OWN HER: A Dark Mafia Romance(134)

“Hey, man,” a voice croaked from the shadows, and a shifty-looking dude in ragged clothes appeared, merely a shadow himself, his skin as gray as the concrete surrounding us. His rotten teeth—what few he had—smiled at us as he drifted towards us in the darkness of the abandoned building.



“Good to see you, buddy,” Dante said as the guy approached us. “I brought my boss with me, man. I think he’s got some questions for you about the drugs.”



“I’m not in trouble, am I, boss?” the rat asked me. There was a fear in his eyes that pleaded for his life with me.



“No, you’re fine. Do you have any of it left?” I asked.



“Nope, it was just a little bit. I already used it, which is why I think it was yours,” he said.



“But you told my partner here that this new guy has been trying to get you to come on board for a while,” I pushed.



“Yeah, man, he’s been around for a while, keeps telling everyone to buy from him, but he’s never had any product, not until last night. Last night he shows up, and he’s actually got something,” our rat told us. His face lit up as he told us about this new dealer.



“What did he look like?” I asked.



“He looked like a snake, man. He had these dark, narrow eyes and a long, forked tongue, man.”



I shared a suspicious look with Dante. Can this guy be for real? I wanted to ask him. He shrugged, as if answering my unspoken question.



“Okay, so he looked slithery and shady, right?” I asked, trying to rephrase and make sense of the rat’s description.



“Right. Except he had dope on him this time. He met with some other guys and it looked like they gave him a large sum of money for a good bit of the stuff.”



“Okay, so you witnessed the deal go down?” I asked. Now it felt like we were getting somewhere. Our village idiot might have had some real information.



“Yeah, but I didn’t see the other guys very well. They just looked like business men. You know, gray suits, sunglasses, even at night, ties, the whole nine, man,” the rat continued. He was really more of a specter than a rat. He was barely even there, and at times it was like I could see straight through him, but he was our rat, and according to Dante, he’d been a good rat.



“That’s fine. As long as we know who this other guy was, we can find the guys who bought from him,” I assured the guy.



“Cool.” He nodded.



“So, where do you come in, man? You said you tried some of the shit he was selling? How did that go down?” I asked.



“Okay, so, he pulls up between the two buildings here, just like you guys did, and his buyers pull up in front of the building.” He pointed to the road crossing in front of the alleyway where we’d parked our bikes.



“Right.” I turned to look where he was pointing.



“So, of course, the headlights get all kinds of attention. We aren’t used to headlights around here unless it’s the cops, right?” He laughed coarsely before continuing. “Anyway, I kind of crawl up close to the window over here to keep an eye on what’s going on. You know, this guy’s been coming around telling everyone he’s going to have a stash of his own soon, and he’s going to keep a regular supply. He’s going to let it go cheap, too.”



“This motherfucker,” I said, interrupting him with the words falling out of my mouth before I could even think to stop myself. “Sorry, man, keep going.”



“He’s kind of become friends with everyone. He buys us food and shit, sends the weed man around, and brings us liquor. You know, he takes care of us, man. So, yeah, I’m going to watch him when something goes down, just in case shit turns ugly and he needs some back up.”



I heard a gun cock in the shadows behind our rat, and my veins ran cold with ice. Dante didn’t even seem to notice.



“Hey, man,” the rat laughed, “as long as you’re not here to bust anybody or hurt someone, nobody’s going to mess with you. He’s just back there letting you know we can defend our people when we need to.”



Okay, I’d been on the streets as long as I could remember. I thought of myself as a badass. I’d seen a lot, and, hell, I’d done a lot. I was the youngest president of Hell’s Overlords, and still the youngest chapter head even at twenty-eight years old, after being president for a few years. But I’d never seen some shit like this. I had no clue guys like this even existed out here in this little ghost town. I shot a nervous glance at Dante. It was time to get the information we came for and get the fuck out of dodge.