by Zoey Parker
“I must have lost my damn mind,” I said to myself. I shook my head. I shouldn’t want to have anything to do with Micah and his organization. But I couldn’t shake the need to make things right, to help him get to the bottom of the thefts. Even if Chris was safe for the moment, I couldn’t know that he was permanently safe until the person responsible for stealing from him was found out; not by the authorities—they wouldn’t do a damn thing—but by Micah. I needed to make sure the girls were safe, too; I knew that Manny—if he was, in fact, in charge—wouldn’t be able to control his people forever. They’d get too hasty; they might even kill a girl if she fought back against the thefts hard enough.
There was too much riding on the situation for me to tell myself that I could just back out with a clean conscience. I didn’t want to care about Micah, or the girls, or Rob, but I’d gotten myself mired in the whole weird business and now I was in the position to make things right that had gone wrong, and I needed to do it. But I didn’t have the slightest idea of how I could. I needed to talk to people who had more experience, who knew more about the operation. I needed to talk to my brother, and figure out what he’d experienced, to make sure I knew what was happening. I needed to find some way to prove to Micah what was going on—and in the process prove it to myself.
I unplugged my phone from the charger and found my brother’s number. He was still lying low, in spite of the fact that he wasn’t on the shit list anymore; but he’d gone back to his own place once Micah had cleared his debt. He didn’t really have much that he could do to make the kind of money he needed to keep the place up—he couldn’t deal drugs, or work for any of Micah’s rivals, or anything like that. “Hey, bro,” I said when his phone rolled over to voicemail. “We need to get together and talk. Call me back and let me know when you can come over. If you can come over.” I ended the call and felt a chill work through me at the thought that Manny might be at my brother’s place right then; or maybe Micah had gotten to him already, and decided to take out his lingering spite toward me on my brother. I took a deep breath. Micah wouldn’t do that; he had standards. But I couldn’t help thinking that my brother’s life and mine were both in a precarious situation with the knowledge I had. I needed him to figure out how to get everything cleaned up and finished.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Sadie
The next day—Sunday—I heard from Chris. Instead of just calling me back, he showed up on my doorstep once more. “Let me guess: you’re hungry,” I said when he came into my apartment.
“I could eat,” Chris said cautiously. I looked at him sideways as I went into the kitchen. He definitely seemed tense, and the way he looked at me told me he wasn’t quite sure what to make of me. Things had definitely changed between us—and I thought that it was likely Chris might resent me almost as much as I had resented him weeks before.
“I’ve got some steak and mushrooms,” I said, keeping my voice as neutral as possible. “I could make us some quick sandwiches.”
“Sounds good,” Chris told me. He sat down at my kitchen table and for a moment it felt like any other weekend: my brother dropping in hungry, me cooking for him. I cut up strips of the steak and threw it in a pan with the mushrooms and some butter, added salt and pepper, and began cooking it up. “So—mind if I ask what’s going on?”
“That’s kind of complicated,” I told him, poking at the meat and mushrooms in the pan with a wooden spoon. “Maybe we’d better eat first.”
“I got the impression that whatever it was, it was pretty urgent,” Chris said. “Which leads me to think it’s got something to do with Micah.”
“It does,” I agreed. “But it’s complicated and I kind of want to think about how to explain it all.” I threw some pre-cut onions in the pan, and kept moving the stuff around, feeling the blood rushing into my face as I thought about just how complicated things actually were between myself and the boss.
I brewed some coffee and finished making the sandwiches, stuffing the filling into sliced mini-baguettes and topping it with cheese. I sat down across from my brother and sipped coffee and ate a sandwich while I tried to assemble my thoughts. I’d hoped he’d just call me, so I could be spared the embarrassment of thinking about the sex Micah and I had enjoyed.
“So what’s the situation?” I pressed my lips together and set my plate aside.
“I’m out of the business,” I told Chris. “Pushed out. Cut out.”
“How did that happen?” Chris raised an eyebrow, looking at me. “I thought the two of you were thick as thieves.” I snorted.
“Well we were...sort of...in business together,” I told him. “I mean—I worked with him.”
“You’ve been in his office two or three times a week for a month,” Chris told me sharply. “You’re more successful in the criminal underworld than I ever have been.” He was obviously more than a little miffed at that fact.
“Okay,” I said, waving aside the difference. “It’s—anyway. I’m cut out, and it’s for a weird reason.” Chris raised an eyebrow and helped himself to more coffee.
“Weird?” I nodded.
“Here’s the deal,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Rob came to me with some information about something that’s been going on.”
“Rob came to you?”
“If you’re going to ask basic questions about what I’ve just said this is going to take forever,” I told my brother.
“No—I’m just surprised,” Chris said. “That Rob would come to you instead of going straight to Micah with whatever it was.”
“That’s because it’s about Manny,” I said.
