“Law, this is a game,” Lee informed me. “You entered the game, now you have to play it. You don’t take the meet; it’s disrespect. Darius won’t like that.”
“Do I care?” I asked.
Vance came closer and turned his body into mine, cutting Lee off from sight.
“Take the meet, Jules,” he said.
I looked up at him and opened my mouth to speak but he got there before me.
“Take the meet; listen to what he has to say. You can say no. Then you can tell him what you want. Maybe we can come to a compromise, maybe not. You don’t take the meet, everyone will lose,” Vance went on.
“What do I have to lose?” I asked.
“You don’t want to go up against Darius. You do, since we made our positions clear last night, that puts us against him. That means war with you caught in the middle and the middle is an uncomfortable place,” he got closer and his voice dropped, “Jules, we’re talkin’ war between Lee and Darius. You don’t want to be the cause of that.”
Again I opened my mouth to speak but he kept going, voice even lower, eyes intense. I’d never seen him so intense (well, he was normally always a trifle intense but this was something else). I stared at him.
“It’d be like Sniff goin’ bad and Roam challengin’ him to a death match. In that situation, nobody wins. Do you understand what I’m sayin’ to you?”
I kept staring at him and it came to me. Eddie Chavez, Lee Nightingale and Darius Tucker, all friends, all close, just like Park, Roam and Sniff. I guessed that somewhere along the line, Darius turned, went bad. Regardless, Eddie and Lee stayed close to him, such was their bond. It was precarious, something would eventually test it, something just like this was bound to happen. You couldn’t have a cop, a PI and a drug dealer remain friends without it going sour somewhere along the line.
But I didn’t want it to be me that made it go sour.
I nodded to Vance. “I’ll take the meet,” I said.
He lips turned up at the ends and I knew he approved. I got that warm feeling again but kept my face blank and he moved away from me.
Lee and Luke were watching me, not amused anymore.
“Is everything okay with Jermaine and Clarence?” I asked.
“Vance took care of you,” Luke said. “You need to be safe, though.”
“You get in a situation like last night, you call backup before going in,” Lee added.
“Backup?” I asked.
“Vance will give you the number,” Lee said but didn’t answer my question.
I turned to Vance. “Backup?”
“You call the Nightingale control room,” Vance said. “One of us will take your back.”
Oh my God.
Were they serious?
“That isn’t necessary,” I announced.
Lee was making a move to go. “You’ve been smart so far, don’t be stupid now,” he warned then our talk was over. He jerked his head to Luke and Vance and Luke made a move.
“In a minute,” Vance said.
They glanced at him. Lee nodded. Luke grinned. They closed the door when they left.
Vance turned and with his eyes on me and us being alone I totally forgot why I asked to talk to him in the first place.
“Jules?”