AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He turned to Vincent and said, “I agreed to do this because it is your mother’s wish that I do. However, I will not share meals with you and act as if we are friends. I will give you this money, and you will pay it back as we agreed. We will have no other dealings in between, unless you miss a payment.”
“But Papa, we’re not friends, nor are we associates. We’re family. I was looking forward to dinner with you and Mama.” Vincent almost pouted as he said it, making Gil sicker in his stomach than he already was.
“You may call your mother and speak to her about sharing a meal. If that’s what she desires, then so be it. Our business dealings, however, will not involve her. Your mother is untouched by this business, and she will remain so. I hope we understand each other.”
“Of course, Papa. We are in complete comprehension,” Vincent confirmed begrudgingly. “I’ll call Mama this week.”
Gil shook his head again.Moron.
“Now, the business that we discussed is in the trunk of my car outside. I’ll expect your payments weekly and on time. You know the cost of interest, and I’m sure you’re well aware of the cost of missing a payment. If I may make only one minor suggestion, and then I’ll leave you to your business?”
“Of course, Papa,” Vincent said again.
“Get some men with balls to guard you and your business dealings. At least if there is the threat of having them removed, they won’t let just anyone walk up to your door.”
Corpus Christi, Texas
DEA Field Office
Late Monday Morning
Corbett Lindstrom satin his car outside the office. He had to go inside in a few minutes. Special Agent in Charge Gomez was back in town and had called a meeting with the six agents that worked out of the Corpus Christi office. Corbett had sat on the tape he had all weekend, unsure of how to best handle it. He still hadn’t come to a conclusion that he was happy with. He pressed play on the little recorder, listening to Barry’s voice again.
“Alright, man. I heard the DEA snitch’s first name a few days ago. It’s Samuel.”
Corbett clicked it off again. Sam wasn’t a bad guy; he couldn’t be. Corbett kept telling himself that, but he couldn’t deny what Barry, a snitch himself, had told him. If it wasn’t true, where would Barry have even come up with the name? The boy dealt only with Corbett, and he had never been to the field office or met any of the other agents. Maybe there was another explanation. Maybe they were forcing Sam to work with them somehow. Corbett just couldn’t wrap his head around the possibility that Sam had been drawn over to the dark side by nothing other than the lure of the almighty dollar.
Corbett jumped at a knock on his window. He looked up into Sam’s smiling face.
“Hey buddy,” he said as Corbett rolled down the window. “Are you okay? Looks a little intense in there.”
Corbett swallowed all of the questions he had for now and said, “Yeah, things are great. I was just listening to a song that reminds me of the ex.” He got out of the car. “Speaking of better halves, how’s yours?”
Sam laughed. “I met your ex, remember? I don’t know if I’d include her in a conversation about better halves.”
Corbett laughed too and said, “Touché. So how is Tammy, a real ‘better half?’”
“She’s Tammy,” Sam said. There was something in his voice that Corbett couldn’t quite put his finger on. “She’s pretty and perky and she likes to spend my money. She’s thinking of buying a new set of tits.”
Corbett suddenly got a sense of where Sam’s tone was coming from. It sounded like he and Tammy might be having some disagreements over how to invest their money.
Ignoring the reference to Sam’s wife’s tits, Corbett said, “And the baby’s good?” Sam and Tammy had a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter. She was as pretty as her mama, and last time Corbett had seen her and Sam together, he could tell that she had her daddy wrapped around her little finger.
“My Cameo is an angel,” Sam told him, resting his hand over his heart as he said it. “She’s the best thing that ever happened to this old cowboy, that’s for sure. I got some new pictures I’ll show you after the meeting.”
They walked into the office together. Special Agent in Charge Gomez, Supervising Special Agent Lewis, Agents Hill and Freeman, and the newest agent of the group, a guy named Neil Wyatt, were all there. Corbett got a cup of coffee, and Sam grabbed one of the cookies off of Sue, the receptionist’s, desk. He winked at her and she turned the color of scarlet, just as she always did when Sam was around. One of the things Corbett had considered when he’d been trying to figure out why Sam might need money was an affair. He looked at Sue now. The way she looked at Sam was with pure, unadulterated love. Corbett didn’t believe on any level, however, that Sam was sleeping with her. For one thing, Sue was nearly seventy years old. She’d been around longer than most of the guys in the agency put together, and from what Corbett could tell, in spite of her crush on the much younger “Sammy” as she called him, Sue was still very much in love with Louie, her husband of almost fifty years.
“Are y’all ready to get down to business?” Gomez asked.
They all said, “Yes,” or nodded their assent.
“Okay, then, I have news about the cocaine racket that was broken up very recently, thanks to a lot of your hard work. I’m hearing from good, reliable sources that most of the men involved who weren’t scooped up by our team have scattered, relocating back to Mexico in some instances. The one they call ‘The Boss,’ or as we all know him now, Vincent Heston, has not given up on the Lone Star State. No one that I’m talking to can or will tell me where he’s holed up, but until we have this guy, we’re not done with this. I have a bad feeling that, as we speak, he’s rebuilding.”
Sam waited until Gomez was done speaking and said, “Sir, can I ask who it is that you’re getting this information from?”
Gomez looked at Sam a bit strangely. The fact that it was an unusual question for a field agent to ask a supervisor was not lost on Corbett either.
Gomez answered him, kind of, by saying, “Lewis and I have an informant or two that we’ve been cultivating for a few years, as I’m sure all of you do as well.”
