Page 6 of Shattering Nash

Charley was still in a daze walking through the house when her phone rang. She raced back to her bedroom. It was the only room that hadn’t been trashed. She grabbed the phone from her dresser and read the screen.Oh shit!She considered not answering but he’d inevitably call back. Charley tapped the screen and brought the phone to her ear.

“Hello?”

“I want you and your fucking delinquent brother out of my house!”

“Mr. Pearson, I know…”

“I get a call from the neighbors telling me there’s shit breaking and yelling at midnight. Then the cops showed up, and they hauled his ass away. You two have been nothing but a pain in the ass since you moved in. I’ll give ’til the end of the month to pack your shit and get the fuck out.” He paused. “And don’t even think of asking for your security deposit back.”

Her mind was spinning. This was the last thing she needed right now. He was giving her ten days’ notice to find a new place to live? They’d been on a month-to-month basis for the last six months. After an altercation with one of the neighbors, the landlord refused to let them sign a lease but allowed a second chance.

Charley drove her hand through her hair. She wouldn’t argue about the short notice, but she had to push for the security deposit.

“By law, you have to give me back my security deposit.”

He scoffed. “You’re lucky that’s all I’m doing and not taking you to court for not paying your goddamn rent for last month.”

What?

She scrunched her brows. “I paid the rent. Cash just like you asked. My brother dropped…”

Oh God, no.

“He didn’t drop shit off. Was willing to give you some time, but this month’s didn’t show up either. Still wanna fight me on the security deposit?”

She clamped her lips and dropped her chin to her chest. Charley should’ve known better than to trust her brother with cash. But it seemed like he’d gotten so much better in the last few months. When he complained about having no responsibility and her treating him like a child, she’d figured it was a way of showing her faith in him.

“Ten days!” The line went dead.

“I will not cry,” she muttered, dropping to her bed. “I will not cry.”

Then she cried.

****

I could think of a hundred things better suited for my time than this meeting.

Nash grabbed his glass of scotch, taking a slow sip, feeling the burn down his throat. This had gone on far too long. They’d been in the private room of the restaurant for well over two hours. It was good to build a rapport with associates, a semi-friendship in the mind of the prospective partners, during any deal.But this motherfucker is wasting too much of our time.

Nash rarely took a seat at the table. He’d always preferred standing off to the side. It gave him a vantage point of the room and everyone in it. Tonight, he was next to Oz and seated across from a new buyer, Brock Anders. He’d been in the gun businessfor years, but Anders wanted to branch out into the drug transport market. With stipulations. It wasn’t often someone came to the table with a list of demands for the Underground.

Fucking moron!

Anders clasped his hands, resting his elbows on the table and addressing Oz. “The way I see it, you’re the person in charge of the state. Why go through a middleman? We work out the deal between the two of us and pay you directly. You can disperse it how you see fit.”

On paper, it would’ve been a convincing strategy. After all, Oz ruled the entire state. His word was the only one that mattered in the end. Being King had its privileges. But that’s not how the organization operated, and Anders knew it. While Oz ran, and essentially owned, all the distribution in the state, he didn’t step in and barter deals. On rare occasions, a member running a territory would ask for assistance, but never a buyer.

“What do you say, Oz? We got a deal?” Anders asked.

Nash steeled his features. Laughing in the face of Anders would be unprofessional though warranted. This was one for the books. He may have worked his way up and built a reputation and business that couldn’t be dismissed, but he was no match for Oz.And Inez.

Oz tapped his finger on the table but remained silent. An even stroke, two seconds apart. It was reminiscent of a clock ticking. The mindfuck. The longer Oz stayed quiet, the more tension grew in the room. They’d all try to figure out what direction he’d lean toward, or if they should’ve played it differently in their presentation. Nash settled back in his chair, eyeing all the men.

When the tapping stopped, Nash turned to Oz. They shared a look but nothing else. No words, no gestures. It was unnecessary. Nash worked under Oz for so long, he was completely in tune with what his boss wanted done.

Nash turned to Anders, stone faced. “What you’re saying is you’d like to avoid dealing with Inez?”

Wouldn’t we all?

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