“Moses!” Coast hissed at him across the table.
“Come on, Roni.” Gill relaxed her arms at her side and nudged her.
There wasn’t anything else either of them could say. The fight in the room left with them as they strolled to the exit together. Coast studied her husband across the table, dipping his tortilla chip in the house queso.
“What?” he asked, frowning in confusion.
“You are something else.”
“This coming from the same muhfucka who wanted me to shoot all of them a few months ago.” Mozzi shook his head.
Coast stared after Roni and Gill, picking up her drink off the table so she could sip it. Someone at the front counter caught her attention. He was trying not to stick out, but the hoodie over his head only drew her attention to him. Mozzi noticed when she froze.
“What’s wrong?”
At first, she didn’t answer, so he followed her eyes to the counter. Tall, dark hoodie, and paranoid eyes bounced around the restaurant. He tried to keep his back to the crowd, but she recognized him even from the side profile.
“Him,” Coast whispered.
“Who?” Mozzi squinted and watched as Coast’s breathing changed.
Something had her shook as she lowered her cup to the table.
“Dude at the counter.”
“What about him?”
“That’s Justin. The dude who was with Ayla the night she disappeared,” she volunteered.
“Are you sure?” Mozzi fished his cell from his pocket and aimed his camera so he could snap a photo.
Coast’s eyes never budged. He nervously tapped his hand on the counter, waiting for his order to arrive. Obviously antsy, he surveyed the restaurant the entire time.
“I’m positive. I’ve seen him one other time when we were out grocery shopping. That’s definitely him.” Finally, Justin’s food was served to him in a paper bag, and he grabbed it to go.
“Stay right here.” Mozzi eased out of the booth and shuffled to the door behind Justin.
Remaining casual, not wanting to draw too much attention, Mozzi followed him out. Justin skipped across the street to the parking lot, slid into a black Impala, and started it. The engine revved twice before he sped off the lot. The moment he hit the corner, Mozzi snapped a photo of the license plate. Already typing a message on his phone to send to his boy, Clue, he returned to the table with Coast.
“You ready to go?” he asked.
He could pull all the info himself, but since he wasn’t home, he put Clue on it so they could get the info they needed asap. He instructed him that he wanted everything he could find on this motherfucker. Bank records, addresses, his family, work, school. Anything so he could track this nigga and get answers. For months, Mira had been in the wind, and he knew Kong was turning over every leaf he could to track her. He was coming up empty every time. This was the first solid lead they’d had in months.
“Yeah, what are you going to do?”
“Find this nigga and see what he knows and how we can find Mira. He’s one stupid ass muhfucka to bring his ass back around here after what happened.”
“Maybe he wanted to be seen. How do we know he’s not setting us up?” Coast queried.
“Only one way to find that out,” Mozzi voiced, slipping his phone into his pants pocket. “I need to slide by Pops’ house and talk to Kong. You ready to head home?”
“No, I’m definitely coming. I’m calling Inari too.” Coast picked up her cell off the table to hit her girl.
“Trouble, I need you to fall back on that, at least for now.”
“She deserves to know,” she argued.
“And she will, when the time is right. When we have more information to give her. She’s already been through enough.”
