32

MARGO

It was a repeat of yesterday. Rocello and Slade were heading back here with lunch. Jumaine and I were couped up at the cabin. The only difference was, Jumaine and I were on much better terms.

Oh, and then there was the little fact that we were on pins and needles about what Rocello and Slade might have found out. I didn’t know what I was more worried about—if Don Gambini said that they could take out Roscano or if he said they couldn’t.

Both seemed pretty damn dangerous options to me. So much so that I hadn’t been able to enjoy my morning with Jumaine, even though I sure as hell had enjoyed fooling around with him on the bed yesterday.

Then they were there with good news. Gambini had approved the hit. Jumaine gave a whoop and picked me up, spinning me around. He set me down and before I could even catch my balance, Rocello gathered me up in a bone-crunching hug. Then Slade did, too. It felt weird to be celebrating the possible demise of my half-brother, but if it was a question of him versus the four of us, I voted for the four of us. Besides, from everything everyone had said, Nick sounded like a real jerk.

But then, during lunch, they’d dropped a bombshell.

Slade broke the news. “Gambini had a condition to sanction the hit on Roscano. You know about his meth distribution network, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” Jumaine nodded. I, of course, was clueless. “What about it?”

“He wants us to take over it,” Slade explained, making me stare at him in disbelief. “When Roscano’s gone, we’re supposed to use our own mules to move the product. That’s what Rocello promised him anyway.” Slade glowered at the big man. “He even gave him his word.”

“When the fuck did we decide we wanted in on the drug trade?” Jumaine asked, narrowing his eyes.

“We didn’t,” Rocello said, his voice dropping in volume and intensity. “Gambini knows it’s going to be hell out there if Roscano drops dead. Gangs will swoop in and try to take advantage of the mess to establish their own distribution network. He wants to avoid this shit. I had to make a call, or else he wouldn’t have given us the green light to kill Roscano.”

“That’s a shit call.” Jumaine eyed him with anger. “I’ve seen what meth does to those junkies. I swore to myself I’d never get anywhere near that shit.”

“Well, we can reverse it,” Rock said. “I’ll just give Roscano a call and invite him up here to take us out. I’m sure he can be here by dinner.”

Jumaine rolled his eyes.

“Do you actually like being on the run?” Rocello demanded, the sarcasm gone. “Taking all these precautions? Being vigilant every fucking second of the day? For me, it means not seeing my son, and leaving him with people who might not give him back.” Anger filled his voice, which wasn’t usual. When Rocello got upset, his voice usually got lower.

I stood up, abandoning my food, and walked over to him. I hugged him from behind, leaning down to talk to him. “You did the only thing you could do,” I said. “And we all know that.” I shot a look at the other guys. “You had to get Gambini’s approval or none of us stood a chance.”

“Yeah, but now we have to be able to do what we—what Rock—said we’d do,” Jumaine said. “And I don’t know how we’d do that even if we wanted to. We don’t have any men who work in distribution. We don’t know anything about that side of the business. We don’t even know where to start.”

“Gambini’s all about maintaining some kind of order on the streets,” Slade added. “When Roscano’s out of the picture, his distributors will lose their jobs. The drug trade business in Brooklyn will be up for grabs. Without a new player in place immediately, things are going to get nasty out there. Gambini wants us to be that new player, but we’ve never been involved in the drug trade. All we ever did was collect from Roscano’s mules.”

That was sobering. There was so much about this that I didn’t understand. But there was one thing I did know. “Blaming Rock’s not going to do any good. He’s doing all of this for us.”

“He’s doing all of this for you,” Jumaine said, but he didn’t sound resentful.

Rocello nodded and then reached back, cupping the back of my head. He pulled me in for a quick kiss.

My heart warmed even as my mind was still in worry-mode. These men were risking everything for me, and there wasn’t even anything I could do to help. I didn’t know their world, but I did know the real world. And in the real world, money ruled.

That’s what it was all about.

That’s why the brother I’d never even met wished to have me killed. So he could spend his millions, without worrying about his late father’s illegitimate child.

I chose my words carefully. “The problem isn’t really the drug operation, is it? It’s the money it represents, right?”

Slade nodded, looking at me thoughtfully. “I guess you could say that.”

“Roscano’s drugs…” I started, eyeing the guys one at a time. “What does he sell exactly?”

“Crystal meth,” Rocello answered. “He’s got a bunch of chemists manufacturing it near Rochester. I’ve been to that place; it’s deep in the woods. The front is perfect. That lab is in the basement of an old sawmill.”

“What if, uh…” I paused, thinking of how to phrase my next sentence. “What if something were to happen to that lab? Not the people working in it. Just the lab.”

“What are you saying?” Jumaine asked.

“Destroy it,” I heard myself say in a clear, assertive voice. For the first time ever, I wondered if I did have something of my biological father in me after all. “Just hear me out here. The destruction of that lab will put a dent in Roscano’s cash flow, but without any lab, there’ll be nothing for rival crews to take over.”

“Is it just me, or is she starting to sound like a crime boss?” Slade said.

“Roscano knows we’re on the run and laying low,” Jumaine said, thinking out loud. “He wouldn’t expect us to make a move against him.”

“He’ll figure out it was us,” Rocello said glumly.

“What’s he going to do, though,” Jumaine said. “Kill us twice?”

“Or twice as painfully,” Slade said. Then he caught sight of my face, which I could feel the blood draining out of, and hastily said, “Just kidding.”

Yeah, right.

This was a whole new world for me. A disturbing, dark, horrifying world. It wasn’t my choice to be in it. It sure as hell hadn’t been my mom’s choice. She’d wanted to keep me away from it, even if it meant lying to me.

But the simple fact of the matter was that I was in it, and so were these men. We were in it together, in fact. So it was time to stop being a useless accessory. A pleasant distraction for whichever man was in charge of guarding me that day.

We were in this together, and we were in for the fight of our lives. So it was time for me to do my part.

I’d never gone down without a fight, and I wasn’t about to start now.