“What?” Chris’ eyes widened.
“Let me tell the whole story,” I told him. “Rob asked to meet with me a bunch of days ago. He said that he’d noticed a bunch of couriers getting stolen from.”
“Like me,” Chris said.
“Exactly,” I said. “He thought it was coincidence at first, and then started noticing a pattern that led him to think that there had to be an insider.” I didn’t say that Rob had suspected Chris; I figured my brother was smart enough to have figured that out for himself. “So he started narrowing down the possibilities.”
“And he came up with Manny?” Chris stared at me.
“Yes,” I said. “He wanted me to go to Micah because he thought that I would have better luck; Rob thought if he did it, Micah would just assume that he was trying to throw Manny under the bus.”
“So you went to him instead?” Chris let out a low whistle.
“Yeah apparently that was a dumb decision,” I said. I sighed. “Apparently Rob came to the conclusion that Manny was doing it with some friends—getting them to meet with the girls and then find out who was running the drugs, and then following up with the thefts a few days or a week later.” Chris brought his hand down on my kitchen table hard.
“That’s it!” He slapped the table top again. “That’s exactly it. I knew that I’d seen those guys who robbed me before.”
“You said they were johns,” I told him.
“Yeah—yeah, they were,” Chris said. “But I remembered that I’d seen them even before that, hanging out with Manny at Flat Tire. They’re friends of his. I just hadn’t really put it together.” Chris looked down at the table and I could see the wheels turning in his head. “Fuck—do you know what this means?”
“That Manny apparently is a bigger criminal mastermind than Micah thinks?” I crossed my arms over my chest.
“It means I’m not just innocent—I’m better than innocent. If we can prove it, I’ll have a clean name again.”
“But Micah kicked me out,” I told him. “He doesn’t want to have anything to do with me. He definitely didn’t believe me about Manny. He just thinks that I’m trying to drive a wedge.” I told my brother about the meeting—leaving out the part about the sex before—and Chris nodded slowly, sitting back in his chair.
“Okay,” Chris said as he absorbed it. “We have to find a way to get to Micah.” I sighe
d.
“I know,” I said. “I mean…” I shook my head. “Do you think we should even bother? Apart from getting your name cleared, I probably wouldn’t.”
“You like working with him,” Chris pointed out to me. “I know—I know—you don’t want to admit it, and you’d probably never thought about it before, but you like working with him. You like being part of the criminal underground.” I rolled my eyes.
“I did it to get you out from under him,” I told my brother. “I did it so that you wouldn’t get the shit beat out of you, or killed.”
“At first, sure,” Chris said. “But I know you, Say.” He grinned at me. “I won’t talk about whatever-the-hell you and Micah have going on outside of business, but I know how you are. You like being a bad girl, and playing the consigliere to Micah for the prostitution business.”
“I like the bonuses I’m getting from the bankers,” I said dismissively.
“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” Chris said, shrugging. “You like it. You like being a part of it, and even if Micah put out some kind of announcement that no one was allowed to fuck with me ever again, you’d want a way back into the business.” I pressed my lips together. I wanted to deny it; but I knew it was the truth.
“Fine,” I said. “We need it to fully clear your name, and I—I want to be able to keep working with Micah.” I sighed. “So what do we do? He’s not going to listen to either of us.”
“We’ll have to get to someone he’ll trust about it,” Chris said. “Someone he won’t have any reason to doubt, who he’s known for a long time.” He tapped his fingertips against the table top. “It needs to be someone who would have a reason to know—not just anyone.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “That makes sense. It couldn’t be someone like Brody—Brody wouldn’t have any way to know about it, and Micah would want details.” I sighed. “We’re going to have to get Rob to make the arrangements or something like that.” Chris looked at me for a long moment and then nodded.
“It’s going to have to be him,” Chris agreed. “The only person that’s in the business end of things that would have a way to know, who Micah would trust.”
“We’ll need some kind of evidence too,” I pointed out.
“Right,” Chris said. “We need to figure something out, and soon.”
“Why?” I frowned.
“Because who the hell do you think is going to be one of the first ones to find out that you told Micah about Manny?” Chris looked at me firmly. “We have to get Micah to believe you before Manny figures out what’s going on and comes after us himself.”
That hadn’t occurred to me; not really. I’d figured—more or less—that Micah was going to keep it to himself. But of course he would probably have already told Brody; and even if he hadn’t told Brody directly, the door guard for his office might have heard our conversation. If Brody knew about it, then other people in the org might know, and it would eventually get to Manny. Even if Micah didn’t suspect the guy he’d kicked me out for, Manny would know that the noose was tightening, and that someone else—someone with actual evidence—might eventually bring it up to Micah. He’d be on the defensive.
