CRYPTO: Infidelity (Book 1)

CHAPTER 8: BLACKMAIL

My ears rang and the barrel of the gun smoked. The big cats let go of the coonhound and he dropped to the floor with a thud.

I just sat there with a shocked expression as the boss calmly walked to the dead body and rubbed my blood off his blade and onto the coonhound's paw.

I looked at Uncle Blade. He didn't look shocked at all. He knew what was going to happen.

"Just in case threatening your life isn't enough," the boss said, "maybe this will be. If you betray us, we'll make sure you spend the rest of your life in a prison cell for the murder of this fellow. Congratulations and welcome to the Family."

Everyone clapped.

Uncle Blade and I walked back to the car.

"You lied to me!" I said.

"It was either his life or yours," he said. "I told you this was a bad idea, but you wouldn't listen."

"You didn't say I would have to kill someone."

"Well, it doesn't matter now, does it. What's done is done. Once you're in the Family, there is no getting out."

There went all my plans to catch the bad guys. Now I was one. If they went down, I would go down with them. Even so, I continued my police training in hopes that I would find a way to take the mafia down without getting myself in jail.

Uncle Blade started teaching me how to fight so I would be able to protect myself if I ever needed to. We actually grew pretty close training together. It was something we both enjoyed. I also learned some other tactics from my police academy training, mostly involving guns and agility. My friends were the only ones I told about my plans to become a police officer, but I didn't tell them about the mafia. I didn't want them to worry too much about me.

When the time came for them to start college, we said our goodbyes. We knew we wouldn't be seeing Neil for at least a while or Adi since she was moving to the same state as Neil, but going to a different college there. It was hard to say goodbye to them. After all, we had been friends with them for years and hung out almost every day. Neil and Adi promised to keep in touch and I was going to hold them to their word.

Bingo and Jassie were staying in Arizona so I figured I'd still be able to see them often enough. I was getting my training in Nevada and planned on staying there as a police officer since that's where the mafia mainly was. I had gotten in trouble with the mafia more than once for not showing up when they asked me to, but I couldn't just leave in the middle of police training. I only showed up when I was available, and they always wanted me to do criminal things which I always found my way around doing. I'd just get someone else to do the job for me, mostly my uncle or Angelo.

After just 15 weeks of the police academy, I graduated and became a real police officer. I worked with a partner and most of the work they gave me was pretty boring. My uncle had no idea what I was doing. He thought I was going to college, and I wanted to keep it that way.