“That isn’t good,” I noted, again cautiously.
“No. We do well, Ally. When I say that, I pull down high six figures,” he told me.
Yowza!
High six figures?
I made eight hours of a couple bucks above minimum wage and fifty dollars from the tip jar the day before yesterday.
I couldn’t wrap my mind around high six figures.
No wonder he drove a Jag, had a gardener and a kickass pad in Cheesman Park.
“So I got some put away, and we’re good in a live-real-good type of way for a while. We’re good for a live-content type of way for a longer while. I’m just not the kind of man who golfs.”
Thank God.
Nothing against golf. I was just not the-man-who-golfed-being-my-man type of woman.
“So what’re you thinking of doing?” I asked.
“I know what I’m doing. I’m settin’ up with Marcus.”
I blinked and my voice squeaked when I asked, “What?”
“This is not popular with Vito either,” Ren noted.
I didn’t understand.
“So, let me get this straight. You’re going out of the family business, but staying in the business?”
He shook his head. “No. Marcus has been pullin’ back for a while now. He has one thing on this earth he gives a shit about, and that’s his wife. I don’t have to tell you she had a tough life. They got together, with his social set, she had a tough go. She hasn’t had anything solid, anything at all, not her whole life, except Marcus…” he grabbed my hand, “and the Rock Chicks.”
I knew this.
“Chavez hates him because of what he does,” Ren continued, letting my hand go and taking a sip of coffee before he went on, “Hank also wouldn’t hesitate to take him down if given the opportunity. Marcus feels that tension. The truces made to deal with Rock Chick shit are tentative, baby. And that also means with my family. You women settle in, focus will shift. And when it does, it will not be good. So that Marcus can give Daisy what she needs, the family that comes with the Rock Chicks, without that tension or any shit hangin’ over their heads, he’s been growin’ the legit side of things, lettin’ go of the other. He’s almost there. The thing is, his talents lie in the other. But my talents lie with the legit.”
I had also always liked Marcus.
Now I liked him more.
Suddenly, I smiled huge.
“Perfect fit,” I decreed.
He smiled back. “Yeah.”
Just as suddenly, I was again confused.
“Was this what you were talking with Lee about after my apartment exploded?”
“Yeah,” he confirmed.
“This isn’t bad, so why were you in each other’s faces?”
“Because I was with you and Lee suspected where that was going, which is where it is now, and he wasn’t pleased with the pace the other shit was going.”
Yep, that was Lee.