Shanti seemed confused another beat (however, I didn’t know if she was actually confused, or faking confused) before she said, “Oh yeah. Right. I’m over that. I gave it a shot. He wasn’t into it. No other direction to go but onward.”
This was true.
Still.
“Everything cool?” Joey asked from the back.
“Everything is awesome,” Shanti said cheerfully and started up the Sportage.
And I guessed I had to believe Shanti wasn’t fibbing, because that was when we rolled.
Titus sat in his big chair (throne?) on his dais under the kickass portrait of himself, while the Angels lounged in the tan, buttery leather couches, or on barstools, or in Jessie’s case, worked behind the fully appointed wet bar to keep us supplied with cocktails.
See how awesome the man cave was? And I didn’t even get into the wine racks or the golden Camaro.
And we knew how welcome we were because Titus had set out bowls of snack mix. The good kind with those crispy bread pieces that were spiced to perfection.
He so liked us.
Since it was the first time Gem and Joey had been there, it took a while for us to deal with their awe at their surroundings (again, such was the man cave), and their bigger awe at meeting Titus (such was all that was Titus), but we finally settled in.
Titus was reading the brief.
He was also frowning.
Which took the edge off the happy vibe of snack mix and cocktails in the man cave.
Then again, I was already on edge because Titus was all about copping looks at Shanti, and Shanti was all about pretending she hadn’t felt the sting after Titus turned her down.
But she was so good at this, even I wondered if I’d hallucinated her throwing herself on my couch in despair after that went down.
This of course made Titus cop more looks, and it made Shanti act more like everything was a-okay, nothing to see here.
Which tuned me into the fact that she was fake, fake, faking it.
So yeah.
That was why I was on edge.
“Your expression is freaking me out,” Jessie remarked Titus’s way, taking me out of my thoughts.
Titus stopped reading the brief and looked to us.
“Know Dex. Know his crew. Know they’re a bunch of dumbfucks and wannabe gangsters. Know this because every guy on his crew is a reject from another crew. They were pushed out because they were constantly doing dumb shit and they became liabilities. But they were such wastes of space, they weren’t worth the effort of finding a more permanent solution to them being dumbfucks, nor were they worth the waste of a good bullet.”
Yikes.
“Problem is,” Titus kept going, “Dex is such a fuckup, everything he touches turns to shit, and he’s got shit for brains, so he doesn’t know the time he shoulda stopped trying was about a decade ago.”
He lifted the papers and gave them a shake before continuing.
“Case in point, he’s told your guy where the drop is gonna be, days before the fuckin’ drop.”
“This is bad?” I asked.
Titus looked at me. “Baby girl, your guy is not on Dex’s crew. Dex has no idea if your guy is talking to the police. Or in with another crew. Or out for himself. And Dex has given him the whole play not thinkin’ your guy could be setting him up for a takedown, at the same time takin’ down who he’s working with. Or simply just taking the money and running. This shit, if the cops were involved, or, how it is, you’re involved, gives you plenty of time to pull together an operation. Exactly what you’re doing. And I know from where the exchange is gonna happen, the man Dex is trying to get in with is a heavy player.”
Oh boy.
