to friends as any boys on the road could get, closer, even, but Luis had been gone a long time, and Asa had moved up in the world.
Luis turned to the other one, Martell. Dante’s man through and through, he was easier to read. “You know Dante. He said he don’t want to see me cos he wants you to go tell him I’m asking. You know how he be.”
If anyone did better than Luis, it was Martell. He rolled his eyes and pulled his phone from his jacket pocket. “Wait here.”
Luis leaned against the grubby wall that had once been white. Martell disappeared. Asa stared straight ahead, ignoring Luis entirely, and Luis didn’t care enough to make him do anything else. Besides, Dante wouldn’t keep him waiting long. It wasn’t his style.
True to form, Martell reappeared ten minutes later and waved Luis through. “He told me to tell you to take your shoes off.”
“Fuck you.” Luis stuck his finger up and pushed past. The corridor was lined with more heavies, but none looked at him as he made his way to the door at the end. It was open. Luis slipped inside and shut it behind him. Instinct told him Dante was alone; he’d never liked having people in his yard, even his homeboys.
White carpet lined the hallway. Luis kept his shoes on and kicked doors open until he found Dante in the living room, dressed up in his best designer boxers to watch his gigantic TV by himself. He smirked from his shiny leather couch. “Miss me already, brother?”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Really? Again? You can’t deny blood. However much you want to.”
“You have no idea how much I want to.”
“No? So why don’t you tell me?”
“Why don’t you leave me the fuck alone?”
Dante reached for a blunt on the coffee table. He lit up without offering it to Luis and blew a haze of herbal smoke into the air. “I already told you. We need to talk business.”
“We haven’t got any business.”
“Of course we have. We’re brothers.”
“Stop saying that.”
Dante rolled his eyes. “If you’ve come here to talk in circles, don’t bother. I ain’t here for that. Go back to your greasy spoon and wait for me there. I know where to find you.”
I know where to find you. It was Dante’s favourite phrase, and it had haunted Luis his whole fucking life. He heard it in his worst dreams. “Don’t come to my work again.”
“Why not? It’s a free country, and your boy toy didn’t seem to mind me being there.”
Luis fought the reaction Dante was obviously looking for. There was still a chance he didn’t know for sure that it was Paolo’s bed he’d been sharing when he hadn’t been home. That he was testing Luis to see if he’d break. And fuck, Luis wanted to break. He wanted to break every bone in Dante’s body and leave him to rot on his chavtastic sofa. “He didn’t know who you were cos he doesn’t care. He’s not interested in my personal life.”
“That right? So why is he paying your rent for you?”
“He’s not.”
“Yes he is. He was in the post office yesterday with your rent card, paying your bills like he’s your fucking wife or some shit.”
“He did that for me because I don’t have a bank account. It was my money.”
Dante grinned. “You do have a bank account. Why else would you go into the bank three times and ask them to unlock it?”
“They didn’t do it yet. Bae’s probably too busy with your dick down her throat.”
“Probably. Maybe I should ask her to take better care of you. Or I could get her to suck your dick, if you’re still into women, that is. Prison can fuck with a man like that.”
“I didn’t need prison to know I like all kinds of folk to suck my dick.”
“That’s cute, brother. But don’t be saying that shit on the street. I haven’t got time to protect you from that.”
“From what? What homeboy on the street cares who’s sucking my dick?”
Dante stubbed his smoke out in a nearby ashtray. “None of them until I direct them to that cosy cafe of yours—”
Luis blurred across the room and yanked Dante off the sofa by his neck. He threw him against the wall, blind rage stoked by the flash of shock in Dante’s eyes. “Stay away from the cafe.”
Dante tried to speak.
Luis pressed his forearm over his throat. “I mean it, stay the fuck away. I don’t need your