Sin City Uniform 02 - Copping an Attitude by Morticia Knight Read Free Book Online Page A

else. Did he give you any clue as to what his real name is? How long he’s been in town? Anything that might have seemed insignificant at the time, but sticks in your brain?”
    “Jesus. No. He just…” Parker swallowed hard. “He was just really scared and I knew it wasn’t because of me, or jail. He was scared of someone coming after him, I was sure of it. When I asked if he was in danger, offered to help, he practically freaked out and insisted that he was fine. It was right after that he… Well, he got away.”
    “Yeah, I heard.”
    Perfect.
    “So, you guys are out looking for him, right?”
    “Right now I’m at the information gathering stage. He’s only one of about a dozen who we need to locate before it’s too late. If you can think of anything else…”
    “Wait. What did you mean by ‘target’?”
    “We have two main pimps in town. There’s that ass wipe Julio Estevez who’s been around for years, then there’s Alexei Gromov who is our most recent addition. As we explained at the station, they’ve been warring over territory. Apparently, one of Alexei’s top girls was sent out on a ‘date’ and never returned. One of her fingers was sent to Alexei with a bow wrapped around it and a note that threatened more retaliation if Alexei didn’t get his Cossak ass, along with his skanky Russian whores, out of town.”
    Parker hissed. “Not good. But why would the Russians want to go after Slade in particular?”
    There was silence at the other end. Parker checked to see if the call had dropped then put it back to his ear.
    “Hello?”
    “I’m here. You remember his name, huh?”
    Heat rose to Parker’s face. He was relieved that they weren’t conversing in person. “Yeah, uh, I mean, it’s unusual.”
    “Right.” Beau sighed. “This kid we’re looking for, the one that might be Slade, he’s on a list that Julio gave to some of our undercover guys who are posing as agents for overseas buyers. Apparently, Julio’s been shopping around with different buyers, including some very nasty Eastern European ones we’d like to take out.”
    “Buyers?”
    “Yeah. People who buy sex slaves.”
    “Jesus.” Parker’s stomach turned at the thought.
    “So he’s obviously one of Julio’s top workers. He’d be a likely target if Gromov wanted to get revenge for his girl.”
    “Shit.”
    “Yeah. Lots of shit. Okay, let me know if you can think of anything else.”
    “Of course.”
    After he’d laid the phone back on the dresser, he turned to see Brett returning from the bathroom with a couple of hand towels. He was naked, wiping at his abdomen as he approached Parker. He handed him one of the dampened cloths.
    “Thanks. Sorry, it was work.”
    “No problem. Come sit with me?”
    Parker’s mind was still absorbed with the conversation he’d just had with Beau, so he didn’t notice how Brett had intertwined their fingers together until they were seated on the bed. Parker frowned as he watched Brett caress the back of Parker’s hand with his thumb.
    Is he about to…?
    He glanced up and saw the wistful smile on Brett’s face, his eyes all lit up as he stared at Parker.
    “Umm…”
    “Let me say something first, Parker.”
    “I…”
    “I’m thinking about putting in a transfer to Vegas so that I can be here full-time.”
    “Oh. Why?”
    Parker might as well have hauled off and slapped Brett. His expression changed in an instant from peaceful and happy to one of hurt.
    “ Why ?” Brett untangled their fingers, yanking his hand away. “Why do you think?”
    Parker sucked in a breath. “Hey, Brett, I didn’t mean it to come out like that.” Parker laid a gentle hand on his arm. “You caught me by surprise, that’s all.”
    Brett had furrowed his brow, his lips pressed in a hard line. “I didn’t think it would be that big of a surprise. I mean, we’ve been seeing each other pretty regularly and I stay over a lot. It seemed like things were… You know…