Mark
“Ryan, it’s good to see you,” I said as I approached the bar. I held my hand out to shake his as I reached to grab his shoulder with my other hand, bringing him in like he was an old friend.
“Yeah, you, too,” Ryan said stiffly. He gave my hand an obligatory shake, not nearly as friendly as I had offered.
“I see you brought your accomplice,” I said, keeping up my cheerful tone as I turned my attention to his girlfriend, Nora. She accompanied him every time he came to do business, and I had seen her in here a few times with Alice.
I had never paid attention to her though. I always sort of acknowledged her presence, but I had never really looked her over. Tonight, it was like I was seeing her for the first time. She sat at the bar, all long legs and long blonde hair. She was slender and feminine. Good sized tits. She was hotter than I had ever realized.
Maybe it was because I still had Alan’s words rattling around in my head. Maybe it was because the club girl from the night before left me unfulfilled. I wasn’t sure what had changed, but my heart beat a little faster in my chest when I saw her.
She smiled curtly at me and went back to her drink.
“She tags along every time,” Ryan reminded me.
“Well, yeah, if I had someone this beautiful on my arm, I’d bring her with me everywhere I went,” I remarked.
“Thank you,” she said, catching my attempt at correcting the way Ryan talked about her.
Someone that beautiful didn’t tag along. She was arm candy. Jackass.
“Hey, Ed, make sure Nora here only gets top-shelf, okay?” I glanced over at Ed and tapped the bar.
“You got it, boss,” he called back to me from the other end of the bar where he sat on a stool with an old dog-eared paperback in his hand. He didn’t even look up from his book.
“You don’t have to keep drinking well liquors,” I told her. “We keep that cheap stuff for the club girls and prospects. You can drink with the MC now.”
She raised her eyebrows and nodded. “Thanks...I guess.”
“Someone as gorgeous as you are deserves only the best Shadow Reapers has to offer—”
“Hey, Mark, are we going to do this?” Ryan asked, interrupting me. “I don’t mean to sound rude or impatient, but I need to move this stuff.”
Usually when someone prefaced their statement with not wanting to be rude or impatient, it meant they were being rude or impatient. I let Ryan slide on it, though. We’d done business together a long time.
“Yeah, sure, come on,” I said, inviting him into my office. We left the beautiful Nora at the bar. She seemed a little feisty. I wondered if she was the same way in the bedroom.
We walked into the office, and Ryan took a seat in front of my desk as I closed the door. I noticed he was clutching his bag to his chest. As I circled around to the backside of the desk and took my seat, he opened the bag slowly, with shaky hands, and pulled out the package. He set it on the desk, same as always, and I pushed a small stack of cash across to him. Same amount of drugs, same amount of money. It had become so routine, we didn’t even talk about it anymore.
Ryan had been dealing with us for a couple of years now. Every few weeks, he’d show up with another package – pills and heroin mostly, though he sometimes got his hands on other things. We’d make the exchange, and he’d go on about his business. He didn’t linger too much.
But after he took the cash and stuffed it in his bag, he sat there like he wasn’t sure what to do next. It felt like I was being set up. Something was bothering him, and it looked a lot like guilt. He fidgeted with his bag, and his leg bounced a little. He looked at me with shifty, nervous eyes. If he wasn’t about to try to pull some shit, he was on some shit.
“What’s up, Ryan?” I asked. “Is there anything else?”
He hesitated a moment, drumming on the arms of his chair, thumping his heels on the floor. I could see in his eyes that he wanted to say something, but he didn’t seem sure of himself. I didn’t like what I was seeing. This was not the cool, professional Ryan I was used to.
“Come on, spit it out,” I urged him.
“I got a really good shipment coming through next month, really primo stuff. Top of the line, probably the best I’ve ever brought across,” he said in a jerky voice.
“I’m listening,” I said, guarding my words. He didn’t usually sound like that. Something was up.
“It’s going to be really expensive though. If you want in on it, I’m going to need some of the money up front,” Ryan continued.
I narrowed my eyes at him. That wasn’t how we did business. He knew that. The Reapers didn’t put money down until we had something in hand.
“I’ll pay for it when I see it,” I told him.
“Hey, man, it’s just a deposit. I’m being straight up with you on this. I need the money up front to show that you’re serious about buying it.”
