Tipsy(33)

“C’mon. It’s cold outside,” I told him, trying to open the door wide, but the chain stopped it from moving. I rolled my eyes at myself and closed it, quickly removing the lock. When I reopened the door, I stumbled back a bit because I wasn’t expecting Blue to be so close.

He was in the doorframe, his broad chest inches from my face. After recovering from my initial shock from his closeness, I looked up and gasped.

He looked like hell.





14




Blue

A couple weeks since I saw Julie. A couple weeks of slumming with people I really didn’t like. Bullshitting and waiting for Dom to really accept me into the crew. I still felt like I was an outsider waiting to be invited into an exclusive clique.

It wasn’t a position I reveled in. In fact, I hated it. The real me was the kind of person who didn’t necessarily care what other people thought of me. I was never the type to try to fit into a certain crowd or group. I was who I was, and trying to be anything else was a waste of time.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t be the real me right now. I had to be Gray. Apparently, Gray was the type of guy who waited around for an invitation.

I could see the logic in that, especially in this line of business. Just like in the corporate world, there was a hierarchy to drugs: the big man who ran the operation, the supplier, the area bosses, and then the minions who worked for them.

But being someone’s bitch wasn’t my style. It was annoying. It was vaguely pathetic, and I wasn’t pathetic. I certainly wasn’t going to let Gray be pathetic either.

In the past two weeks, I’d barely made any headway in this case. Things started out strong the night of the club, but after that, Dom didn’t really say much. He made no invites, no inquiries. I was certain he asked around about me in Myrtle Beach because Slater told me. He couldn’t have been told bad things because he wouldn’t tolerate me hanging around with some of the crew and showing up at the clubs they frequented.

So what was the deal?

Push.

Something whispered in the back of my head. The Gray in me said it was a bad idea, but everything else seemed to come up with a badass plan.

The night that went well was the night I acted like Blue. Challenging Dom, getting in his face, using my fists and basically ordering everyone to keep their hands off Julie. He responded to that, to the action, to my hands-on approach.

Sitting around wasn’t going to get me anywhere with Dom. Action was the solution, so I climbed into the Mustang and put it in drive.

As far as I could tell, Dom lived alone, but there were always people at his place. There was always more than one female there as well. He lived in a one-story brick house, not really in the heart of the ghetto, but more on the outskirts. In my opinion, he chose that place because it was nicer than what the rest of us had and it made him feel like a king ruling over his subjects. The guy had a major ego problem.

However, his place wasn’t so far that he wouldn’t be able to keep an eye on what was going down in his neighborhood.

I parked at the curb and got out, jogging across the half-dead lawn, and pounded on the front door. It swung open and one of the crew members, Tony, stood blocking my path.

I motioned with my chin. “What up, Tony?” I said and held my fist out for a pound. He regarded me suspiciously for a moment, but then he returned the pound and motioned for me to enter the house.

Even though it was the middle of the day, the place was shut up like a tomb. Curtains covered the windows, and the only light was from a floor lamp sitting in the corner of the room. Dom was sprawled out on a black leather couch, holding a controller to an Xbox as he and a few guys played some bloody war game on the large flat screen.

No one paid me any attention as I walked into the room, which was filled with marijuana smoke, and the scent made my nostrils burn. How anyone smoked that shit was beyond me. There were a bunch of open forty containers on the coffee table, and I held back a snort. Nothing like getting drunk and high in the middle of the day instead of actually getting a real job. One that didn’t kill people with overdoses.

“What’s up, Dom?” I said, stopping behind the couch and pretending interest in the Xbox game.

He ignored me.

A flash of irritation slapped my insides. I had enough of this shit. I worked on this case for months in Myrtle Beach and we got nowhere. I came home, thinking I could finally get my life back. I got a second chance with Julie, and then this case got in the way again.

I stalked around the couch and across the room, toward the game console. With a very angry and deliberate jerk, I yanked the cord from the wall. The TV screen turned blue as the game system shut off.

The silence in the room was deafening.