“The warrant,” Ty said carefully, not wanting Lexie to catch on, not yet, not until he could give her his undivided attention.
“Yeah. The warrant. Got a boy in holding. This boy was caught with a gun in his possession. And this gun’s got a ballistics match on it says it did Ronnie Rodriguez, amongst others. And this boy has a protective instinct so this boy made a deal. And this boy shared the hit he confessed to doin’ on Rodriguez was ordered and paid for by Martinez. And this boy ain’t dumb like Martinez but he does have a screwy family. And when I say that, I mean, this boy does business, he does it at his Momma’s kitchen table, with Momma there. She’s lookin’ out for her boy, makes sure he don’t get screwed providin’ excellent service without gettin’ paid a good wage. She negotiates the deal, she takes a cut, her boy does the job. Therefore, she’s in holding too and she’s also facin’ time but she’s also not dumb and makes her own deal. Her boy goes down, she goes down but so does Martinez. We have the shooter, we have the gun, we have his word and we have his Momma as witness. And I’m not gonna get into the fact that Martinez is not like Rodriguez with his stable. He takes freebies, he takes ‘em often and once that boy gets off, he gets chatty. Therefore, he’s shared a lot with his girls. A lot. Too much. Stupid much. And another way he is not like Rodriguez, they have a light night, he don’t like that and doesn’t see that johns may not have a hankerin’ for a ‘ho with a black eye or busted lip. Therefore, they had it good so they are not big on how bad it’s got the last four years and are not feelin’ the love for their Daddy.”
Holy fuck.
Martinez actually ordered the hit that killed his brother.
He knew it could be true but a part of him didn’t want to believe it not of Shift, not of anyone.
Holy fuck.
“So,” Pe?a spoke into his silence, “don’t got me a calculator handy but the minimum jail time on possession with intent to distribute, pimpin’ and conspiracy to commit murder all added up means Duane Martinez is oh-fish-ah-lee fucked. And since he’s an asshole who don’t discriminate with who he feels like bein’ an asshole to, he gets sent down, there are boys in there who do not like him. I’m not thinkin’ good thoughts about his survival rate.”
Ty rolled off Lexie so his back was to the couch but his front still pressed to her side and he avoided her eyes which he felt on him and he asked, “You got him?”
“Lookin’ for him now. He’s got three enforcers, uses his girls in the daytime hours to cut and bag the dope and they’re all in interrogation rooms as I’m speakin’ to you and they’re all yappin’. It shouldn’t take long. Now, what I wanna know is, did these angels fly from Colorado?”
“Payback,” was all Ty said and he got silence.
Then he got a quiet, “Okay, then, I appreciate it so I hate to do you a dirty after you handed me gold but…” he hesitated and Ty braced then he went on, “It is standard procedure to inform the victim’s family when the perpetrator has been caught. I’m makin’ this call then escaping this office that right now looks like The Ninth Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. And I’m doin’ that to get in my car and drive to Ella Rodriguez’s house. I reckon about a nanosecond will elapse after the door shuts on me when she’ll be on the phone. There is no love lost between the Rodriguez women and Martinez. But that doesn’t mean this news is not gonna hit these women and hit hard. It’s obviously up to you how you’re gonna play it but you gotta know they’re gonna know and soon and prepare to pick up the pieces.”
“Right,” Ty said quietly.
“Now, I got more.”
Fuck.