The Story of Blood and Roses

We sat in silence for a few minutes before I took charge and broke the silence.

"So, she sang and now we'll have to take care of Joe." In my mind, I had already started to formulate how Darcy had wanted to take the information. I wondered if he had put Joe up to it. Then I had wondered why he would put a hit on the man if that was the case. And that was when it struck me. The greedy bastard had raised his price or had intended to withhold the information because he wanted something more out of it. Security, maybe? And soon, I would find out.

But I could mention none of this to Anthony. What was I supposed to do with the information? If this could be pinned down to Darcy, it would be a huge factor and a possible reason to carry out the raid as soon as possible.

"We can't be sure that he's not passed the information on to someone. We tail him until we know if he has." I nod sharply and feel the relief pulsing through my veins. Whatever be the consequence, I would be able to see the end of the bargain. But I also needed to hear the transaction, and I had a feeling that Anthony would appreciate it as well. And I would tell him the plan concocting in my little brain.

"Why don't we put on a microphone on him? We could hear every conversation he has, then. What do you think about that?" I ask him hesitantly. He nods thoughtfully and then gives me a look that I can't decipher.

"How are you going to do it?"

"I know that we have the equipment. Eric made sure that I knew what all I needed for tailing someone. Not that I didn't know myself, but he supplied some really neat things. So, that won't be a problem," I passed on my thoughts to him.

"How will you get in on him?" he asked, now interested.

"I'll wait until he extracts himself from the ladies for a while and trip on him and then apologizes for being terribly clumsy and then walk out." He burst into laughter and shook his head. I think he mumbled best of luck, but I couldn't be sure.

I grabbed the little machine and went right back into the bar. Joe, though, was missing. And I knew that this place only had one entrance and exit: the one that could be seen from the street. So he could only be in one place.

The washroom.

The other girls had dispersed throughout the room and were trying to get their job done. I sauntered over to the loo and found that the door was opened. There was no real sound coming from inside the damn place, so I carefully entered it. My nerves were on end, prepared to pounce on the first object of threat that came my way. Nothing of the sort happened. I heard the soft sounds coming from one of the stalls and smirked to myself. I had caught them in the spot that I had hoped to. I lazily turned on the tap of the sink and pretended to do whatever it was that people did. I washed my hands until I thought they were cleaner than ever. Then I dried them on my jeans and went to fix my hair with the rubber band on my wrist. When I tried to knot my hair into a bun, I heard the sound of the stall right behind me opening. I looked at the reflection of the door in the mirror and saw Joe emerge from the stall and then the girl I had labeled as his finest prostitute.

While he fumbled with his shirt, she just straightened her shirt like she was used to it. She probably was. Joe looked at me through the mirror and gave me a smirk. I tried to give him a polite smirk and continued to work on my hair, taking longer than usual to tie it.

Once he was done, he pulled out his cell phone and started speaking in hushed tones with whoever was on the other side. I couldn't make out much of what he was saying as I looked around the room to make the perfect accident happen. I heard him huff and knew that he was done. I hurried past him or pretended to. I placed my foot on the small puddle of water near his foot and forcefully slipped. Instinctively, my hands tried to grip the first thing it found near it. In a knee jerk reaction, his grip loosened and the cell phone fell on the floor and scattered. Despite that, he tried to balance me and then helped me on my foot.

I smiled at him with false nervousness and then apologized profusely as I assembled the pieces of the phone. He flirted with me through the process not giving me a hand as I crouched on the floor and put the pieces of his cell phone together.

"Come back soon, sugar," I heard him say as I rushed out of the washroom and out of the bar. A smirk formed on my lips as I entered the truck and raised an eyebrow at Anthony.

"Done," I announced and he laughed just a little.

"I heard," he shook his head. "Nice one, slipping the mic inside the phone. I'm highly impressed."

"I figured that he'd change his clothes, but he'd never keep the phone away," I shrugged and turned to the music system that now transmitted the sounds around Joe.

"Good thinking," he appreciated and then we went back to listening in on the conversation.

Everything that happened after that seemed to be insignificant. Time ticked by and the long minutes stretched into an hour. It wasn't until then that we saw someone else trying to enter the bar. So far, we had only seen people leaving, not one single person had moved out of the bar at its peak hour.

We sat straighter as we saw the newcomer. When he turned to look around to check if anyone was looking, I burst out into a fit of laughter. Anthony was startled by my reaction and hissed at me to shut up. I listened eventually, but couldn't control the shaking of my body.

"Fuck, there you have it. You've got him by the balls, Anthony. He's going down." And he seemed pleased with that. It was like hitting two birds with one bullet, that too point blank.

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