“You come in here and start talking about how you’re going to have all this great stuff, and you expect me to take your word for it, and put something down when you haven’t even provided a sample? I don’t pay for promises, Ryan. You know this.”
He swallowed hard and wiped his forehead. He’d gone pale all of a sudden, like he was going to pass out on me. He looked like a trapped animal looking for a way out or at least hoping one would open up for him.
“What the fuck is going on here, Ryan?” I finally asked him. “This isn’t like you.”
He was hyperventilating. He looked scared. He fidgeted with his hands on the arms of the chair. He opened his mouth several times like he was about to say something, but nothing came out. He licked his lips and swallowed.
“What the fuck are you trying to pull, boy?” I growled, lunging across the desk and tearing open his button-down shirt. His bag fell to the floor. There wasn’t a wire on his chest like I had expected to find.
He bent down when I let go of his shirt, and picked up his bag. I snatched it from him and opened it. Nothing in there either. He wasn’t wired. He might have been pulling my leg, but he wasn’t setting me up with the feds.
“Look, before you pass out, come clean,” I said, slumping back in my chair. “You can stop acting like you’re scared. If you’re not trying to sell me out, you don’t have anything to be afraid of, Ryan. You’ve been good with us. You’re practically family. The worst I’m going to say is no, so tell me what’s really going on here,” I said, trying to sound reassuring.
He took a deep breath and gave me a relieved smile. The smile faded as he started to talk though. “I’ve got some debts with my supplier,” he said. “It’s small, petty stuff, but they’re on my back, man. They’ve got muscle breathing down my neck. I’m not talking about some small-time punks working in their mother’s kitchens, you know? They run a pretty big organization. Since I’m a free agent basically, I need to pay them off to be able to keep working with them, and I’m on my own here. No one has my back.”
I could see why he was scared. His ass was on the line. I couldn’t help but wonder how the hell he got himself into that predicament, but it did say a lot about our partnership that he felt like he could come to me. Still, I didn’t want to get hustled.
“How much do you need?” I asked him.
“About ten grand,” he said.
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Ten grand? Those aren’t small debts. Come on, stop trying to pull a fast one and tell me how much you really need.”
“Okay, I’m only about five grand short,” Ryan admitted. “I’ve got some of it already, and I’m good for the rest, Mark.”
I laughed again. “No, you’re not. If you were good for it, you wouldn’t owe it,” I told him.
He really looked like he was about to cry as he continued to beg. “Look, you’re the only buyer I’ve got who could possibly help me out. Everyone else I sell to is in the little leagues compared to you, man. You gotta help me out here, Mark.”
I thought about it a moment. I wasn’t about to give him an advance, but I wanted to help. I didn’t want our partnership to end over his inability to manage his own funds, but he probably did need some help controlling his spending or his use, if he was using. I didn’t really give two shits about his spending habits, but if he was using, he needed to get off the shit.
“Like I said, I don’t do advances or loans. I don’t give money on promises.”
He crumbled.
“But, I can do business with you,” I added, reviving him a little. “I’m willing to make a deal with you for the money you need.”
“Anything,” he said, the hunger in his voice pleading with me for an answer.
“Nora. I want Nora. You let me have her, I’ll give you the ten grand you initially named.” She was worth more than that, easily.
He looked at me like I’d punched him in the gut. I watched his eyebrows work as he tried to wrap his brain around my demand.
“I mean, I know you guys like to treat your women like you own them, but I’ve never known anyone to actually buy or trade them like actual property,” he said.
“I know it’s a lot to ask, so I’ll give you until tomorrow evening to decide.” I got up and walked around the desk. I put a hand on his shoulder and tilted my head toward the door, letting him know we were done.
“Tomorrow night,” he said, his voice still full of disbelief.
“Tomorrow night. I’ll see you then,” I told him as I held the door for him to leave.
I stood and watched as Ryan collected Nora from the bar. She looked at him with concern. She shot a look at me over her shoulder before getting up to walk with him.
I nodded to her, and she turned her attention back to Ryan. He wouldn’t look at her. He walked slumped over, his head down. He said a few words to her, but wouldn’t really acknowledge her. Even when she put a hand on his back and rubbed between his shoulders, he kept his eyes down.
She had to get the door for him. She glanced back at me one last time before walking out.
I gave her a little smirk. I could see Ryan had already made his decision. This time the next night, she’d be mine.
Ten grand was a small price to pay for what I was going to get out of the deal.