Tipsy (20 page)

“
Get out,” she
demanded.

Whoa. Props to the boss
lady. She had some lady balls. I pumped a fist in the air.
You go, girl.

“
What did you just say?” he
practically growled. Little goose bumps prickled my skin at his
threatening and dangerous tone.

“
I said get. Out.
Now.”

I heard a sharp slapping sound and
Susan cry out.

Eavesdropping was one thing. Listening
to a man beat up on a woman was totally different. She wasn’t the
only one with lady balls.

Taking a deep breath, I slapped the
clipboard down on the counter and walked out of the back room, not
being subtle at all, clicking the end of my ballpoint pen as I
walked.

“
Susan,” I called like I had
no idea she was standing out here. The pair at the other end of the
salon froze, surprised, just like I knew they would be. I prepared
to act surprised too.

But I didn’t have to act.

Shock rippled through me, and it was
followed very closely by thick dread. My eyes locked with the man
who was arguing with—who just hit—my boss.

I knew him.

I had been warned to stay far, far
away.

“
Julie,” Susan said, a
little relief plain in her voice. “I didn’t realize you were still
here.”

I forced my eyes away from the man who
made my skin crawl and summoned a fake smile for Susan. “Yep. Still
here. I was doing inventory in the back.” I cleared my throat. The
man’s eyes hadn’t left me. I knew he recognized me.

After all, I’m the reason he got beat
up the night we met.

“
I didn’t realize you had
company.” My eyes slid toward the man and then away. “I can finish
up tomorrow.”

“
No need,” Susan said
quickly. “This gentleman just wanted a haircut. I explained that we
already closed for the night.”

Susan glanced at him again. “We reopen
tomorrow at ten.”

He stood there for very long, tense
moments. I could see him debating what he should do. Finally, he
gave Susan a tight smile. “I’ll come back. Tomorrow.”

Susan’s body tightened.

Dom left. The man Blue warned me
about.

He hadn’t been here for a haircut. Not
at all.

How in the world could Susan know a
drug dealer?

20

Blue

Proving myself by “stealing” the tow
truck had gotten me closer in the crew. I spent most of the day
hanging at Dom’s and smoking weed. I didn’t want to, but I saw no
way of getting out of it. Turning down some of Dom’s score would be
like waving a narc flag over my head.

I hated how relaxed the drug made me
feel. Like it took away the sharpness of my mind and dulled my
thinking. How was I supposed to stay alert and listen to all their
conversations to connect the dots if I was off in a weed-induced
la-la land?

Not to mention it made me hungry as
shit.

As soon as the sun went down and dusk
claimed the sky, Dom told the crew to hit the streets to peddle his
product. We were to hit up the regulars and try to bring in new
clients.

I was paired with Tony, one of the
crew. He was a young kid with brown hair and eyes. He seemed a
little light in the brains department, but maybe that was just
because he was high.

I said I would drive, hoping I was less
stoned than he was, and we took off in the direction of where one
of the regular buyers lived just a few blocks away. I stayed in the
car as Tony made the deal. It was a fast exchange because Tony
already had all the stuff the client wanted.

After that, we made a few more stops
and then went to a nearby movie theater to hang out in the parking
lot, where Tony said was a good place to find potential buyers. It
totally pissed me off because movie theaters were places teenagers
liked to hang out.

I made a mental note of every place we
went so I could tell Watson to double up on the force’s patrol in
those areas.

We were sitting on the hood of the
Mustang, smoking cigarettes (well, Tony was smoking; I was just
pretending like I was going to light one up) when a movie let out
and people began filing out the double doors of the
theatre.

The last time I went to a movie was in
Wilmington with Julie. My first date with her had been the best one
I ever had. I missed her. I missed her laugh and her crazy hair. I
wanted to feel her hips moving beneath me again and hear the hot
little moans that escaped her throat when I did things—sexual
things—to her body.

“
Hey, kid,” Tony said,
pulling me out of my daydream. He was speaking to a passing
teenager who looked to be about sixteen. He was following along
right on the edge of his friends, looking the way I’d been feeling
recently: on the outskirts of the group, looking in.

I had to hand it to Tony. He knew the
ones to prey on.

The kid glanced up and Tony motioned
for him to come over. “You in the market?”

“
For what?” the kid asked,
staring after his friends, who didn’t even notice he stopped
walking.

“
For a good time,” Tony
replied.

“
I don’t do drugs,” the kid
said.

“
That’s cool,” Tony said
amicably. “You just struck me as the guy who likes to stand out in
the crowd.”

The kid stopped walking and turned
back. “I am.”

I stared at the kid, silently telling
him to walk away and not get caught up in Tony’s head
games.

Tony nodded. “I figured. You seem like
the life of the party, the one everyone else knows will show them a
good time.”

“
You got something that’ll
be a good time?” the kid asked, his interest piqued.

“
Yep. Me and my friend Gray
here, we’re the life of the party. Aren’t we, Gray?” Tony looked at
me for confirmation.

In that moment, I hated my job. And I
hated myself for doing it. “You know it,” I said, holding out my
fist so he could pound it, which he did.

Tony glanced at the kid’s friends, who
were standing by a car and laughing. The blonde in the group slid a
glance in our direction. “You ask her out yet?”

The kid’s eyes widened. “She wouldn’t
go out with me.”

