Page 60 of Clean Slade
The man crossed his arms and waved the approaching server off.
“If I did indeed have some product, how would a man like you use two bricks?”
“I’ve got my ways. I have my people.”
I dug into my pocket and slid a white envelope across the table. It had been inside the manila envelope.
The man looked inside and his face softened.
“Consider it a gift for hooking me up,” I said.
He hid the envelope inside his jacket and retrieved something else from its pocket.
A small disposable black phone that he placed between us.
“I’ll be in touch,” he said, pushed his chair back, and left without another word.
I grabbed the burner phone and scanned the area to make sure Hwan and Parker had really gone and seen none of that.
The meeting left an odd taste in my mouth and a strange sensation in my body.
No matter which way I looked at it, Tony Ferraro Jr. was back.
I just hoped when it came to it, Tony Jr. would have the balls to put a bullet through Tony Sr.’s head.
FIFTEEN
SLADE
“Can we watch it again?” Mac asked as soon as the credits rolled onTurning Red.
“Honey, you’ve watched it three times already. Isn’t that enough for today?” King asked her as he came back into the living room for the hundredth time.
He kept coming in and out, hand in his pocket, bouncing from leg to leg as if he had ants all over him. Or, I don’t know, as if his ass was on fire.
It wasn’t. I’d checked.
I would have asked him what was going on, but I knew by this point that he wouldn’t share whatever it was with me.
“I don’t mind,” I said, and he threw daggers at me.
“If I hear Mei Mei one more time, I don’t know what I might do. What happened toEncanto?”
“Oh, Daddy, I’ve already watched ita lot.”
He rolled his eyes with a huff, and I laughed.
“Turning Redagain then!” I pressed play, and Mac did a happy jump as the movie restarted.
King sighed and collapsed on the couch. Doing so outlined whatever was in his pocket—a phone. But his phone was on the coffee table.
“What’s up, buttercup?”
I knew I said I wouldn’t, but, well…I couldn’t resist.
I couldn’t stand seeing him in agony over whatever was eating at him. Maybe I wasn’t the strongest or the smartest person around, but I could still lend an ear. Offer some perspective. Anything to help him through.
“Nothing,” he said. “Tired, I guess.”
