“Slick’s taken to ground. Slick’s got the DPD and Nightingale Investigations al over his ass. Slick ain’t showin’ his face for a good long time. Thirty K or no.” Final y, a piece of good news.
“Where does Marcus stand in this?” Eddie continued.
“He’s cut Vince loose. Either that, or lose Daisy. Ain’t no way he’s losin’ Daisy,” Darius answered.
I was shocked.
What happened to war?
Not, of course, that I wanted war.
“Vince
is
renegade?”
Eddie
asked,
sounding
incredulous.
“Vince is on a mission and Vince is on his own.” I didn’t take this as good news.
“That’s too bad, I wanted Marcus tied to this,” Eddie said.
Eddie didn’t take it as good news either, but for a far scarier reason.
Darius laughed.
“You’l have to nail him some other way, Ed. Word is, Daisy likes Jet, and Marcus wants Daisy happy. You know how it is.”
No answer and a long moment of silence.
“She worth this?” Darius asked quietly.
“Jet?” Eddie asked in return.
“Yeah,” Darius said.
I opened the door and did it as loudly as I could, then walked to the bathroom.
I didn’t want to hear Eddie’s answer and I didn’t think I could close the door without them knowing I was listening.
It was while in the bathroom that I realized I had no underwear on.
Wonderful.
I made noise in the bathroom, banging stuff around and turning on the sink. Then I went back to the bedroom, my eyes avoiding the living room. I stood there wondering what to do, then I dug in my bag, grabbed a pair of jeans and yanked them on.
Then I walked out into the living room, pul ing my hair out of my face.
I looked to Eddie, then to Darius. Both of them were standing in the living room, both of them were watching me.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
I stopped next to Eddie. His arm went around my neck and he pul ed me into his side.
“We wake you?” he asked softly, looking down at me, his arm stil wrapped around my neck.
I shook my head and then stopped and stared at him. He must have worked out his anger earlier, his eyes were back to warm and tender.
I slipped into a mini-daze and murmured, “Felt you gone.”
His eyelids lowered a bit and his mouth relaxed.
“Go back to bed, I’l be there in a minute,” he said.
I gave a nod, put my hand to his stomach to push away but Darius broke in.
“I’m outta here. Be in touch.”
I looked at him, he was talking to Eddie but looking at me, his face was blank but his eyes were assessing.
Eddie told me he was a drug dealer and he talked casual y about ordering people’s deaths. I felt something very sad about that because I had this weird feeling he was a nice guy. I had a feeling that this wasn’t who he was but who he had to be.
Darius left, doing some kind of hand gesture to Eddie and not saying a word to me.
Eddie locked up after him and he and I walked back into the bedroom. He’d put on his t-shirt and jeans to talk to Darius. He took them off in the dark.
I took off my jeans, left on the sweater and got into bed.
Eddie joined me, his hands coming under the sweater and whipping it off.
“I’m cold,” I said to him.
He tucked me into him, front-to-front.
“You won’t be for long.”
He held me awhile and he was right.
I was nearly asleep, don’t ask me how, probably the warmth from Eddie’s body and something to do with his arms wrapped around me.
Then Eddie spoke and made me jerk awake.
“How much did you hear?”
Damn.
Caught.
“I don’t know,” I admitted, “A lot?”
Eddie didn’t say anything.
“It was wrong to listen,” I said by way of apology.
“I would have listened,” he told me.
I couldn’t help it, I smiled against his neck.
“You’re going to have to explain to me about Darius,” I whispered.
Eddie didn’t hesitate.
“When we were kids, we were close. He was a good guy, a little wild, less wild than Lee and me.” From what I learned that night, I thought it would be difficult to be more wild than Eddie.
Eddie kept talking. “His Dad was murdered and he and his family had it rough. He took a road that seemed easy at the time, quick money and a way to work out his shit. That road became harder but he’d chosen the path and, now, refuses to look back.”
“That sounds very sad.”
And it did.
Eddie made no comment. Being Darius’s friend through it al , he knew just how sad it was.
“Why was he here in the middle of the night?” I asked.
Eddie paused, as if wondering whether it was safe to share. Then he spoke. “We work together sometimes, when it’s mutual y beneficial, but we keep it quiet. The Department wants him taken out and they aren’t too happy with our relationship. I’m Vice and not tremendously popular with the brothers.”
“It’s not safe,” I concluded.
“No. It’s not safe.”
“For either of you?”
“No.”
“But you’re working together now?”
He didn’t answer.
“For me?”
He didn’t answer.
“I think you might be a little scary,” I told him.