Jackpot

9

When he got off the phone with Kevin Cushman, Teddy went back to the couch in the suite and sat down. He wanted to lie down and get some sleep so he was fresh for what needed to be done, but he couldn’t get Kevin’s warning out of his head. Teddy had assumed the video was an elaborate prank to go along with the typed note looking for protection money.

Protection rackets had long been a popular fundraising activity for low-level gangs, who’d blackmail business owners into paying money to protect themselves from attacks by the gang itself. But low-level gangs didn’t have the technological savvy to pull off something this complex, which made Teddy wonder what else was going on. What had Peter and Ben gotten themselves involved in?

Someone had specifically targeted them and had gone to the trouble to create this fake video that painted them as criminals. Even though people close to Peter and Ben knew the video was fake, it was so realistic that anyone else would have to doubt their innocence. Which made Teddy wonder if maybe Peter’s and Ben’s fathers were the true targets. Stone and Dino had collected enough enemies between them to fill out a rogues’ gallery — Teddy had been one of those enemies for a while — and both of them had built up impressive security networks to protect themselves. But maybe someone had seen Peter and Ben as easier targets with the same payoff of hurting Stone or Dino.

Teddy was upset he hadn’t had this information at dinner and found himself getting irrationally angry at Kevin again. He really needed to get some sleep before he either said something that would get him in trouble or ran into someone with Dale Gai’s skill set who really was intent on hurting him.