by Max Walker
And there went our chances of getting any useful information. How had I not planned for the fact that we had zero leverage? Did I think Dank would help us out of the kindness of his drug-dealing heart?
Rookie fucking mistake, and now I had put Jonah in danger because of it.
Then Jonah spoke, confident and firm. “Listen, we can help you in other ways.”
I wasn’t sure where the hell Jonah was going with this, but I trusted him.
Already…
“All right, explain.” Dank shoved two hands into his baggy jean pockets. I tensed. Instinct was telling me to get his hands out of his pockets, but then he’d realize we were undercover for sure.
“Well, my partner and I aren’t willing on bringing on a third, but… we can consider bringing you into our primary business. The legal one. And if you think making a few million off of Dragon is a lot, your mind’s going to be blown when you find out how much you can make if you help us.”
Dank straightened at that, tilting his head back, the gears clicking and spinning underneath that shaved scalp. “What is it?”
“Uh-uh,” I said, my turn to jump in. “We want the information first. Then we can consider if you’re trustworthy enough to bring on.”
Jonah nodded. Even though my attention was fully on Dank, I could still see Jonah from the side of my eye. I wanted to keep him in eyeshot at all times. “Exactly,” he said, solidifying my point.
Damn, we work well as a team.
I didn’t want to admit it earlier, but this entire endeavor was extremely risky. Not only we were entering into enemy territory, but our partnership was freshly minted and completely untested. We could have been like oil and water, and this entire operation could have been blown before it even began
But that wasn’t the case. I knew that wouldn’t be the case.
“You two are fucking crazy, I ain’t giving you shit.”
Damn it. Jonah’s plan wasn’t working. Dank was shutting down. He was shifting from white sneaker to white sneaker, his hands still in his pocket, eyes beginning to dart around the dusty and dirty street.
I had to bait him into giving us information. If he wouldn’t divulge it by himself, then I had to steer him with my questions. “Is it because of the North Tarantinos? We can offer you protection.”
There was an instant reaction, like throwing a spark into a gas tank. “The fuck you bring them up for, eh? No fucking way. I don’t deal with those fucks, man. Don’t even say their names again, all right?”
“So you don’t work with them?” I asked, pressing the issue.
“I fucking said no.” Dank spoke through gritted teeth. “I’ve got bad blood with them. So no, the NoTas have nothing to do with Dragon.”
Bad blood. The North Tarantinos killed someone Dank cared about; no wonder he was so vehemently against them. Okay, so that was one chunk of gold that I had to store away. The North Tarantinos may not have been involved in this like I’d thought they were…
It shot my entire theory down and dead, but at least we were getting somewhere now.
“Then who’s got you running so scared?” Jonah wasn’t backing down. “Why can’t you tell us who to contact?”
“Because I don’t know, all right? I don’t fucking know who’s pulling the strings behind Dragon. They set up anonymous drops. I pick up my supply, drop off my payment, and go on my merry fucking way.”
“Why Club Trinity? Why are you dealing primarily there? Dragon hasn’t shown up anywhere else.”
“It’s one of the conditions.”
That made me reflexively arch a brow. “Conditions?”
“To sell. It’s got to be on Club Trinity property. If I sell anywhere else, my supply gets cut.”
Jonah and I shared a brief look. “Is this the first time you’ve ever heard of this ‘condition’?” I asked.
“Yeah. Whoever’s running this Dragon shit is organized as fuck. They treat it like a fucking soda business or some shit. Crazy shit, but I’ve made some serious bank off it, so I can’t complain.”
There was a sound, like a twig crunching. It was brief but enough for me to be put on edge. I looked around Dank, into the shadows that stretched into the warehouse behind him.
“But you don’t know who’s actually running it? Who created this?”
Dank shook his head, beady eyes jumping between Jonah and me. “Everything is done through a phone system. I call a number and someone answers. They use a voice distortion thing every time, so I can’t tell shit about them. There was only one time it dropped; dude sounded like he had an accent. European, I think. Then they send me a message telling me where to go to pick my shit up.”
