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Hank made a few calls.
Then he ate.
“I don’t want them to be mad at me,” I said after we finished.
“Who?” he asked.
“The people who…well, I think they’re kinda my friends and in a way doing this for me. I think they’re good people doing bad things.”
“It’s simple. A bad thing is a bad thing, no matter who does it or why. And homicide is the worst thing there is.”
He was right. Though I figured forcing a girl to live in fear of being raped was pretty high up there.
“Jet,” Hank called and I looked at him. “Fratelli has one true friend right now and that’s you. Marcus isn’t happy because not only is Daisy pissed at him, Vince is making him look bad. Eddie and Lee are gonna spend the meeting trying to talk Marcus out of giving the same order you heard today. Marcus is gonna pretend to play the game, because if he doesn’t, Eddie’ll be all over him. He’s just looking for an excuse. But Marcus is gonna make the order anyway. It’s the only way to send the message. Vince is in a load of hurt, with both Darius and Marcus ordering the kill. You keep Eddie, or me, informed of this shit when you hear it, maybe we can stop it before it happens.”
I nodded.
He watched me.
“You don’t look happy,” he noted.
“I think I betrayed a friend,” I whispered.
Hank caught my hand on the table and tugged at it. I came forward and so did he, but he didn’t let go of my hand.
“Eddie tell you about Darius?” he asked.
I nodded.
Hank continued, “I’ve known both Darius and Shirleen what seems my whole life. Darius came from a good family, but Shirleen married badly. Her husband, Leon, was a sonovabitch. Mean as hell and dirty as they come. He’s the one that turned Darius. Shirleen was a different Shirleen back then, beaten down and powerless. She couldn’t control what happened to Darius and Leon had long since tied her up in that shit as well. Leon was whacked two years ago and Shirleen and Darius assumed their positions when the king was dead. They did it because it’s all they know and the only place they feel safe. They got a different set of rules, but it’s the wrong set.”
I swallowed and his hand squeezed mine.
“Jet, it’s the wrong set,” Hank reiterated. “You did the right thing. I like both of them and I’d hate to see either of them go down, but if they did, they’d deserve it.”
I moved forward a bit more and asked, “How do you live this life all the time? They’re your friends. How do you do it? I couldn’t stand it.”
His eyes changed and his hand tightened even more on mine. “I can do it because their shit doesn’t stay in their circle. It filters down to kids in schools and old people wanting quiet lives forced to live next to crack houses and pretty girls who work in bookstores who have shitheel fathers. Someone has to protect those people.”
“That’s you,” I said.
“That’s me and that’s Eddie,” he replied.
“You don’t see gray,” I told him.
His hand let go of mine. “Sorry?”
“You see black and white, you don’t see gray,” I said.
“No. I don’t see gray. It’s not my job. It’s the judge’s job to see gray.” He said it and he meant it. I could tell because his face went hard and kinda scary.
I stared at him. He was the boy next door. The boy next door with an edge.
“You’re scary too,” I told him.
He grinned, taking us out of the moment. “I’m the good guy.”
“You’re the scary good guy,” I amended.
