Cherry chuckled, the sound seeming to trail fingers across Denis’ skin. “He’s made his first mistake. We generally give them two fuckups before we kick them. Cutting him was the right thing to do.”
“Cutting him?” Denis had a sudden vision of the man bleeding.
“His prospect patch, yeah. Not the asshole himself.”
“Makes more sense.” Denis moved to stand next to Cherry, making sure to keep Cherry’s arm wrapped around his shoulders. “So, wanna walk around for a bit? You can introduce me as your Guy if you want.”
“I want.” Cherry laughed softly, huffs of his breath brushing along Denis’ throat. “I definitely want.” Cherry led him across the expanse of grass behind the clubhouse. “Let’s get you introduced.”
“Surprised me,” Cherry murmured later, lips brushing Denis’ ear as they leaned against his bike, the party humming around them. “They’re my family, and they took you in like you’re theirs too.”
Denis grinned, stealing a kiss, tasting beer and Cherry. “Guess I’m Cherry’s Guy for real.”
“Yeah, you are,” Cherry growled, pulling him tighter. “And I’m keeping you.”
?Chapter Sixteen
Denis
The phone at his elbow rang, dragging Denis’ attention off a brief he’d been reading for one of his junior associates. He picked it up, expecting Carole, but got Ricky instead. After brief pleasantries, very brief, Ricky gave him a readout off the Marcus Warner investigation.
“Kid’s a short runner. Caine, the supplier, doesn’t give Warner a lot of leash to deal. That’s one of the reasons he got picked up, someone had called in about a suspicious youth who’d been at a known dealer’s house multiple times over a weekend.” Ricky’s voice deepened. “He’s a scared kid, but he might have reason to be. I think in addition to being a short runner for motherfucking Caine, he’s being an informer to his cousin. That would be his second cousin twice removed on his momma’s side, name of Herbert LaBlanc. That cousin being the same asshole that tried to book your IMC guy.”
Denis let the silence grow between them for a moment, then took a deep breath and blew it out. “I find it interesting that he’s tied in with that guy.” He and Ricky were both on the same page about the rookie, especially since Ricky had taken it upon himself to check into the man. What they’d found was the asshole was rapidly making a name for himself with drug arrests. “You think he’s feeding LaBlanc details?”
“Enough to get him to the right place at the right time for probable cause. He claims the arrest, touts it as instinct or a hunch, and looks good to the brass.” Ricky made a grumpy sound. “Those arrests doubled after Marcus Warner was picked up. That’s a suspicious coincidence to me.”
“When you say Marcus is a short runner, how short?” That role was typically given to the least trusted member of a dealer’s crew. Couple of hundred dollars of dope, single transaction. “Is he doubled on yet?” Being doubled would mean Marcus was right on the edge of being eliminated. Having to send two runners for a short run was not an efficient use of the dealer’s crew.
“No, not doubled up, not yet. If another customer falls to the asshole LaBlanc though, it might be enough suspicion to bring Warner down without even further management.” Ricky grunted. “He’s just a kid, Denis. I doubt he understands the danger he’s in. We need someone to talk to him who isn’t a PI or a lawyer.”
“You’re thinking Cherry? I don’t want to involve him if we can help it. Especially with LaBlanc being Marcus’s cousin.”
“I think we’re at the place where there aren’t any other real options, Denis.” Silence hung between them for a moment, then Ricky said, “Give it a think. Let me know. I’ll stick to the kid for now.”
“Like glue.”
