Page 33 of Nicoletta
Goddamn place is closed this early, but it still smells like piss and stale beer. We trudge over the threadbare carpet in the main room, then onto the scuffed dull wood of the back hallway. Paint chipping off the walls, broken floor boards, and probably, if you look hard enough, an army of roaches living behind the woodwork.
Smoke knocks on the office door, then shoulders through.
Paulie struggles to get his large body out of the chair behind his desk. The guy is only in his late forties, but he’s about three hundred pounds of Big Macs, French fries and ice cream, along with a ponytail halfway down his back and a scar starting under his eye and ending at his jawbone. Definitely pissed off somebody back in the day.
“Didn’t think bikers got up this early.” Paulie laughs at his own joke, then taps fists with Smoke.
“We don’t,” Blood smirks, “unless it’s important.”
“This is important, for sure.” He lumbers back to his desk and flips open his laptop, punches some keys, and a pictureflashes up on one of the three monitors hanging on the grimy walls.
Place may be a shit hole, but Paulie’s office looks like intel central with all high-tech, topnotch equipment, and plush wall-to-wall carpet.
Word is Paulie makes just as much money with incriminating videos of the shit that goes on in his bar as he does serving booze. Seems a lot of suits from L.A. like to come down here slumming. Clark Williams isn’t the only one who likes to dip his fingers into some shady shit.
The four of us stand around the monitor, silently watching as Clark Williams and his degenerate buddies go down a flight of stairs, then enter a dark key padded room. When they flip on the light, we all exchange glances.
“I’ve seen some fucked-up shit, but this . . .” Smoke shakes his head.
“How long ago was this taken?” Blood asks.
“About two weeks ago,” Paulie says. “The bastard does this at least once a month, sometimes twice.”
“And you think it was Williams who had Sammy and Hector iced?” Smoke asks.
“I don’t think. Fuck, I know. Two days before, Williams, Hector and Sammy had a big fight about him storing these girls here. Hector told him to get the hell out.”
“Un-fuckin-believable,” I mumble.
“Sammy told him guns were one thing, but this . . . hell no.” Paulie pauses. “The next day a hired gun from an L.A. crew pops Hector right in the club, and two days after that I come in and find Sammy slumped over the desk. They fuckin’ gutted him and left him to bleed out. I lost a business partner and a good friend.”
We all exchange a look. “Sound familiar?” I ask.
Whoever killed Sammy and Brad Remington likes to use a knife.
“You know Sammy, and Hector didn’t back down to no one. They were all about making a buck, but not this way.” Paulie shakes his head. “In one week they took out the all the power players.”
Smoke drags his eyes away from the monitor. “I want that downloaded so I can take it with me today.”
“Sure, sure, but first you gotta help me with another problem.” Paulie heads out of the office, and we follow him to the back of the building, then take a narrow staircase to the basement. He swipes a card over a keypad to the storage room where we usually store the guns, and the door springs open.
Paulie pulls a cord from the ceiling, and a harsh light illuminates six women—no, they’re teens—huddled together. The room stinks from sweat and fear. Their wide, shiny eyes stare up at us, and swear to fuck, my stomach churns.
“What the fuck?” Smoke bellows, and the girls cower.
“Williams brought them in here yesterday. Says I’m to keep them until he’s put all the details together for the sale.”
“Shit, Paulie.” Blood shakes his head. “Why the fuck would you even do this for that bastard?”
“What choice did I have after I saw what happened to Sammy and Hector?” Paulie wipes at his forehead. “Like I said, storing your guns and other shit, I got no problem, but this ain’t right.”
“Sure the fuck isn’t right.” I step farther into the room, and when the girls shuffle away from me, I get a sick feeling in my gut.
“Supposedly, Williams has this big real estate company up in L.A., and he uses some of the empty properties to host parties. Some of these houses are vacant for months while the owners vacation in Europe, and these girls are the main attraction.They don’t have a choice. If they don’t do as they’re told, he threatens them with ICE.”
“From now on, this shit is gonna change.”
“Williams and all the men with him are very powerful and?—”
