That accomplished, they met the other two teams.
One was the rest of the Angels.
The other was Persia and Lotus, who were going to take Duane somewhere safe while all of this went down.
When Alpha Team arrived where we were meeting (outside an old warehouse on the edge of the south side of downtown where a homeless encampment used to be, but it was now a ghost town), they got out.
After they came to us, Jessie commented, “Looks like that went okay.”
“They didn’t send anyone to follow him,” Joey shared. “Which Titus says proves how seriously they’re dumbfucks.”
I was no criminal mastermind, but I got this.
If I handed over a lot of money to some stranger I didn’t know solely on the understanding he liked the friend he met at Food City, I’d track that money to make sure he really did like his friend at Food City.
“He’s good to go, babies,” Titus said to Persia and Lotus.
“Okay, daddy,” Lotus purred.
“We’ll give you the heads-up when all is clear,” Luna reminded them.
Persia shoved Duane’s shoulder to get him moving to their car.
Duane didn’t move.
“We gotta get this done, Duane,” Raye reminded him.
“You all going all out on this—” Duane cut himself off and visibly swallowed hard.
We all waited.
“You need somethin’ from me, no porn, for the first two times you show,” he stated. Though, being Duane, he didn’t leave it there. “But still, bring cupcakes.”
With that, he walked with Persia and Lotus to their car.
“I think that’s as nice as he gets,” Joey guessed.
“We could show without porn, he wouldn’t care,” Luna decreed. “But we’ll bring it so he can save face.”
“Right,” Gemma whispered.
“Okay, here’s the news,” Titus said.
At his tone, we all focused on him.
“I asked around. This drop,”—he hefted the bag he was carrying—“is a quarter of a mil.”
Holy shit.
There was a quarter of a million dollars in that bag?
Whoa.
“Dex does not have that kind of cash,” Titus told us. “He leaned heavily into men who like their money paid back on time. They get grouchy when it isn’t. And their grouchy is delivered at the end of a baseball bat to your kneecap.”
Oh crap.
“This money disappears, and he doesn’t have any product to push to pay back what he borrowed, he’s in a world of hurt,” Titus continued. “You still in, knowing the extent of how this is gonna play out?”
