Fuckkkk.
Massaging the bridge of my nose, I close my eyes and accept his call. “Felix?” I harden my voice and show him none of the remorse Rory’s been witness to for months now. “This is Drake Banks.”
“You trashed my Air Jordans, bitch! I want a new pair in the mail by the end of the week.”
“You…” I drop my hand and blink, blink, blink. “What?”
“Don’twhatme, motherfucker. You’re lucky I’m censoring myself rightnow, because my baby girl is listening, and she deserves to know her father is a respectable man. White shoes. Red trim. Put a new pair in the mail, or I might be forced to settle old grudges the way we used to do it.”
“Y… you mean on the basketball court?”
From anger to bouncing laughter, he changes his mood in an instant. “Exactly. I’ve been practicing since you and I last had beef, and you’re an old man now anyway. Get me my shoes, make things right, or we’ll deal with this like men.”
“Felix—”
“And hug my brother.”
My entire body fucking jolts like I touched a live wire. “I’m sorry. What?”
“He’s prickly and mean because his feelings got hurt, and now he’s married to the prickliest and meanest, so he’s learning from the best. But if you hug him, things will get better, I promise.”
“I’m not hugging your brother, Felix! Are you high?”
“Nah, I don’t do that anymore. I’m a respectable man now. Remember?”
Doubtful.
“He’s a good person, Banks.” Finally, he settles on solemn. On serious. “He’s the best of us all, because he was the youngest beside the baby, and he was the fuckin’ bravest. He was the first to call our father out on his shit, and even when he’d get his ass kicked for it, he kept standing up for what was right.”
“I don’t…” I shake my head. “What the fuck, man?”
“He fought harder than any of the rest of us.Combined. He was achild, and he was still ready to dismantle an institution that outgunned him a million to one. He’s walking a line these days between the badge and his family, kinda like that same line you walked fifteen years ago, and it really pisses him off, ‘cos you’re an asshole and you never replaced my shoes.”
“Your shoes?” I grunt. “This is about shoes? There’s something seriously, fundamentally fucking wrong with you, Lix. I swear to God.”
“Ahhh…” He exhales a smile I remember from our youth. “You haven’t called me Lix in a long time. Felt good, huh?”
“I don’t?—”
“Hug my brother. Stop being mean to him, or I’ll take my knife and pry your eyeballs out through your fuckin’ ear holes. And send me my new shoes.”
Yep. There’s the Felix Malone I know.
“The Drake I knew back then would’ve wanted to make things right.So…” He whistles loud enough to make me jump. “Hop to it, bitch. Size elevens. In fact, buy Arch something nice, too. And Cato, since he’s a good boy and he likes shiny things as much as the next guy.”
“You want me to buy you things?” I grit out. “Despite the hundreds of millions of dollars your kingpin daddy left for you after his death?”
“Yep. Rich men stay rich cause they spendother people’smoney. Duh.”
Just like Rory did, he ends our call and leaves me hanging, but before I can collect my thoughts and think this shit through, the door bursts open at my back.
I swing around and get caught up in Archer’s harsh glare. “Get up. I’ve got it figured out.”
“Yeah, I, uh…” I cast my focus back to the screen on the wall. “I think I’ve got it, too.”
ARCHER
“This isn’t how I thought it was gonna go.” Shaking his head, Fletch folds his arms and rolls his bottom lip between his fingers while, just a few feet to his left, Officer Clay folds over a small table and stares at the laptop we’ve all been passing around for days.