“Where do you pick up your supply?” I asked. I could feel Dank getting more and more suspicious of us by the second. His hands had come out of his pocket, but they were fidgety, and his lids were narrowing into slits as he looked us over.
“You know what? I think I’m done talking to you two. I’ve got a feeling my business is fine without anything you have to offer.”
Shit. We were losing him, and although we’d managed to collect a few nuggets of useful intel, there was still a lot left that I wanted answered.
“Are there a lot of dealers out there? Does this operation look like it’s gearing up?”
He crossed his thin arms. A twisted smile bared his yellowed teeth. “You know, this is starting to sound a whole lot like a police interview to me.”
“We’re not cops,” I assured him. “If we were, we would have taken you down when you admitted to dealing.”
“Not unless you two are fishing for an informant.”
“That’s not how it’s done,” Jonah chimed in. I didn’t have to look to Dank to know that Jonah had messed up.
“And how would you know how it’s done?” Dank took a few steps back, creating distance between us. “Huh, pig?”
“All right, all right,” I said. This had to end; we had to scrap the rest of our mission. We’d get answers some other way. “It was worth a shot. Good luck to you, man.”
No one turned to leave, no one wanting to turn their backs on the other.
“Nah, nah.” Dank started to laugh. “I think you two are up to something. I don’t like it.”
I moved closer to Jonah. Every muscle in my body was taut, ready to explode. I could almost smell the danger in the air, swirling with the humidity. We could run, but that was going to leave us exposed, and if this guy had a gun, it wouldn’t be hard for him to take us.
“Come on, man. We came here offering a business deal, that’s it.” Jonah was speaking in a calm, steady voice, which was a stark contrast to how I was beginning to feel. “It didn’t work out, so we’ll drop it here and now. We don’t even know your real name. We all leave here and that’s it, no harm no foul.”
For a second, I thought Jonah had done it. And then Dank laughed, and I knew the game was done. “I don’t think so.” He clapped his hands. “Good thing I brought a friend.”
And then all hell broke loose.
Dank stuffed his hand in his pocket. I knew I couldn’t let him take out whatever was inside.
I lunged, using all the power in my legs to launch myself through the air, arms extended. Jonah shouted something, but I couldn’t hear over the rush of the wind, over the sound of two bodies impacting. We went crumbling down to the ground, Dank breaking the fall with his back. His eyes bulged as he gasped for air.
“Knife!” Jonah shouted behind me. I turned around and saw a gleaming silver blade cutting through the air toward me. There was no time to stop it. No time to prevent the blade from burying itself straight into my chest.
I was done. This was it.
Jonah’s hand came down on the knife-wielding thug’s wrist, grabbing it and twisting it around at exactly the last possible moment before I was filleted. I felt the whizz of air being sliced as Jonah twisted the man’s arm and pressed the blade up against the man’s gut. Whoever Dank had brought as backup looked more like he belonged
in a deli pigging out on sandwiches rather than a warehouse drug deal.
“Okay, okay!” the man cried out as Jonah held his other arm behind his back in a way that must have been incredibly painful.
“Drop the knife,” Jonah said, giving the man’s arm a loving squeeze. The man shouted and the knife fell to the floor.
Underneath me, Dank struggled. I pinned him down and reached into his pocket. I pulled out a small jet-black pistol, as heavy as a boulder in my hand, even with its unassuming size.
“You should have told us what we needed to know.” I looked down at the gun, double-checked the safety was engaged, spun the gun around on my finger, and brought the butt of it slamming down on Dank’s forehead.
It was lights out for him.
“Fuck, let me go!”
“You tried to kill my partner,” Jonah said, driving his knee into the back of the thug’s leg, making him fall down to the floor in front of Jonah. He looked at me. “Wanna do the honors?”
“I’d be glad to.”
