“His preferred handle,” I explained.
Ren looked to the ceiling. I figured he did this because Ren might be a member of a crime family but he reeked class. He likely had no friends with “handles.” Or that smoked doobies. And I didn’t ask because I was scared of the answer, but there was a high probability Ren would not like The Big Lebowski and that might mean I’d have to question his taste. Since he very much liked the taste of me, I didn’t want to do that.
“We’ve been friends ages,” I went on and Ren looked back to me, now with brows raised.
“So he’s not helping you find the grow house that friend of your other friend’s sister thinks her son has set up in Littleton?”
Jeez, how did he find out all this crap?
I decided I didn’t want to know and I also decided not to answer.
He got closer and reminded me, “Ally, we had a deal. You do this shit for people, you stay away from the drug trade.”
We did have that deal, kind of. The “kind of” part was that during a Talk, I’d agreed to that, but I was also lying when I agreed.
“Pot isn’t drugs,” I pointed out. “It’s flora. It’s natural. And it’s now legal.”
“This grow house you’re lookin’ for isn’t legal,” he shot back.
This was true.
I again didn’t reply.
He got even closer and ordered, “Baby, drop this case.”
Uh-oh.
He was getting bossy.
I wasn’t a big fan of bossy.
“Zano, I made a deal,” I returned. “I’m not dropping this case. Especially since we’re close to ending it.”
“Drop it,” he semi-repeated.
“I’m not dropping it,” I snapped.
“This kid you’re lookin’ for, he just sat down with some serious players to supply their demand. Takes him out of having to deal with dealing. He just gets to grow and rake in the cash. This is an escalation for him that at his age with his inexperience is all kinds of dangerous. You do not wanna get involved in that shit.”
That was not good news.
But as Darius told me (more than once), that was also not my problem
“You’re right. I don’t,” I agreed (to that part). “But getting involved in that is not part of the deal I made. He’s nineteen years old and his mother wants to know if he’s growing weed. I find out, get the proof, hand it over to her, she does with it what she will and I’m out.”
“And you think, she blows the whistle on her kid to teach him a lesson, his deal goes south, those players aren’t gonna look your way for being the instrument of that loss of income?”
“Shit happens in crime, Zano, and if they’re experienced players, they know to roll with the punches.”
His face set and his jaw got hard. “I’m sure they do. It’s just that I’d rather it wasn’t you who took those punches.”
I lost more of my patience.
“I’ll be fine,” I said for the ten gazillionth time.
“Yeah, because your brothers and their boys have labeled you untouchable. But there’s gonna be a time where you piss someone off who won’t give a shit what firepower you have at your back.”
This, I knew, was true. Darius told me.