“Uh-huh.” A hard swallow, but when I offered him water, he waved a hand. “A big one, but I was working it off for them. Things were going fine, but then this job I took last week went sour. The police shot the whole place up.”
He lifted his shirt then, revealing a large bandage across the side of his abdomen.
My mouth parted. “Are you saying they shot you?”
“Yeah, nearly clean through.” He lowered his shirt. “Jay took care of me. Had his friend get me a doctor to fix me up so I didn’t have to go to a hospital. I’ve been hiding out ever since.”
“What the hell, Niko?”
“I know.” A nod and his head sagged. “I didn’t ask, but fucking Jay… He doesn’t stop. He took care of me. He’s still taking care of me. Even now.”
“What do you mean, Niko?” I asked, and when he shook his head, I touched his arm. “You said he’s going to settle your debt. You mean, he’s paying them?”
“It ain’t that simple, Billie.” His words sobered me up, chilled me to the bone. He drew fingers down his mouth. “That debt was my responsibility. I have to work it off. They won’t just let him go in there and walk.”
“So why don’t you take care of it?”
“Jay.” He raised and dropped a hand. “The Marvellis called me while I was laid out about working another job, and he freaked. He urged me to go to the cops. Maybe work with them, you know, but I wouldn’t budge. I have a family, a sick mom, and I can’t risk going away. I mean, I’m their fucking livelihood. Anyway, we had
a huge fight about it. He wasn’t happy, but I thought that was the end of it.”
“It wasn’t?”
His head shook. “I woke up this morning, and he was gone, Billie. Picked up to take care of it himself. He left me nothing but a text message about what he was doing, but he can’t. It’s my debt, and I have to pay it. He said in his message everything would be fine, but I’m scared out of my fucking wits he’s not going to come back.”
“Well, what can we do? We can do something, right?” Panic shook my very limbs, my swallow hard. “Tell me we can do something. The cops?”
His hands gathered mine. “There is something you can do. That’s why I’m here. I need your help.”
“What? Anything.”
A long breath. “I told you Jay wanted me to cooperate with the police, and that’s what I want to do, but I need you to reach out to your father. He’s got a history with the Marvellis. Fuck, he’s responsible for putting half the crime family behind bars. I could go to the police, but if I had him…”
My hands left his. “How do you know about my dad?”
“Jay,” he said, like it was obvious. His throat worked. “I could talk until I’m blue in the face to the cops, but at the end of the day, I’m still some snot-nosed kid from the South Side of Chicago. A kid with a crime history. They won’t listen to me, and by the time they did get their heads out their fucking asses enough to help Jay… Jay…”
His emotion came back, and mine did too, all over my body to the point where my vision clouded. He was most likely right. No one would listen to him, not like they’d listen to me.
Not like my dad would listen to me.
Niko touched my hands. “Your dad’s the DA. He can just make a few calls, Billie. A few calls to the right people…”
“My dad and I don’t talk, Niko.” I raised my head, tears actually blinking down now. “We… We haven’t physically spoken in forever.”
“But you have to,” he pleaded. “I honestly don’t know how much time Jay has. He might already be there. He’d need to get the money together, but after, he’d go right to them.”
Goosebumps covered my arms.
“Please, Billie,” he said, urged. “I don’t know what will happen if we don’t do anything.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
LJ
I dropped the black leather bag filled with cash on the table in the downtown warehouse, one of Alexi Marvelli’s places. Guys in work coveralls pushed all kinds of the hard stuff around me, crack cocaine, crystal meth, and other shit Niko or I had never touched. We had to draw the line somewhere, and that was it; the stuff we did was enough for us. That’d always been okay for Alexi since every facet of his business had to be attended to. We stayed on our side of the yard, doing our thing, and as long as he got his cut, he was good.
A wave and Alexi himself had one of his suited gorillas check the bag. I didn’t recognize this guy, tall and maybe even a new one. Then again, Alexi had all kinds of people around him all the time, and he had a lot of people here today. Where there weren’t guys in coveralls, there were armed guards, dressed to the nines in the finest, but they didn’t fool me. They were here for Alexi, his men, and I minded my P’s and Q’s. I was here for one purpose and one purpose only, to get one of my best friends off the hook, and then I planned on walking the fuck out of here. I hadn’t even come armed, a sign of trust, and Alexi’s guys had understood that when they’d checked me at the door.