Page 36 of The Prodigy

But I had to admit…this was fuckingweird.

I felt disoriented, like I was watching someone else’s life take place. My good sense kept trying to remind me that I was avictimof this man, but looking at his handsome face, and the rock on my finger, was making my good sense fade. Fast.

“My daddy always said you gotta reward people for their loyalty,” he said. “You been in this for a few weeks now and you ain’t snitched. You been real cool about the shit, actually, so consider that a thank you.”

I nodded.

We got to talking, and by the time our entrees came, I’d learned that he loved kids but didn’t have any, his favorite color was blue, his middle name was Lawrence, and that he left Midling eight years ago.

But he didn’t saywhyhe left, and I was very curious about that.

I didn’t get the chance to ask, though, because he started opening up a little.

I wasn’t prepared for what came out of his mouth.

He cleared his throat. “Listen. I feel like…you’re in this family, now. On paper, but still. So you have a right to know what you’re mixed up in.” He drank from his beer bottle. “I’d wanna know if I was you.”

“Okay…” I said, my stomach tying itself into knots.

“My daddy’s side of the family been in Midling since…shit, the 1800s.”

“You can trace that far back?”

He nodded. “Not all the way. I don’t know exactly when they came here, but I know my great-granddaddy was a sharecropper. Picked cotton all day. After a while, him and his son was basically like, ‘this some bullshit.’ They started making moonshine and selling it like water. Came up big time.”

“Wow. Was that legal?”

“Nah. Midling was still dry back then, and that was after Prohibition. They were on some extra religious shit, for real. No alcohol, no jazz…you know they called it devil music.”

I laughed at that.

“Nah, for real.”

“That’s amazing, though. That they were able to make money back then when everything was so bleak for black folks.”

He nodded.

“So your family is in the liquor business?”

“Not exactly.” He took another swig and leaned closer to me. “My daddy got involved in the business when he was, like, sixteen. He was young. And it just so happened to be during the crack era.”

My heart sank.

“I can see in your eyes that you know where I’m going with this.”

“Y’all are drug dealers?”

“Not anymore. My father got out…well, if you can call it that. Maybe it makes more sense to say he transitioned to a different business. He started cleaning the money. And that’s what we do now. We’re cleaners.”

I stared blankly. “I don’t know what that means.”

He leaned even closer, his eyes darting wildly before he finally said, “You never heard of money laundering?”

“Yes, but I can’t say I know the ins and outs of it.”

“Almost all the drug money in this city comes past us. We run it through our businesses. Pretty simple. Safer, too.”

“Except…somebody tried to kill you, right? How is that safer?”

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