Page 16 of Abduction
“You need to stop drinking so much,” she told me fretfully. She never liked it when Tommy and I went out together, and she had tried to put a stop to it as much as possible when we were growing up. No matter how much I told her she had nothing to worry about now, that the two of us could handle ourselves, she would always think overtime on what was really going on when we were out.
“I’m fine,” I told her. I didn’t want her worrying, not when there was no need for her to. The closest we had come to trouble last night was when we had been out in that alleyway together and he had told me to get my shit together. She knew I would never cause real trouble between my brother and me. We were committed to supporting each other, even when things were tough, even when they seemed impossible.
I tuned in to the conversation Tommy and my father were having at the other side of the table. As always, they looked pretty friendly. I wasn’t sure what it was my brother had that I didn’t, when it came to talking to my father, but he always seemed to know just what to say. Our father had always liked him better, though he would never in a million years have admitted it out loud. He didn’t like to come clean that way, didn’t like to confess he saw us as anything other than equals, but I wasn’t stupid. I knew how this worked. I could see what he really thought.
“I’m glad I have someone like you to pass this all on to when I’m gone,” Dad remarked to him, and Mom’s ears seemed to tune in to that at once.
“Why do you always have to talk as though you’re on your deathbed?” she scolded him. “You’ve got plenty more years in you yet...”
“Yes, but it’s a relief to know when the time comes, I have someone who can manage all of this,” Dad responded, glancing over at Tommy. I tried not to bristle with annoyance. I was sure he didn’t mean it as the insult it was coming off as but couldn’t he tell how much this was pissing me off? How shitty it was to know my father would have handed this over to my brother without even glancing twice in my direction?
Maybe it was what I deserved, what I had earned. I hadn’t exactly been reliable when it came to doing the jobs he’d given me, but surely he could see that I would have worked harder when it came to matters of control. If I had been in the right place, as opposed to running around doing grunt work, I would have been committed...
Shit, I needed to stop overthinking this. I smiled at the two of them, praying that it came off as believable.
“Yeah, we’ll do a great job, won’t we, Tommy?” I replied, looking over to my brother. He nodded. But I could see, written all over his face, that he knew it wasn’t as simple as that.
I would make it that simple. The two of us were owed this empire my father had made.
Though, as I picked at my food, I wasn’t sure I even wanted it.
Chapter Ten
Josh
––––––––
ILEANED BACK ON THEbench and scanned the park in front of me. I couldn’t see Saka yet, but I was sure he would be turning up soon.
He wouldn’t expect me here. As far as he knew, my father trusted him completely, had no reason to doubt the protection money he was handing over every month. But my father had his doubts about the way things had been going, and he’d asked me to come out here and check that things were still up to his standards.
He had a feeling Saka was moving more product than he had given him the go-ahead for, and it was a damn good reason to send me out here to make sure he wasn’t fucking us around. It would have been so easy for him to just play by our rules instead of pushing his luck and landing in more trouble than it was worth.
But that was the thing about drug dealers, anyone involved in the industry. They were always looking for more, looking for a chance to lift things up another stage and get a little further, make more money and command more turf. Nobody could ever be satisfied with what they had; they would always want more, and there was nothing we could do to push that need out of him.
It was a simple surveillance job, but one I needed to make sure I did well. I couldn’t screw this up. Tommy and my father had their eye on me, and if I screwed up again, they were going to make it a serious problem. I didn’t feel like making any more of those anytime soon. I hated how much doubt they had in me already, and I would earn the trust back. I would.
