Page 80 of College Town

“I used to. But not now. No.”

Tommy sighs again, and it’s like the sound comes up from his toes. Or from his soul. “Well,” he says to the marble counter. “Right now, you don’t have a choice.”

26

Noah and Natalia come up to his room a half hour later and explain it to him. Noah stern and matter of fact, Nat sitting beside him on the edge of the bed and stroking his hair in a way that feels entirely too pleasant to refuse.

It’s like this: Tommy and his people were going to put in a lot of ground work trying to figure out who the Giacolettis were using locally to push their laced heroin, but this way, they won’t have to. The Giacolettis will drop the local supplier, and Lawson will fence their not-shitty heroin through the coffeeshop for them until such time that Tommy manages to oust Gino Giacoletti from the criminal underground for good. For his part, Lawson doesn’t have to advertise or deal with anyone on the street. Word will go out to the usual customers and spread through word of mouth. When a customer comes into the shop and hands Lawson a folded blue piece of paper, he’ll slip a baggie into an empty cup with a lid, and palm the cash they hand him.

Simple, in theory.

Terrifying in practice.

“It really won’t be long,” Nat assures. She scritches along his scalp above his ear and he tips his head into it. “Tom has been setting things up for months and months. With your help, it will all be over.”

“You – can you stop doing that?” Noah huffs in annoyance, and Lawson realizes he’s addressing Nat.

“No,” she says, and continues.

“Yeah, mind your business, Noah,” Lawson adds. He’s feeling sulky and bitey and Noah is a good target for his teeth right now.

Noah folds his arms and looks disgruntled, gaze trained on the motion of Natalia’s hand.

Interesting.

“Just don’t fuck things up,” Noah says. “And we can get this over with and go the fuck back to New York.” He takes a disdainful glance around the beautiful room, nose wrinkling as though they’re in a pigsty. “I hate this place.”

“Always?” Lawson asks, genuinely curious. “Even when we were kids?”

Noah shrugs. “Yeah, pretty much.”

“Ouch.” He’s not really hurt. He liked Noah, cared about him as one of his best friends, sure, but he never loved him. If Noah and Tommy were both dangling from a cliff and he could only save one of them…well, you know how that would go.

The two of them leave soon after, once Lawson’s nodded and agreed to play his part. “Don’t guess this means I’m leaving?”

“Not tonight,” Noah says.

“Maybe tomorrow,” Nat says, and sounds hopeful for him. “Will you come down to dinner?”

“No, thanks.”

He calls Dana.

“We’ve got your parents, so don’t worry about that,” she assures. “But shit, Law. I’m worried about you.”

“Don’t be,” he says with false cheer. “I’m okay. I think I can come home tomorrow.”

“Hm.” She hesitates. “Okay, I know you’re just acting like you’re fine for my benefit.”

“Hey, now.”

“But how’s Tommy being? Is he…”

The skin on the back of his neck prickles, right where Tommy touched him earlier. “Is he what?”

“Is he being good to you?”

“Wha–”

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