"You have anything else to share?” Fredrick Parker, aka Freddie the Shark asked, while looking at his assistant.
"Let us do a status check," offered the man, as he and his partner started pressing buttons on their respective laptops.
"What is it with this hick town?" Freddie demanded to know, but was asking no one in particular. "It has one guy who looks like he's in command of his own personal army but has absolutely no connections and just restores old cars for a living, and another who could probably give half the Fortune 500 a run for their money. My youngest makes a mistake and tries to steal a classic car from the first man's son, landing the kid in the hospital and Danny in jail. If this Talbot guy wants a war, I can respect the why, but he'll definitely lose. Meanwhile, four of my guys don't even clear it with me first to pull a side job. Now three of them wind up dead somehow and even the local yokel Sheriff is telling me I pissed the wrong man off," he bitched, while finishing his can of beer.
"To top it all off, the only place around here with a liquor license seems to be the local grocery store but you can't get a decent beer," griped Freddie, while throwing the empty can at the closest wall in disgust. "There isn't any... adult entertainment available, despite the fact most of the dames around here look like they just walked off the cover of Cosmopolitan, and the God Damned 49ers can't even win a fucking preseason game!" he cursed, sitting down on the bed unceremoniously.
"Then, I certainly don't want to add to your misery boss," said one of the men cradling a laptop computer.
"But..." said Freddie, eyeing him closely.
"I'm getting a report from one of our men that the local police just raided the Acme Warehouse in Oakland."
"WHAT?" screamed Freddie, getting up and rushing over to the man. "When? How? I paid the protection money!"
"Apparently the shell company that owned the place was bought out by something called... BK, Limited a couple of hours ago, and the new owner actually invited the police to search the premises!"
"Do I dare ask who or what this BK, Limited is?"
"Benton Knight," replied the technician with the laptop, hoping he wasn't about to be on his boss's shit list.
Freddie the Shark's face started turning redder than the shirt he was wearing, yet his voice was calm enough to ask, "Did the shipment to Los Angeles at least leave the warehouse on time? Which would mean it made it out of there before the police searched the place."
"I'll check," offered the other technician, hoping neither his friend nor himself got hurt before this was all over.
Freddie privately thought the man had a great poker face, but his continued silence wore on his patience until Freddie screamed "WELL?"
"Err..." the second laptop user began, afraid to look at his employer directly. "Apparently Apex Shipping was somehow acquired by Knight Industries before the warehouse changed hands, and the first thing the new owner did was cancel any and all shipping contracts with you or any of your holding companies or shell corporations."
"Then that means the Feds found..." began Freddie, but he never finished the statement as he turned pale.
Everyone except Chelnik waited tensely for their boss to say something. The ex-Spetsnaz agent simply shifted in his seat just enough to feel the comforting weight of the weapons on his person.
Freddie was about to say something when the phone in his motel room rang, which was odd since everyone was using their cellphones.
"I'll get it," offered one of his men, reaching for the phone.
Some listening, a couple of "Uh-huhs," and a "I'll tell him," to finish the call before the man hung up and turned to look at his boss.
"That was the front desk of the motel," began the man.
"What do they want? To keep the noise down?" asked Freddie.
"Err... no," replied the mobster, wondering if what he was about to say would be the last words he ever spoke. "You're credit card's been denied. You have to find an alternate form of payment by noon tomorrow or checkout of the motel."
Freddie the Shark's response to that announcement was unrepeatable, even in an adult forum like CYOC.net.
MEANWHILE...
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