“He only has one little hiccup left and he’ll be free.”
Evie’s hand froze in lifting her glass of iced tea. This was the first time she had heard this piece of news in the almost two months she had been in Queen City. It had taken her that long to dig through years of the filth he had fought his way out of to make sure there was nothing in his past or present to touch Lily. She had found, instead, that King was cleaning his own messes. She had been waiting for this report, ready to go back to Kentucky if it came back clean.
She ignored the ache at the thought of leaving King. She tried to tell herself it was just because she had shared his bed every night, not because she was developing feelings for him.
“What’s the hiccup?” she asked, already dreading the answer from the look on Rabbit’s face.
“There is a deal going down this weekend with Ramos. It’s big.”
“Is King buying or selling?”
“Neither. It’s a shipment of black tar heroin. Ramos has a buyer, but the drugs accidently ended up in Queen City when the dumbass carrying it had to drop and hide it before he got arrested. Now Ramos has to come to town to sell it or take a loss, and Ramos doesn’t like to lose money.”
“Where does King come into this? No one sells drugs in Queen City without his approval and giving him a slice of the pie.”
“Ramos doesn’t give a fuck about doing either,” Rabbit answered. “He’s going to sell the drugs then leave without giving King his cut, which means the shit is going to hit the fan.”
“What if King just ignores Ramos, lets him slide under his radar?”
“Ramos has been trying to branch out from New Mexico. He’s testing the waters, so that wouldn’t be a smart move.”
“Dammit.” This was not what she’d wanted to hear. “What’s he going to do?”
“No idea. Maybe you should roll over and ask him tonight.”
Evie ignored his smart-ass comment. “Who’s buying the drugs?”
“A man named Morin.”
“Where’s he from?”
“No one knows. He’s the wildcard. He’s dealt with Ramos before, but that’s all the information on him I could find.”
Evie nodded her head, biting her lip.
“Anything else?” Rabbit started to stand.
“No, I think that will do it. If you hear anything else…?”
“You’ll be the first to know. Bye, Evie.”
“Bye, Rabbit.”
Evie watched her old friend leave, sick to her stomach. King was so close; Evie hated that this one deal could wreck it all. She had to stay to make sure the deal went through without a hitch, and if not, that King didn’t have a new enemy at the end of the day.
She paid her ticket then got up from her table and went outside. She then walked the three blocks back to Penni’s apartment, making sure no one had followed her.
She waited until she was inside the apartment and was certain Penni wasn’t home before she called Shade. He wasn’t going to be happy with what she had learned. She was going to have to buy King some time to clean this mess up.
Shade answered the phone on the first ring.
“Can you talk?”
“Hang on.” She heard him talking to Lily in the background before the sound of a door opening and closing came across the line. “Go ahead.”
Evie explained everything she had learned. “He’s getting out of the business, Shade.”
“Then what’s wrong?”
“There’s a deal going down that could go bad. I have to see how it ends to know if he can walk away clean.”
Silence came from the other end.
“Shade, he’s not involved in the deal; someone’s trying to piss on his doorstep.”
“If he cared about Lily, he’d let them piss then hose the door down after they left.”
“Give him a chance. He’s trying.”
“Evie...”
“Please, Shade?”
“What do you care?”
She didn’t say anything for a minute. “I don’t want to see Lily hurt, either, and losing her dad would hurt her, Shade.” She had played the only card that would work to save King’s life and that was Lily. If that didn’t work, she was out of options.
“Let me know when the deal goes down and what happens. Do you need me to send a couple of brothers down as backup?”
“No, I’m good.”
“Tell me the truth.”
“I’m good, I swear. If there’s any trouble, I’ll call.”
“Okay, you better. I won’t be happy if you get hurt.”
“I won’t.”
“Later.”
“Bye, Shade.” Evie disconnected the call, running her hand through her thick hair.