starting with that idiot friend of Ritchie’s.”

“We mustn’t act foolishly. I know you want success as much as I do but we must not call undue attention to this situation. Right now, everyone is concentrating on the mayor’s condition, hoping he’ll come out of the coma and be able to help the police. If there are more accidents or deaths associated with him, someone may suspect a conspiracy.”

The Chief snorted. “If they do, it’ll be the first intelligent conclusion they’ve come to.”

“Still…”

“I’ll be careful. This time, it’ll look like an accident. Like you said, I want this plan to succeed. And you’re going to help me.”

“My pleasure. The sooner you get what you want and make us both even richer, the happier I’ll be.”

“There’s more at stake here than merely a fortune in drugs. I have a score to settle with the Vance and Montgomery families. Nothing is going to stop me.”

“Or me,” his companion added.

“Good.” His laugh was sinister and guttural. “Because I would give up my life itself, if I knew my enemies would die with me.”