“
Sure she would!” Tony said.
“All you gotta do is ask her. She keeps looking at you.”

“
She does?” he asked,
looking at the girl.

Tony and I both nodded.

“
I tried to ask her out
once, but I got too nervous.”

“
Lucky for you I got
something for that.” Tony glanced around, then produced a small
plastic sack of weed. “This here is called a confidence
booster.”

I thought about ripping the drugs out
of Tony’s hand and telling the kid to run. But I didn’t.

“
Take this, give it a smoke,
and you and all your friends will be so chill that you won’t even
think twice about asking her out.”

The kid reached out and took the sack.
“How much is it?”

“
It’s free,” Tony said.
“Complimentary. Anything to help a bro out.”

“
Thanks,” the kid said with
a smile, slipping the drugs into the front pocket of his
jeans.

“
Anytime. I’ll be here next
weekend. Same time. You want more, bring some cash and I’ll hook
you up.”

The kid agreed and then he jogged away,
rejoining his friends.

Tony looked at me. “And that is how you
reel in new clients.”

“
Let’s get out of here,” I
said, feeling disgusted.

We made it out of the parking lot of
the theater and were driving across the large, almost empty mall
lot when a pair of familiar flashing lights appeared in my rearview
mirror.

“
We got company!” Tony
yelled, panic in his voice.

“
Maybe they just need by,” I
said, hopeful. The last thing I needed was some cop blowing my
cover tonight.

I pulled out of their way and waited
for them to drive by.

They didn’t.

The officer pulled up behind me and put
it in park.

As if this night hadn’t been bad
enough.

21

Julie

“
Julie?” Susan said,
bringing me out of my own head.

I blinked and glanced at her sharply.
“Yes?”

“
Would you mind closing up
the salon when you’re finished? I have an awful headache. I’d like
to go home.”

I offered her a smile. “Of course. It’s
been a long week.”

Susan smiled wearily. “Yes, it has. But
business is great so I can’t complain.”

I never thought of Susan as a fake
person. Until now. It’s like she acted and looked one way, but the
words coming out of her mouth just didn’t match. She always seemed
a little uptight (or anal, as I liked to call her), and I just
thought it was because of the responsibility of running a
successful salon… Now I wondered if perhaps there was more to
it.

“
I’m just going to finish up
in the back. Then I’ll lock up for the night.”

“
Sounds wonderful. Feel free
to use the phone on my desk to call the distributor.”

“
Great! Thanks so much. Have
a great night!” I gave her a little wave and then went into the
back room, sagging against the wall.

My thoughts went to Blue. I felt like I
needed to tell him about what I heard. What I saw. I didn’t have a
way to contact him, though. Even if I did, what would I say? I
could tell him all my suspicions. I could just relay what I knew
and let him look into it.

My mind rejected that right away. He
was already tired. He was already dealing with so much. It felt
wrong to just dump all my uncertainties in his lap and expect him
to figure it out.

What I needed was a plan.

I was good at plans.

Look how well my plan of a can of
hairspray and a razor worked out. If that had been an actual
burglar, I would have totally gotten away.

Evidence would be good too.

Something that he could use against
Dom.

I picked up my cup of abandoned coffee
and took a sip while I thought. My nose wrinkled and I looked down
at the liquid. It was cold.

Ew.

Carrying the mug over to the microwave,
I stuck it in and hit a few buttons, then stood waiting for it to
heat up.

Dom said he wanted to see the product.
Something told me he wasn’t talking about hair product. He also
said something about his business and Susan turning on
him.

I knew from Blue that Dom’s business
was drugs.

It seemed almost asinine that Susan was
involved in the drug business. It was the mention of another person
that made me not completely reject the idea. She accused Dom of
killing someone, someone who clearly meant a lot to her.

Maybe I wasn’t the only person who got
tipsy on a man. Maybe Susan was in love with someone who worked for
Dom. Maybe that guy dragged her into his mess.

Wait.

Rewind that.

Did I just say
love?

Yeah, I had been talking about Susan,
but the implication was that she was like me. That I was like
her.

I was confusing myself.

Point is I kind of implied that I was
in love with Blue.

Was I?

In lust? Heck yes. Had feelings for
him? Absolutely. In love? It was too soon for the
L-word.

Right?

The microwave dinged and I welcomed the
distraction. Thinking about my feelings for Blue wasn’t going to
help him with this case. I could think about that later.

I sipped the newly warmed coffee.
Ahhhh. It was good.

So.
If
Susan was somehow involved with Dom
and
if
he had come
here to check up on his product… that product had to be
drugs.

Susan was keeping drugs in this
salon.

But where?

My eyes went directly to the door in
the room. The room that supposedly held the water heater and
electrical stuff.

But what if there was more?

I peeked back out into the salon at
Susan’s office. The light was off and the rest of the salon was
empty.

It was a good time to be
sneaky.

I went straight for the door and turned
the handle, giving it a good yank.

It was locked.

Interesting.

“
If I were a key, where
would I be?” I asked myself, looking around the room for a spare
key. I searched through all the drawers, looked under the sink,
behind the fridge, and around the doorframe.

It was nowhere to be found.

I wasn’t going to be deterred. I strode
out to my station and dug around for a bobby pin. Hey, if MacGyver
could build bombs with some duct tape and a tube of toothpaste,
then I sure as hell could pick a lock with a bobby pin.