“No, no, no, please.” The man’s eyes were bulging.
“Relax, you’ll wake up from this.” I pistol-whipped the man the same way I had done to Dank. And in the same way Dank passed out, so did the man. “Didn’t tell him he’ll be waking up in a jail cell, though.”
“Whoops,” Jonah said, dusting his hands off. We looked at each other then, and I couldn’t help but laugh. The sound rose out of me like some natural force, as if the laugh were carried on by a strong gust of wind.
“Holy shit,” I said, still chuckling, Jonah joining me. “That went a little messier than I had planned.”
“Just a little.” Jonah wiped at the beads of sweat that had accumulated on his forehead. My pulse pounded, adrenaline being carried through my system at an accelerated rate. I could hardly see straight. I wanted to simultaneously give Jonah a high five and also sink my tongue into his mouth.
“Let’s tie these motherfuckers up,” I said, spotting a pile of heavy rope in the corner. There was mold growing on it, but it was sturdy, and there was enough to tie up the hands and feet of both guys.
When they were secured, I made sure to empty the gun and leave it as evidence out of either of the men’s reach. But before we ran off, leaving the two behind for the police to sort out, I crouched down next to the rag doll and stuck my hand back down into his pocket. I wasn’t looking for a weapon this time.
Instead, I wanted his phone.
After a few seconds of digging, my fingers clasped around what I was searching for.
With it in hand, I got up and returned to Jonah’s side. “This should come in handy,” I said, showing him the old Samsung phone with its cracked screen and memory card full of vital intel.
Jonah nodded, smiling wide. I wasn’t sure if it was the adrenaline or what, but he was oozing sex appeal with that dewy, flushed look he had going on. “Nice job. Now let’s get the hell out of here.”
“Let’s.”
As we hurried down the street, making our way out of Graffiti Graveyard and heading to a more populated part of town, I took out my own phone and called the cops. “Hi, yes, I’d like to report a drug deal on Aventura Lane. Right in front of the warehouse with the pyramid on it. There’s a drug dealer and his buddy, tied up and with a presumably stolen gun near them. I left him without any clips. Merry Christmas.”
I hung up the phone. We made it out of the graveyard and onto a slightly busier street. There were a couple of auto shops nearby with their greased-up mechanics totally none the wiser over what had gone down moments earlier.
I looked to Jonah, and we started to laugh, the sound rising through me, carried on a current of relief and adrenaline.
17 Jonah Brightly
I felt like a lunatic, but I had to laugh. It seemed like we both did.
“Holy fucking shit,” Fox said, between gasps. We kept walking even as we were holding our stomachs from the laughter.
“Talk about a first day on the job.” The adrenaline was flooding every single cell in my body. The world had a fuzzy glow to everything, like someone had applied a catchy photo filter over everywhere I looked.
Even on Fox, who looked like he had walked right out of the dream I had last night.
His hair was messy and his cheeks pink, and his smile was wide and his eyes bright. He was as bright as the sun.
I looked away before he had a chance to catch me admiring him.
Admiring him. That’s all I’m doing. He’s a great detective and a great man, someone to admire. That doesn’t mean anything else. Nope.
We reached his car. He unlocked and opened my door first before he walked over to his side, his ass practically devouring his shorts.
In the car, the air was hot and the temperature seemed to have spiked the second Fox sat in the driver’s seat and closed his door.
I fanned myself with a hand, a futile gesture.
“Sorry,” Fox apologized.
“No worries.” I wasn’t about to tell him the majority of my heat was centered around my crotch.
He turned the car on and reached for the air conditioner at the same moment I did. My fingers were already on the knob, his stopping over mine. Staying there. He slowly brushed his fingers down, traveling the length of mine. I took in a quiet, sharp breath.
His fingers pushed mine apart. They slid between, the warmth of his hand wrapping around mine. The perfect fit. He squeezed, our hands tight together. Our eyes locked, our bodies tilted toward the other.
