Chapter 118 The plan
Ryder's POV
"If I do this," I said slowly, "if I help you kill Mark Webb, we're even. The debt I owe you is paid. We will never talk about that night you killed my dad again, and we will never talk about this after it's done."
"Agreed." Diesel's relief was visible. "If we do this, we're square. No more debts between us."
I looked at my friend, my brother, and saw the desperation and fear and hope all mixed together in his expression. He needed this. He needed me to say yes. And he needed me to help him survive this nightmare he had gotten himself into.
"Fuck," I breathed. "When?"
"Tonight. We do it tonight before I lose my nerve." Diesel pulled out his phone. "Marcus will be at the club around ten. The same place where he filmed us. He goes to the bathroom around midnight to do his drug deals. That's when we corner him."
"How do we make it look like an accident?"
"The bathroom sinks are ceramic. We make him slip, make it look like he hit his head on the way down." Diesel had clearly thought this through. "Drunk guy, wet floor, tragic accident. Nobody's going to question it too hard."
"And if they do?"
"Then we make sure there's no evidence tying us to him. We wear gloves, we don't leave prints, we get in and out fast." He met my eyes. "We do this right, Ryder. We do this smart. And then we never speak of it again."
I nodded, feeling numb. "Tonight then."
"Tonight," Diesel confirmed.
I went home and changed, preparing myself for the task of the night. I met up with Diesel at the club called the Pit.
The club was packed, with music pounding through speakers so loud I could feel the bass vibrating in my chest. Bodies were pressed together on the dance floor, drunk and sweaty and oblivious to anything except the rhythm and the alcohol and whoever they were grinding against. It was a perfect cover for what we were about to do.
I kept my head down as I pushed through the crowd, wearing dark clothes and a baseball cap pulled low. I was wearing nothing that could identify me as Steel Wolves or even easily identify who I was. It was like I was just another face in a sea of drunk assholes looking for a good time.
Diesel was already waiting near the bathrooms when I got there, leaning against the wall with a beer in his hand as if he belonged. He nodded when he saw me, a barely perceptible movement that said everything we needed to communicate.
Marcus was here. The plan was on.
I slipped into the men's room ahead of Diesel, scoping it out. There were two urinals, three stalls, a row of sinks with those old ceramic basins that could crack a skull if someone hit them hard enough. The floor was slick with water and piss and God knew what else. Exactly what we needed.
A guy was washing his hands at the sink. I pretended to check my phone while I waited for him to leave. He dried his hands on his jeans, because of course there were no paper towels in this shithole, and walked out without looking at me.
Diesel came in a few seconds later, gloves already on his hands. I pulled mine out of my pocket and slipped them on, the latex tight against my skin.
"Five minutes," Diesel said quietly. "He'll come in to do a deal with some college kid who's been going round him all night. We have to be quick before his customers start coming in to look for him and buy his goods."
We moved into the last stall in the bathroom. We left the door cracked open a bit. It was just enough to see the main area of the toilet and everyone that came in and went out. The waiting was torture. Every second felt like an hour, every sound from the hallway making my heart jump. The music from the club was muffled through the walls, a dull thump that matched the pounding in my head.
Then the door swung open and Mark walked in.
He looked exactly like the piece of shit Diesel had described. He had a gold chain around his neck and a cocky swagger like he owned the whole place.
He glanced around the bathroom with the casual arrogance of someone who had never had a reason to fear anything. He then pulled out his phone, scrolled through something, typed on it, then moved toward the urinary to take a piss.
Diesel looked at me and I nodded. Thankfully, nobody else was in the bathroom at the time.
We moved.