“Lay with me?” she asks, taking me by the hand and leading me towards the bed.
As I strip down to my shorts, my heart hurts. Being so close to her and yet so far away brings back too many bad memories. We climb under the sheets and she lays her head on my chest. “I’m sorry,” she whispers. I wrap my arms around her and close my eyes. At least I know she’s safe tonight.
My alarm rings out and I stretch. I reach out and find the space beside me is empty. I sigh heavily. Deep down, I knew Michelle wouldn’t stick around, but it still stings. My wallet lies open on the bedside cabinet and I reach for it knowing that she’s cleaned me out. There was a good amount in there, and it was stupid of me to leave it around. It would have been too tempting for her to resist.
I spot Bonnie coming out of Trucker’s room as I make my way down for breakfast. I do a double-take and she shrugs her shoulders. “What?” she asks. “You think I don’t need attention too?” I ignore her. The rules of the club are that any of the club girls are fair game unless a member claims them.
Downstairs, Ziggy is watching cartoons with his aunty Leia. “Mom is looking for you. She’s screwing about your late-night visitor,” Leia warns me with a smirk only younger siblings can seem to pull off. It instantly puts me in a bad mood.
I find my mom in the kitchen. She glares at me. “Really, Finn? You couldn’t find a decent girl to bring back here?”
“Wasn’t like that, Frankie,” I sigh. She hates me using her real name instead of Mom just as much as I hate her calling me Finn. “She needed to crash somewhere safe.”
“She made her choice!” she hisses. “She left and we picked up the pieces. Now she’s in your bed?”
“Not in that way. How the fuck did you know anyway?”
“I caught her dirty ass sneaking out of here at six a.m. She didn’t expect to see me. I’ve never seen a person so terrified,” she says smugly. “She doesn’t deserve your help, Finn. Stop rescuing her.”
“You don’t get it, Mom. Just leave me to deal with Michelle.”
I join Leia and Ziggy to watch cartoons. Leia’s smug smirk is still firmly in place.
“I find it hilarious that you are in charge around here yet Mom yells at you about the company you keep.” She laughs. “Now you know how I feel when you boss me around.”
“That’s different. You’re my sister. I’m supposed to vet your boyfriends. You’re only nineteen. If Dad were here, he’d be way worse than me.”
“Maybe,” she says quietly. We all miss him.
I spot Bonnie tidying around the other couches. I go over to her with the intention of apologizing about last night. I don’t owe her anything, we’ve only ever kissed and shared my bed, but I feel bad. “You okay?” I ask.
“Of course,” she says flatly. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Last night wasn’t what it looked like. I didn’t have sex with Michelle. She needed a place to crash and—”
“Why are you explaining yourself? You don’t need to. It’s your business. You looked pretty cosy with the green-eyed girl in the bar last night. I expected to see her in your bed.” She swipes her cloth over the coffee table and then sighs. “Is it me?” she asks in a low voice. “I’ve been coming to your bed for weeks, but nothing ever happens. I need to know if it’s me.”
I shake my head. “No. I told you before that I’m not looking for anything right now. Just the company.”
“But we don’t even speak. We fall asleep. It’s a little weird.”
“Maybe we should call it a day. I have a lot going on right now and I don’t have the time to dedicate getting to know you properly right now. I’m sorry.”
She shrugs and straightens the couch up. “Whatever.”
Cree stands in my office doorway and signals for me to come over. I’m grateful for the interruption. He closes the door before he begins to speak. “I just got a call from the mayor. There was an incident in the early hours. A kid got shot. They’re saying it’s gang-related, but he wanted me to ask around. Seems this kid wasn’t a gang member, just an innocent teenager on his way home from a party. Happened on our streets, Pres.”
I rub my beard. “So, you find out who did it yet?”
“I’m working on it. We have to consider that it might have something to do with Reggie. I think we should pay Marshall a visit.”
Marshall runs his empire from a storage unit on a back street just behind the railways. The front of the unit is piled high with antique furnishings that he supplies locally, and it’s a good way to clean his money up. Once you get to the back of the unit, there are plastic sheets hanging, and behind those sheets sits Marshall’s goldmine. Vans are in and out all day collecting furniture stuffed with bags of cocaine and heroin.
When we arrive, it’s unexpected, and by the time I push the plastic sheeting to one side, Marshall is rushing forward to greet us. “Gentlemen.” He smiles. “I thought I might get a visit from you today.”
“Why’d ya think that?” asks Cree coldly.
“I heard about the kid. Naturally, I’d like to know what happened just like you do, but so far, I’m drawing a blank.”
“Come on, Marshall. Don’t talk shit. You know everything about these streets. I didn’t order it, and if you didn’t either, someone is stepping on our toes,” I say.
“Like?” asks Marshall. “No one would dare.”
“Someone fucking did. That’s why there’s a kid dead,” growls Cree, shoving Marshall back a few steps.
“What did Reggie have to say when
