“Viper,” Savage says. “We send Viper to meet him when he’s released. He never makes it home.”
So that’s it, then. Our two plans are to have him taken care of inside or taken care of once he’s free.
“You got anything else?” I ask.
“The usual,” he tells me, and of course I know what that means.
“I’ll make the call,” I say. “Stand by your phone. I need five minutes.”
I disconnect and head straight for the bathroom. I drop the lid and sit on the can, rage and fear at war in my chest.
“Babe?” Poppy opens the door, which I didn’t even bother to shut. She closes it behind her and grabs a bathrobe from a hook on the wall. She wraps herself up, then kneels on the cold tile beside me. “Phantom.”
She puts a hand on my knee but doesn’t say anything.
I want to tell her. I want to talk to her. To unburden myself of these shit choices. I want to provide for my family and keep shit in line. That’s it. I want to beat up assholes who try to run out on their debts. I want to move shit to the people who want it and get paid for the risk. I do not want to start butchering my enemies. That’s a one-way street, and I know the kinds of places that road will lead.
I sniff hard and look at Poppy. I can’t say anything, but I search her face for answers. What’s the right thing to do?
Poppy rests her cheek on my knee, planting a light kiss on my leg. We sit there quietly for a minute while I stew. The seconds are ticking by, and I need to make this call.
“There’s always more than one solution to a problem.” Poppy’s voice is gentle. I’m assuming she heard enough of my conversation with Savage to knowthat I’ve been asked to make a call. She shifts her weight so her chin is on my knee and she can look me in the eyes. “If you think you only have two options, maybe you have three. If you think you only have three…” She shrugs. “You know what I’ve learned from you, Phantom?”
I look up to meet her chocolate-brown stare.
She continues, understanding that I’m in no state to talk this out. “Look at you and my mom, for example. She has every reason not to like you. To judge you. And yet, she adores you. Why? Because she knows that, no matter what you do, you have a code of ethics. You may not always do what she would do, what I would,” she chuckles, “or what the laws in the state of Florida would tell you to do, but when you believe in something, you live and die by that code. I trust your code, Phantom. So should you.”
She kisses my knee again before saying, “I’m going to go back to bed. We have a few more minutes if you want to finish what we started.”
Then she gets up, leaves the bathroom, and shuts the door behind her.
I’m alone and naked, and yet I’ve never felt less alone. I think about Shayla and how easy it would have been to take care of her. It would be easy to take Dylan out. And God knows I like uncomplicated. But easy and uncomplicated are not the same thing.
There must be another way. A way to get Dylan out of our lives to buy us some time.
My mind whirls, and I think about Shayla and Dylan. Dylan and the fucking rats.
And then it comes to me.
I dial Savage back, and he answers on the first ring. “We’re going with option three,” I tell him. “I’ll give you the details tonight. I gotta go fuck my old lady.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
I end the call and leave my phone in the bathroom. I head back to bed and climb under the covers, taking Poppy in my arms.
“Thank you,” I whisper, so quietly I don’t think she can hear me.
But she does. I know she does.
She takes my soft cock in her hands and strokes it, rubbing me until I’m hard as a lead pipe. “Fuck me, babe,” she whispers.
And I do.
EPILOGUE
POPPY
Three monthslater
