Page 108 of Exposed

Rocco crumbles his cup and shoots it like a basketball into the corner trash can. “What’d you do to piss her off, Trip?”

“I got first place in the charcoal art contest. They brought in some local first graders to vote. I sketched birthday balloons. Norma sketched herself, but it turned out looking like a monsterthat lives under kids’ beds and terrorizes them in their nightmares. Especially with her hair and eyebrows. It’s not my fault she doesn’t know her audience. She got last place, and I got a blue ribbon. Because we play it old school around here. There are still winners and losers—none of this participation crap. That’s for the weak.”

Rocco lifts a fist to King’s mother. “Way to go, Trippy. Winners never die.”

Trippy bumps his fist with hers before shooting back the rest of her water. “We’ve got one more dance then I’ve gotta get off my feet. Lunch is next and then watercolors. We can take the Barbie Mobile.”

“Sounds fun,” Rocco announces and takes the Dixie cup from Trippy and chucks it in the trash. “But I’m driving.”

King

The factthat this guy shares DNA with Goldie is a scientific phenomenon.

I look Dex dead in the eyes. “That was not a part of the deal.”

“It’s my money and I’ve never worked with you,” he says.

“That’s why we’re doing a test,” I bite.

Dex nods and rubs his jaw.

We’re north of Fort Lauderdale in a tract home that looks exactly like twenty percent of the houses on the street. It’s nondescript and plain. It’s not in a shitty area, but neighbors aren’t dripping with money either. This is unlike any cash house I’ve everseen. A mowing company was edging the lawn when I drove up and someone was even pulling weeds.

I guess that’s one way to keep your neighbors from noticing the cash and drugs that are being stored throughout the house. As far as I know, they come and go through the garage since there are four of them, one of me, and not another car parked on the street for blocks.

“If you think I’m going to let fifty Gs walk out of here in the hopes that I see seventy-five percent of it deposited back into my bank accounts, you’re more whacked than I thought. And since you hooked up with my pain-in-the-ass sister, I already think you’re pretty whacked. Rand will follow you.”

“I’m boxing it up, putting it on my boat to the Bahamas, and then shipping it out from there where it will be deposited through my businesses when it arrives in Panama. What I’m not going to do is lead you anywhere. No one gets anywhere in this business alone, Dex. If you want your money free and clear in the bank, you have no choice but to trust me.”

“That’s where we differ. I didn’t get anywhere in this business by trusting anyone.”

I lift my chin and pick up the duffle I dropped at my feet when I got here. “Then good luck spending your own money on anything legit. Hell, you can’t even order toilet paper online with dirty cash, let alone support your hobbies of fast cars and faster boats.”

“How do you know my hobbies?”

“I know Shaw, I’m marrying your sister, and you’re not the only one who does their homework,” I say. “I have no problem moving onto my next client whom I know just as much about.”

He stops me. “You can’t tell me you have bigger fish in Miami.”

I stop and turn back to him. “I have bigger fish all over the world.”

He pauses to contemplate something before going on. “Goldie didn’t come into The Pink to arrange the wedding plans.”

I turn to Rand, the fucking asshole who seems to be omnipresent. He’s fucking everywhere. I tip my head to Rand but look at Dex. “This guy has one job—to relay messages since you refuse to communicate with me directly. Goldie put in her wishes and this guy failed to deliver. You really need to hold your employees accountable. That shit would never fly in my company.”

Dex shrugs. “The timing is suspect. My sister has commitment issues, always has. But one day she turns up out of the blue after wanting nothing to do with me or the family business, and all of a sudden she’s pregnant, in love, and engaged to a money launderer? Do you take me for an idiot, Daniel?”

That came out of nowhere. I thought we were past this.

But I don’t miss a beat, even though the air in this room has gone from musty to electric. “The only thing I take you for is a cartel leader doing his best to act like a businessman who needs a shit ton of cash cleaned. When I look at you, I see a client. Other than that, I don’t give a shit about you.”

“I’ve taken you, your company, and your services at face value. Do you know how many things in life I take at face value?”

Rand cracks his knuckles. He doesn’t scare me

But, I don’t like the way this feels and tense.

What I do not do is answer Dex. I think about the codeword that I did not plan on using today to get my ass out of this house in one piece.

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