Page 44 of Sweet Sin

“Yeah, man, and it was such an incredible high. I can’t even tell you. I had so much energy, but it can feel like normal energy, you know?”

“You can spare me the details, Eagle. I’ve never touched the stuff, and I never will. I don’t give a rat’s ass how it felt to be high.”

He clears his throat, and it sounds like he’s been smoking four packs a day. “Fair enough. So anyway. I was buying a gram here and there, with my allowance and all. But then I got cocky.”

Shocking. My little brother has always been the most arrogant of all of us. With his good looks and jovial demeanor, he’s the most popular of the Bellamy siblings. The rest of us are kind of introverts.

“Go on.”

“The housekeeper found some in my bedroom, and of course she went straight to Mom and Dad.”

“As she should.”

Another throat clear. “Yeah. So no more allowance for me.”

“That’s why you’re coming to me? For money for drugs?”

He lets out a sarcastic chuckle. “Jesus Christ, Falcon, it’s so much more than that.”

I draw in a deep breath, gather my wits. Christ almighty.

“Keep talking,” I say.

“So Mom and Dad cut me off. And of course I don’t have access to my own money yet because I’m not twenty-one.”

“If you think I’m giving you money for drugs, you can—”

He holds his hand up, still shaking. “Falcon, please.”

I draw in another breath and count to ten. “Fine. Continue.”

“So Rod and Marco, they don’t come from the kind of wealth I come from. So I asked them how they got the drugs.”

“And?”

“Marco works in town at the feed and seed part-time, but Rod…”

“Yeah?”

“He deals on the side. Turns out? The drugs Rod gets? He doesn’t just buy them and then we pay him back. He’s dealing them, and he gets a fucking cut.”

“I thought dealers didn’t use the stuff?”

“For Christ sake, Falcon. Don’t be so fucking naïve. Course they do. Why the hell do you think they get into dealing?”

He’s probably right. I’m thinking of the higher-ups. The ones who are too smart to use the shit.

“Don’t tell me you…” I shake my head.

“Yeah. It was a way to get the drugs I wanted. I started dealing.”

“And you’ve got a debt you need to pay?”

“God… If only it were that simple.”

My mind goes to the bags of cocaine Hawk and I found on our property.

The puzzle pieces are starting to fit together, and I don’t like it. Not one fucking bit.

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