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“Where’d you even get all the drugs anyway?”
“China.”
“Right. Specific.”
I spread my heads. “I can’t tell you all my secrets yet, even if we are going into business together. Now, show me the back room.”
She made a face and turned. I followed her through the door, down a short hall, past a bathroom and a supply closet, and into the back. She flipped on a light. It was a wide room with several tables and racks of shirts piled high. A small desk sat shoved against the far wall with a computer monitor and a pile of files and folders. I imagined her brother sitting right in that spot, slumped over and dead.
“Not much to see. Computer has all our accounting and stuff. This is where we keep excess stock and pack and ship online orders.” She gestured at a pile of boxes and labels. “A lot of our orders come online. Right now, we’re at fifty-fifty, online and in store, but I’d like to sell more online soon.”
I nodded and looked around. “Makes sense. You set up the online portal?”
“Yeah, I did.”
“Good. That might be useful. Could be an easy way to take orders.”
She made a face. “That’s a terrible idea. You want to pay taxes on your drugs?”
“Yes, actually. That’s a problem with drug money. It’s not legit if you can’t pay taxes on it. So you can’t spend it without raising eyebrows. The IRS and the Feds pay attention to shit like that. But if sales came in through your online store, say, for a t-shirt that doesn’t exist, we could pay taxes on that money and make it legitimate. That’s called laundering.”
“Thank you for the lesson on how to be a drug dealer. I really appreciate it.”
I beamed at her. “You’d better learn, because that’s what you are now.”
She threw up her hands. “I don’t understand this at all. Why me? Why this store?”
I put my hand on a t-shirt rack and pushed against it. The whole thing wobbled a bit, but not too much. I could already see the place would need some improvements. Her brother was a waste of a man.
“This store gets enough street traffic that it wouldn’t be unusual if it bumped up by a small percentage. And your brother was in my pocket. It’s simple, really. You’re convenient.”
She made a face and paced toward the back door. I watched her, curious about how she’d take it. But she turned and paced back toward me.
“So I do this for a while. I sell all your pills. Then what.”
“Like I told you. Then you choose if you want to stay and continue running the store and selling for me, or you walk away. Maybe if you do well, you walk away with a financial bonus.”
“You’ll really just let me leave? Even though I know so much about you and your operation?”
I chuckled and felt a strange stab of pride. The girl was smarter than I gave her credit for.
“Seems stupid, doesn’t it?”
“Seems like you’d never really let me leave.”
“Here’s the thing, little diamond. For most men, that would be true. Most men would kill you before they let you walk. But I’m not most men.”
“Somehow, I don’t believe you.”
I shrugged. “Believe what you want. I’ll say this though, I think that after we’re through, you won’t want to walk. And if you do, then you won’t want to turn me in. Because you’ll know me by then, and you’ll know that I’ll find you and cut your throat and murder your mother and make sure your life was a living hell, at least for your last moments.”
She glared at me but I saw that glimmer of fear again.
I hated threatening her. It wasn’t elegant and it wasn’t my style. But she had to understand that this wasn’t some kind of game I was playing. A lot depended on me, all my guys looked to me for leadership, and nothing was going to get in my way.
The crew was growing and we were going to take over the city. I had my role to play, and I wasn’t going to let Hedeon or anyone else down.
“Whatever,” she said finally, but she sounded uncertain.
“For today, you’re going to work. Normal day, like any other.”
Her eyes widened. “Really?”
“Really. All alone, too. I don’t think you need a leash when you know what the consequences of running away would be.”
She took a breath. “So I just sell shirts like usual?”
“Sure. Ship your online orders. Do whatever you need to do. I’ll check on you later.”
“This is another test, isn’t it?”
I tilted my head. “What makes you think that?”
“Because you’re weird. And you’re smiling.”
I laughed. Damn it, I couldn’t help myself.
“Just sell your shirts, my little diamond. I’ll be back later to pick you up.”
She said nothing as I turned and left her store.
