King of the Underworld by RJ Kane

Chapter Two Hundred Three

Sephie

“This is the guy that originally created brawn. He works for Sal.” I didn’t need to see him. I knew Adrik was about to explode behind me. I put my hand up, trying to at least buy me another minute to find out more. I heard him exhale, but his fist still made contact with his desk. Andy flinched.

“How much do you know about this doctor?” I asked. “In case you couldn’t tell, this is very important, so it’s worth your while to tell us everything.”

Andy took another deep breath, glancing around the room. He had the look of a cornered animal. One that knows it’s caught and is about to give in. He continued, “I’m not sure how Sal found this guy, but he’s been paying him for years. He does back- room abortions for Sal’s prostitutes mostly, but since Anthony got into human trafficking, he’s branched out into, um, other stuff.” He glanced at me, still nervous.

“Organ harvesting.” I said, flatly.

Andy’s eyes went wide. He nodded. “It’s huge on the black market, especially overseas.”

“And you said he’s the one that created brawn? How do you know that?” I asked.

Lorenzo when Dr. Moretti walked into his office. Sal kept talking, telling Lorenzo about the dip in sales. Dr. Moretti suggested they formulate a new drug. A designer drug, I think he called it. He said, ‘people like new things, right? Give them something new and sales go back up.’ Sal liked the idea and paid Dr. Moretti to formulate it. He experimented for a few weeks and came up with brawn. The first edition

the dangers until later, did they?” I asked.

took almost a year before they realized that continued use was killing people. The dealers are the ones that first noticed it. Other areas of the city had already stopped selling it. The dealers are the ones that stopped it, not the bosses. They said they weren’t

well?” I glanced at the guys again, who were still visibly tense. Adrik had started pacing back and forth behind me, trying to remain calm. I wanted to go to him,

I can’t be sure. I know Sal still pays him,” he

know how to

city. He used to be a doctor at one of the hospitals in the city, but he had his license revoked after too many medical misconduct cases. When he was still working at the hospital, Sal would pay him under the table only when he needed him. Once he had his license revoked, Sal put him on the payroll and he started roving clinics around the city. People would come to him for various things, pay cash, and he’d do whatever, no questions asked, as long as the cash was flowing.

where that house is,”

don’t know if things have changed now or not, but he never has security with him. Sal always offered, but he said he didn’t need it because no one could remember his face that he worked on. He said he would see people all

louder than I meant to. Adrik stopped his pacing, as well.

to look at Adrik, saying in Russian, “we need to make sure the police don’t release his picture.

on his face, since he couldn’t understand what just happened. “Don’t worry, Andy. Your life is safe,” I said. I couldn’t muster

released his picture, we would have to move quickly. If they hadn’t,