Darren eyed her warily. “So if Alisha says no, then he just gets somebody else?”
“That’s the plan, yeah. There are ten to start with.”
Alisha said quickly, “When do he got to know?”
“A week.”
Alisha started to say something but Darren turned to Mace. “You tell your boss that Alisha’s gonna do it.”
“With you along, you mean? I’ll have to check on that.”
“No. He ain’t got to worry about me. Just Alish and Ty.”
“Darren!” cried Alisha. “You ain’t know what you saying.”
Darren turned to her. “I take care of myself. Always have.”
“But you ain’t got nobody. The jerks in this building be jumping you already.”
“I said I can take care of myself.”
“But Darren—”
He turned back to Mace. “You tell the man that Alisha be part of his crew. And Ty too. That’s it, no more talking.”
“Okay.” Mace looked over at Tyler, who was watching all of this from the corner. For the first time in a long time, Mace actually felt a lump in her throat. “They have some great doctors at G-town. They can take a look at your son.”
Alisha nodded. “Okay,” she said in a low voice.
Mace turned back to Darren. “I thought I had you figured out. But I was wrong. And I’m almost never wrong about stuff like that.”
“You listen up, anything bad happens to Alisha or Ty, you got me to deal with.” He went into the bedroom and closed the door.
Roy and Mace left the apartment. They hadn’t gone ten feet when Non ran up to them, looking scared.
“You two got to get outta here right now!”
“What’s up, Non?” asked Mace. “Is Jerome on the warpath?”
“I wish it just be him. Psycho found out you were talking to Alisha. He’s coming over here. I think he believes you’re the Five-oh and Alisha told you stuff.”
“Will he try to hurt her?” Mace said quickly.
“I don’t know. But that man is bad news all around.”
Mace grabbed Roy’s arm. “Come on, this way.”
She led him down the hall to a different set of stairs. They fled down them, passing pill poppers, syringe stickers, and one guy fornicating with his lady while smoking a joint.
“What about Alisha and Ty?” asked Roy worriedly.
“I’m trying to call Beth, only I can’t get a damn signal in here.”
They reached the ground floor, ripped open the door, raced down a short stretch of hall, and then ran outside. And stopped.
A dozen men stood there. One of them, the tallest, stepped forward. He had a big smile and his eyes had the look of a man who was used to telling people what to do.
Roy looked at Mace. “Please tell me that’s not Psycho.”
Mace didn’t answer. She just kept her eyes right on the guy coming at them.
CHAPTER 60
PSYCHO CIRCLED THEM once and then twice, nodding, smiling, and glancing at his men and then back at Mace and Roy. A little taller than Roy, he had on black jeans, a sparkling white T-shirt, and tennis shoes. Several gold chains were visible at the neckline of his tee. His hair was cut so short it was more like a membrane over his scalp. His forearms were veined, muscled, and heavily tattooed. Mace noted that his pupils were normal-sized and his forearms clear of needle marks. You didn’t last in that business if you were a user, she well knew. Life and death were often separated by only a rational, nimble decision.
On the third pass he stopped and stood in front of them.
“How’s Alisha?” Psycho asked in a surprisingly high-pitched voice.
“Doing okay.”
“They say you with Social? Why don’t I believe that?”
“We’re not cops,” said Mace.
“Hey, lady jumped right to it. Must be smart, so I know she’s not the blue.” His crew laughed. Psycho said, “Then let me play the ‘blues’ part, okay?” Not waiting for an answer, he stood straight and assumed a mock stern expression. “Now you two got anything on your person that might concern me?”
Several of his crew guffawed at this.
“Not unless you object to a set of keys and a couple cell phones,” said Mace.
“Couple?”
“Yeah, one for business and one for pleasure.”
Psycho flicked his hand and two of his men came forward and performed the frisk. One squeezed Mace’s butt and he got an elbow driven into his gut for the trouble.
“Whoa, lady got some fire,” said Psycho. “You step back in line there, Black,” he said to the doubled-over man. “Before you get your ass thumped.”
He eyeballed Mace. “So no guns, no badge, that still don’t mean no cops. Could