“Okay yeah,” I said, thinking. “We need to get this done with soon or Manny might come after us just to make sure that no one gets to Micah.” I bit my bottom lip and thought about what we could do. “I’ll think about it,” I told my brother, rising to my feet. “Do you think you know anyone in the org who can get to Micah?” Chris considered for a moment.
“I’ll see if I can find someone.”
“We’re going to need to talk to Rob,” I said. I shook my head. “It’ll have to be me, he doesn’t like you.” Chris smiled wryly.
“Yeah I’ve gotten that impression,” Chris told me. I worried at my bottom lip, thinking about how we could get to Micah. We couldn’t do anything direct—Micah would have his people throw us out at the best, and at the worst we’d get the crap beaten out of us. I needed to call Rob anyway, to let him know how the meeting went—not that I was entirely sure that Rob hadn’t already heard.
“Okay, I’m going to make some calls, and you do the same,” I told my brother. “We’ll figure it out.”
Chris left, and I paced my living room floor. I thought about the weirdness of Chris and I working together to try and get in touch with a mob boss; once again—for what seemed like the hundredth time in a month—it hit me that my life had become stranger by far than fiction. “Ah, my life,” I muttered to myself. I would need to call Rob; that much I knew for sure. What we would do after that I had no idea, but I could only hope that we could figure something out to get to Micah and get him to believe us before Manny had a chance to do something dire to protect his thieving.
I found Rob’s number in my phone. It was technically a little early for him; since he worked with the girls, he was up all night, and didn’t get to bed usually until around sunrise. I kept pacing as the phone rang once, twice, three times. I was about to give up—hang up the phone and send Rob a text message—when I heard it connect. “What’s up?”
“Hey Rob, it’s me,” I said quickly, sitting down. “The shit has hit the fan.”
“You told Micah,” Rob surmised.
“Yeah and he didn’t buy it—not at all,” I replied. “In fact, he hates my guts right now.”
“Fuck,” Rob said.
“Yeah, that’s about where we’re at,” I agreed.
“I’m guessing you’re on the defensive—brother and all?” I nodded, even though I knew that Rob couldn’t see me.
“Yeah, we just talked about it,” I said. “Chris figures that Manny will probably find out soon, and then come after us.”
“Probably me, too,” Rob pointed out. “Okay—I’m still on good terms with Micah. I’ll see what’s going on with him, see what we can do.”
“Sounds good. Where should we meet?”
“Let’s meet at Sans Souci,” Rob told me. “My friend owns it—we’ll be able to talk without being listened to.”
“Sounds good,” I said. “When?”
“Give me like twenty minutes, then head over,” Rob suggested. “I’ll have something for you then.” He hung up, and I closed my eyes. My heart was beating faster in my chest, but I had to admit it felt good to at least be in the process of doing something. I stood up and went to my window; I didn’t see any sign of Manny—but then, I thought, I knew next to nothing about the guy, or any of his friends. He could have my whole building staked out and I would never know.
I went into my bedroom, feeling fidgety and nervous. I just wanted the situation to be resolved. I wanted Micah to figure out that I was right about Manny, and whether or not I continued working with him, I wanted Chris and me to be safe. You know that’s not all that you want, I thought, even as I started changing out of my pajamas. You really want for him to decide that you were right, and whether or not he wants to keep up with the business arrangement, you want to keep up with the sex. I wanted to deny it, even to myself, but I knew that it was true. I shook my head at my own stupidity. It was ridiculous that I wanted to have more with Micah.
“Make sure you’re not going to get yourself killed first,” I told my reflection in the mirror. “There’s no point in trying for more sex if you’re going to get shot by some asshole in the process.” I took a deep breath and exhaled, grabbing my phone to text my brother. Whatever he might be doing at that moment, he needed to be with me to meet with Rob. It would take all three of us—I was certain—to get to the bottom of the situation and figure something out. Chris. We’re meeting with Rob at Sans Souci in twenty minutes. I took all the clothes I’d put on off and started over, not quite comfortable exploring why I was so nervous about what I was wearing.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Rob
I was feeling pretty on edge when Chris and Sadie came into the cafe. I’d figured there’d be some friction between Micah and Sadie when she told him about Manny but I hadn’t figured he’d be that hard to
convince. If Micah had heard the news it was ten to one that Manny would hear about it before the day was out. If he found out, he might come after me, too—he had to guess that it was someone on the inside who’d told Sadie, and I would be high up on his list.
“I ordered you both coffees,” I said when Sadie and her brother sat down. “Cost of privacy.” Sadie nodded.
“So what do you want to do?” I looked away from Sadie and glanced at Bamber; he’d never been my favorite guy, but I couldn’t help thinking that of the two of them, Sadie was way better off in the business. She’d always been smart—that much was obvious. She’d probably always been smarter than her brother, too. Only a matter of time before Micah would have given her the keys to the kingdom, I thought.
