So that meant it was soon going to be my time to get out the tequila and have a sit down with my brother of another color. He lived. He breathed. He worked. He even smiled and sometimes laughed.
But something about him made me feel he was on hold. Waiting.
For what, I didn’t know.
But it was becoming clear it was time I did what I could so Darius Tucker would stop existing on pause and hit play.
“I’ll talk with Sylvie,” he offered.
“That’d be cool, Darius,” I accepted.
Darius changed subjects.
“Now, you know both Hank and Lee have been in my face to keep you out of this Rosie shit, but I know if I tried, you’d lose your mind and you’d get in it. So I’m gonna keep you briefed.”
Seriously.
I loved Darius.
I grinned.
He kept talking.
“He’s smoke. His shit was good shit and he’s still got fans here, so I’m workin’ my way through who I knew was partial to his product. The boys from New Mexico have no ties here. This is not good. No known associates, nothin’ to go on. Brody’s workin’ that book thing and he’s also workin’ hotel/motel registrations for me. I’m takin’ this on two angles, shuttin’ down Rosie and shuttin’ down the source of danger by findin’ those guys. It’s not gonna be easy so Lee has also assigned Hector to work with me.”
I nodded.
Darius carried on. “Because of their relationships with you, Hank and Eddie can’t work this case officially. They’ve assigned it to Jimmy Marker. Jimmy’s keepin’ them briefed, they’re briefin’ me.”
Poor Jimmy.
A colleague of my dad’s, I’d known Jimmy Marker since I was a little girl. And Jimmy was batting a thousand. That would mean he’d picked up every Rock Chick case, now including mine.
“You got Santo and Lucky on your ass,” Darius continued. “You still carry, keep your stun gun and pepper spray on you. Vigilance, Ally.”
“Always, honey.”
This time, he nodded.
“Shit to do,” he muttered, which meant we were done.
“Darius?” I called, even though he was looking at me.
“Right here, Ally.”
“I love what I do. I’m going to love doing it for a living. But the thing I love most is that you always believed in me.”
Darius held my eyes a beat before he looked down to the seat.
When he lifted his eyes again, I took in a hissed breath at the unconcealed pain there.
“And I love it that you always believed in me,” he whispered.
Oh God.
I leaned toward him. “Darius—”
“Get outta my truck, Ally.”