Slushy relaxed. “Oh. All right.” Only then did he shake Fox’s hand. “The Ochoas? I should say I know them. I used to cook the books for them, hence the name Slushy.”
Fox had a look of recognition. “Ah. Back in the pirate days, the ship’s cook was named Slushy. He made slush or something.” How the hell did he know that? Did he study maritime law? It just didn’t look like the sort of thing an inked, muscular killer would know.
Slushy pointed at him. “Exactly. And although they left me for dead in the middle of the Sonoran desert, it all worked out for the best. I traded up, not down. Ochoa owns the whole Four Corners area.”
Fox said, “Near the meteor crater. Show Low.”
“Right. That’s where Ruben Ochoa’s plantation is, plus a lot of other unsavory items.”
“I heard human trafficking.”
“Exactly. He’s got dungeons over there, pits built into the ground to hold beaners he’s selling into domestic slavery on this side of the border.”
Fox said, “Some sick fuck. You guys don’t deal in that.”
“Oh hell no!” barked Wolf vehemently, almost spilling his drinks. I took mine out of the tray. “We deal in legitimate, honorable stuff that’s on the up and up, like iron and work!”
Slushy explained to me, “Guns and drugs.” To Fox he said, “I’m here to tell you I’ve gone straight. The Bare Bones is the best thing that ever happened to me. I can practice the law that I love, earn straight green, and watch The Big Lebowski on my widescreen. Can any of those Ochoas say they’re not constantly on the run looking over their shoulder?”
Again, I exchanged glances with Fox. This time, we were uneasy. Both of us were running, looking over our shoulder. I didn’t know what Fox was running from, but I lived in such holy terror of someone from my old days recognizing me, I’d started seeing a counselor who prescribed anti-anxiety drugs for me.
Slushy continued, “I’ve even got a Facebook profile with something like my real name on it. I can ‘like’ my daughter’s photos of her dog, and penguins giving noogies, and photos of Charlie Hunnam shirtless.”
“Well,” said Wolf, “you don’t ‘like’ those ones.”
“No,” agreed Slushy, “I don’t ‘like’ those ones. But you get my point. I live life above board, everything out in the open. There’s nothing to see here, just keep on moving.”
I thought the lawyer was protesting too much. Good gracious, Ignatius, he worked for an outlaw MC, not a legit riding club. But maybe compared to the Ochoas, the Bare Bones were ten One Direction members rolled into one.
“So what’s your opinion?” Fox asked. “Wolf and I have to go snoop around there without being seen. Why do you think they’re scoping out Lytton’s farm?”
“I’ve got to say it’s that Gunhammer thing. They want to see what you’ve got that they don’t have. They’re dying for Gunhammer’s backing so they can seem legit, but I’m telling you, if Gunhammer even slightly investigates between the covers over there, he’s going to find some…”
“Unsavory stuff,” repeated Wolf dully.
Fox’s phone chimed then. He held up a forefinger to excuse himself, and he stepped back a ways to read a text. It was then I was able to identify his back piece. It was a verse from Ezekiel that said,
The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyrannies of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity…
And that was all I was able to read.
Slushy was saying, “I’ll tell you, Wolf. I’m trying to convince Lytton of the value in Gunhammer’s backing. He’ll have a legit and well-known tech tycoon vouching for him, not to mention his dough. The problem comes when pot’s still illegal in the eyes of the feds. That’s the sticky wicket that makes investors in pot startups a bit queasy.”
“Wolf, we’re out of here,” said Fox, putting his phone back in its holder.
In a hot second, Wolf was tossing his green shake into the garbage. “What’re we doing? A stakeout? A ride-along?”
“No. Lytton had a dashboard cam on one of his shipments going down 17 near Camp Verde. There’s been an explosion.”
“Oh boy! An explosion! Is it the Ochoas? They’re sabotaging our shipments of weed now?”
Fox said, “I’ll tell you as we walk to our scoots. Pippa, sorry about the short lesson. Maybe Slushy here can continue it. He must be good at archery, having an office right back there.”
I didn’t anticipate how upsetting it would be, seeing Fox walk off. I chalked it all up to rampaging hormones, but I was really sorry to see him go. It was like he took with him some cloud of oxytocin that my system needed. My body literally craved him.
“Ah, can I get a rain check on that lesson?” Slushy asked me. “I’m late to my Mandarin class. Got to keep up with the tools of the trade! There’s a World Music show later at a club a few blocks up. I like their single malt scotch…”
CHAPTER SEVEN
FOX