“Tristan?” Copper asked.
“Yeah, but I told him I wouldn’t pay him if his dad found out. So, he says he’ll do it and comes back with a brick. I gave him some money and he took off with his friends. So, I call my sister-in-law and tell her I did what she asked. Well, she says she needs me to hold on to it for a few weeks. So, I put it in my panty drawer for safe keeping.”
I wanted to scream at her to get to the point. I couldn’t take much more of her gum-popping and vapor-sucking.
“Now, here’s the part that just pisses me right the fuck off. While my sugar daddy took me away for the weekend, someone stole the smack that wasn’t even mine! So, I took all the money I could find from Tristan’s room. Well, he comes home and he’s pissed because his money’s gone. He tells me he couldn’t possibly have told his dad because no one’s seen him in over a week. That’s when I knew it was Spring. So, I told Tristan to go find his father and get it back from her. I don’t know what Tristan told Roy, or what they did, but Tristan came back with most of it.”
“There better be more to this story,” Copper growled.
Mitzie leaned back and smiled smugly. “There is, but that’s what you get for five hundred dollars. Judge me all you want, but I’m not as stupid as I pretend to be. What fucking idiot accepts a check for a bribe? You would’ve canceled it the second I stepped out the door.”
“I’m not giving you fifty thousand dollars,” Copper stated.
“Then, I’m not telling you anything else.”
“Pretty sure you told us everything we need to know,” Spazz said and looked up from his laptop with a small smirk on his face.
“Tell us what you got, brother,” Copper said with a grin.
“Mitzie Mayfield nee Ellison is the sister of Paul Ellison who is married to Gwendolyn Ellison, the current County Council Chairman. The same Gwendolyn Ellison who has the district attorney under her thumb, and is on a crusade to clean up the streets of every town in Ritch County by whatever means necessary,” Spazz said proudly.
Copper leaned back and rubbed his chin. “Well, sounds to me like you and your sister-in-law just landed in a heaping pile of shit. Doesn’t matter why she wanted the heroin, you helped her get it. And because it was laced with fentanyl, it’s been linked to four deaths, including your husband’s.”
She grabbed the check from the table and took a flying leap for the door. Batta caught her in midair and unceremoniously dropped her into a chair. “Don’t even think about trying that shit again.”
She took that to mean scream for help at the top of her lungs. “Fuck this shit!” Copper roared. “Gag her and get her ass out of here.”
As soon as she was out of the room, Copper leaned back in his chair and tilted his head skyward. “We need to choose our next step very carefully, brothers, and I don’t have the first fucking clue what it should be.”
“Call Tina,” Bronze suggested. “Make sure she knows you’re speaking to her as a client so the attorney-client privilege will apply.”
“Any objections?” Copper asked.
When no one objected, he pulled out his phone and placed a call to Tina.
Chapter Forty-One
River
I briefly woke when Jonah returned home in the middle of the night, but was able to go back to sleep after he crawled into bed with me. However, it was a different story when he left moments after the sun had started to rise.
Once I was up and moving, I didn’t know what to do with myself, and I quickly became restless. All I could think about was the possibility of spending the rest of my life in jail. For longer than I care to admit, I seriously considered gathering my resources, cutting off the ankle monitor, and going into hiding for the rest of my life. I was weighing my chances of making it to the bunker at the cabin when my phone rang.
I looked at the screen and saw my brother’s name, but I didn’t answer. I was rapidly spiraling into a dark place which left me with no desire to speak to anyone. As I stared at my phone, the call went to voicemail. Moments later, a text message appeared on the screen.
Reed:Hi Aunt River!
Seconds later, a picture of my little niece appeared on the screen. As I took in her dark hair, big, blue eyes, and chubby cheeks, I found myself smiling. I could see a lot of Reed’s features in her.
I continued staring at her picture for a long time before I decided I needed to do something to keep my mind from traveling further down the dark and depressing path it was on. Thinking that some physical activity might help with my overall mood, I cranked up some music and started cleaning Jonah’s house.
Since his house was already pretty much clean, I had everything except his office spick-and-span within two hours. I’d just started a load of laundry and dropped onto the couch trying to think of something else to do when someone knocked on the door.
I sighed in exasperation and contemplated not getting up to answer it, but quickly changed my mind when I heard Leigh’s voice after another round of knocking. “It’s me, sweetie. I hope you’re decent because I’m coming in.”
I opened the door as she was starting to put her key in the doorknob. “Leigh, what’re you doing here?” I asked and motioned for her to come inside.
She smiled. “I came by to see if you would help me with something.”