It was no longer hot in the car.
It was scorching.
“Fox…”
I wasn’t sure what I was going to say next. I’d never know either. Instead of searching for words, I pushed forward and searched for Fox’s lips on mine. It was only the second time I’d ever kissed another man, the second time I ever felt the scratchy stubble of a beard against my face, or felt the big hands of a man come up to my face, cup my cheeks, and steer the passion. It was… fuck.
It was everything. I wanted there to be a third and a fourth and a fifth time.
I wanted to climb over to his side, straddle him where he sat, and kiss him until the sun dropped and rose again. I wanted this moment to stretch on for infinity. The taste of him on my lips, the feel of his tongue dancing with mine, the smell of him filling me, driving the need inside me. A need so powerful, I felt small against it.
This was meant to happen. I felt it as sure of it as I felt Fox’s lips on mine.
And then… “…llo!…ello!”
The kiss broke, my body left with that hungry need. It sounded like someone was inside the car with us…
“I think it’s coming from your crotch,” Fox noted, his eyes aimed down, his lips shiny in the sunlight.
Sure enough, the sound was coming from the phone in my pocket. I dug for it with one hand, readjusting my clearly visible boner with the other.
With the phone out, I looked at the screen, and my boner instantly died a sudden death.
“Mom!”
Somehow I must have accidentally FaceTimed my mom, probably since that was how we spoke last. Her face filled the screen, her warm almond eyes magnified under the new glasses she had bought and had been so excited to show me. She said they made her feel like a sexy librarian and that’s all she’s ever wanted, and then she’d added that that was all dad had ever wanted, too, and I had promptly hung up with her.
“Sorry, Ma, it was a butt dial.”
Her eyes drooped in concern. “Honey, why do you look like you were just chased by an alligator and made it out with only one testicle intact?”
“Mom, that is… that is very specific. And weird. And no, I wasn’t chased by an alligator nor did I lose any of my… anything. I didn’t lose anything.”
I could practically feel Fox looking at me, like lasers were shooting through his pupils and stabbing into the side of my head.
I peeked to the side just to make sure. Yup, he was staring.
And he was also smiling. Wide.
“Wait! I forgot to ask you how your job interview went yesterday, honey. How’d it go?”
“Great, I’m actually on the job. Right now.”
“Right now?”
“Like… right now.”
Fox chuckled. I looked at him, and his face said “I couldn’t hold it.”
“Who’s that? Who are you with? A new coworker? Can I say hi, honey?” She was peering around as if she could see over the corner of my phone. I couldn’t help the smile that took over my face. I loved my mom with my entire heart. She was definitely my hero, and every day she never failed to get me smiling one way or another. There were some excruciatingly difficult days after the accident, and some of those days I had honestly wished my eyes didn’t open the next morning. But then I’d think of my mom, and all of that would change. I knew giving up would never be an option. And then I would wake up to her by my hospital bedside, a fragile hope in her eyes that I never wanted to see shattered, nor be the one who shattered it.
I turned the phone to Fox, and I heard a “Holy shi—Oh shoot, I’m so sorry. I forgot you can see my face. Hi! I’m Emma, Jonah’s mom.”
Fox laughed, his charm at maximum capacity. He waved. “Pleasure to meet you, Emma.”
“No, no. Pleasure is truly all min—”
“All right, Mom.” I knew where this was going. I quickly turned the camera back to me. “I’ll call you later.” And then another face popped up on my screen, over my mom’s shoulder.
“Jojo!”
It was my little brother. “Oliver, I didn’t know you were home. On a break?”
“If you can call it that. I’ve got a week off, but big exams on the day I get back. One’s in large-animal surgery and the other is in radiology, which I hate with the burning, fiery passion reserved for a hemorrhoid diagnosis.”
“You’ll be fine,” I said, laughing. Oliver always was. He was another one of my inspirations, even though he often said it was the other way around.
