Free The Debt Collector (Book 1 of a Jack Winchester Organized Crime Action Thriller) (Jack Winchester Vigilante Justice Thriller Series) by Jon Mills Page A

no one would have voiced complaint purely out of fear that Gafino would retaliate against accusations. But busted and thrown against a cruiser, Danny, a kid who handled a neighborhood in the south end, said he saw the cocaine bubble when the officer tested it. Anyone with a lick of sense knew that cocaine didn’t bubble. This was the first sign that buyers were being duped and someone was playing a dangerous game. Faced with backlash and a huge loss of revenue, Gafino began clamping down on every deal immediately. They had to find out fast which distributor was cutting or diluting the drugs they were buying. Loads were never large enough to attract attention, but never small enough that they couldn’t carry out business for several weeks. Frequency of deals was the key to Gafino staying under the radar.
    Once they had narrowed it down to a handful of distributors, it was just a case of determining what to look for. They knew there was all manners of bulking agents being used: baking soda, lactose sugar, and benzocaine powder to name a few. On the surface they mimicked the look and feel of cocaine, but when tested, the product would react differently. They assumed that whoever was duping them was giving them legit cocaine to test and keeping the rest of the fake packages below. The feds were notorious for doing this. It was fair to say that everyone was on edge. There was no way of knowing if they were walking into a sting operation or dealing with a low life just looking to score big.
    But with Roy’s reputation on the line, the orders were clear. They were to test every package in a load. If any distributor refused, they were to be brought in. Gafino didn’t just want them dead; he wanted to toy with them before snuffing out their light. In his mind, what they had done was beyond business; it was personal.
    That day was forever ingrained into Jack’s memory. He’d chewed it over for years in his cell. What he’d missed, what he should have seen, and how he had managed to escape. Ten days after they had begun checking all transactions, Gafino had asked him to help. Against his better judgment, he agreed. He was assigned to deal with Matt Grant. The exchange was meant to occur in an apartment in the west part of Chinatown. Immediately upon arriving on site, Jack didn’t like the look of it one bit. There were only two exits beyond the front entrance; both relied on a fire escape mounted to the side of the building like a black steel snake. Either you went down, or up to the roof and jumped a six-meter gap to the next apartment block. Neither seemed appealing if things turned sour. There was little that frightened Jack, but heights was one of them.
    Jack moved in and knocked on apartment twenty-two. An African American with a neck as thick as any man’s thigh answered the door, and to anyone else, it would have been a frightening situation. But Jack had scraped knuckles with his fair share of thugs in and outside of the ring. Muscle may have been an indication of strength, but it also signaled weakness in speed. Stepping inside, Jack took a mental note of where the fire escape exit was and the position of the thug. Sitting across the room from them, on a black leather couch, was Matt Grant. With buzzed hair, dark circles around his eyes, and a nervous twitch, he couldn’t have weighed more than a buck forty. He had all the signs of someone who was using.
    He motioned Jack to take a seat. Spread out on the table were several bags of cocaine, already slit and ready for testing. To the left of him were two suitcases. One was open, displaying packages of cocaine.
    “Care to partake?” Matt asked, gesturing to a few lines of white powder.
    Jack shook his head.
    Matt snorted a line and then wiped his nose with the back of his hand. “Down to business, then.”
    Jack tossed a few chemical packs on the table.
    “Test it.”
    Matt stared up at him, shrugged, and went through the process that was always done. When he was