Page 33 of Grace of Spades
Ray shakes his head and leads Liam out while I handle damage control. Once the door closes I sit down across from Brian tossing my knife back and forth.
"Look, I'm going to level with you. Your boss needs names. Who was close to Roberts?" I ask. I can tell he's clean so whatever. He straightens instantly and answers.
"Honestly? I've never met the guy. I heard he was involved in some skimming off the top but it didn't matter since he wasn't with us."
"Who told you this?" I ask.
"McCray and Donahue. I overheard them at the pub one night." He admits. I nod.
"Okay. My advice? Ditch Marconi. She's bad news. If she's in contact with that fucker, Nathan, then she's involved in some really shady shit. Your wife is clean by the way." I shrug. "Oh, and keep this shit to yourself or I will be back for you. Your boss has me on speed dial." He nods quickly.
"Oh, Ace. I heard some rumours about you that you maywant to hear." He mutters. "The four Heads are trying to get their heirs involved with you." What?! For fucks sake!
"Great. Just what I need. Thank you." I'm going to ignore that tidbit for now. I walk out of the room with the files. Ray is still chatting with Liam so I head to the next room.
Donnie McCray. Age 26. Single. Connections with Marconi, Roberts, and Ryan Oliver. Intriguing. I smell a problem.
I walk into the room and curse. Problem, indeed. Donnie is shaking with sweat soaking his grey t-shirt. I see he's bleeding around his binds. The dude is going through withdrawal. Fuck sake's.
The Irish are not making this easy on me. I'm going to have to get this guy high before he tells me anything close to intelligible let alone reliable. I check him over to see his drug of choice. Heroin. Of course, it is. It's gotta be Make Grace Freakout Day. I repeat, fuck today! I make my way out to Liam and Ray to give them the good news.
"Donnie is going through withdrawal. I can't do jack shit with him unless he has some heroin in his system. Get it figured out." I tell Liam. Ray subtly tenses at that. He knows this one is going to be rough.
"I'll call someone." Liam nods.
"Okay. I'm onto contestant number three."
"Ace. Sorry for fucking with your information." Liam states. I nod and head to the third door.
***
We have nothing. The only lead we had was McCray and he fucking died before he told us anything. I told Liam that O'Connor was a bust. The third was innocent too.
We make our way to the van when Liam jogs up beside me.
"Ace, can I talk to you?" He asks. I nod and followhim to the side.
"What's up?" I ask.
"My father said I could learn things from you. Why do you do what you do?"
"I'm good at it." I shrug. "Look, this isn't really a job shadow kind of situation. If your hands are already dirty, another stain isn't going to really matter. If you take over your father's position you'll learn that quickly."
"So, you had a hard life?" He asks.
“Listen, I'm not talking about my life with you. Find a girlfriend if you want that shit." I say rudely. It hurts but I can't be fucking doing this.
"I tried." He mutters and I can't help it.
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"I fucked things up with a girl I like. She's pissed at me. I misspoke and she rightfully lost it on me." He admits. I like Liam not just because he's cute and makes my stomach do a weird twirl when he smiles at me. I like him as a person. He's funny and sweet and he's not afraid of my scars.
"Then correct it." I shrug cursing myself as I walk back to the van. I can’t believe I just did that. I am a complete moron!
I'm almost home on my bike when I get a call. Jai.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" I shout at the sky before answering.
