Page 47 of Wintering with George

“I don’t get them,” I told Chris.

“I think the takeaway should be: don’t piss off Jing.”

I would remember not to do that.

“What about the money Brad owes Vladek?”

“It’s, like, a hundred grand or some shit. I donate more than that a year to the dog shelters here in Barcelona.”

“A hundred grand?”

“Yeah. I know. The fuck was Vladek sweating him for that small-ass amount?”

“You know, to a lot of people, like me for instance, that’s a lot of money.”

He grunted like whatever I thought was meaningless.

“Do you think there was something else Vladek wanted?”

“Oh, I know it. According to Jared, from the records Jing saw, Vladek needed your brother-in-law to help him launder money. He could have appeared to go legitimate through Brad’s businesses.”

“Then I don’t get sweating the money or putting a contract on his family or any of this. What was the point if he needed Brad all along?”

“It happens. I’ve seen it a million times. Guys get worked up about some insignificant amount of whatever it is—a shipment of guns, a delivery of drugs, or like this, money. If they don’t get paid when they’re supposed to, precisely on time, they lose their fuckin’ minds instead of being smart about it. When Brad didn’t have the money, Vladek should have told him that now the two of them were in business. He could have blackmailed Brad with the loan. But no, he loses his shit because he didn’t get it back. And maybe he had the money earmarked for something else and needed it, but still. Vladek was really fuckin’ stupid.”

“That was a bad business decision.”

“Yeah, it was,” Chris agreed. “You can’t ever make things personal. You have to keep your eye on the prize.”

I was quiet for a moment.

“What?”

“It’s Christmas, and we’re talking about killing people.”

He sighed deeply. “Listen, Christmas is about family, kid. However you choose to take care of the people you love is a personal decision. I made my bed years ago, and I have zero regrets. My hope for you is that you will feel the same someday.”

I was suddenly choked up, sharing this moment with my friend.

“You there?”

“Yeah. I’m here.”

“Okay.” His voice was husky and a bit gravelly. “Listen, they’re safe. You can all go home tomorrow, all right?”

“Thank you. And thank Isaak and Jing for me, will you?”

“I’ll tell Jared to thank Jing, but let’s not involve ourselves any further with Isaak, yeah? I’d hate to be killed because we annoyed him.”

“Sure, Chris.” Best to let it go.

“I’ll talk to ya. Feliz Navidad, kid,” he said and hung up.

Letting my head fall back on the couch, I was surprised when there were fingers raking through my hair.

“Are you coming up to bed?” Kurt asked, then came around the couch and sat down beside me.

“Yeah. I was just checking with Chris, and he says we’re good. We can go back to the house. It’s all over.”