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ChapterSeven
DIEGO
RoadSide is now run by O’Grady, the head of the Lowlanders who keep to themselves back in Dallas.
They’re territorial, and they’re a loose knit group, especially all the smaller players. The ones at the top and at the bottom are two different beasts. I want to find out how connected they are.
I do find it interesting that I learned today O’Grady bought RoadSide. It isn’t Lowlander. It’s not even advertised or known who owns it.
The number of palms I greased, promises I made and one or two threats handed out got me that information.
That some Irish guy by the name of O’Grady bought it.
And I’m very much interested as to why.
According to a guy I dealt with today, a greedy little bastard who’d sell his first born half price, who’s done some odd jobs in Dallas and surrounding areas for the Lowlanders, said fucking O’Grady’s in town.
He’s not here tonight, and I don’t hear any Irish accents behind the bar. In fact, I’m sure most of them worked here ten years ago.
Maybe he’s just expanding legit territories. Maybe he’s got some other business going, or it’s a meeting of both, but again, no such thing as circumstance.
Some guy started up a conversation with Nadia, and while I kind of want to rearrange his features a little, it’s not my place, and he’s being respectful. He’s not hitting on her. They’re talking about school, his kid, and the program she started, and I tune out.
It gives me fucking time to think.
O’Grady likes bars. He operates from one when he’s in Dallas, but he has them, as far as I know, all over. Like an investment. So, as I say, no idea if he’s expanding or it’s something else, but for a man who stays in the shadows and operates out of Ireland, he’s sure as fuck in this part of the world being hands-on. More than usually reaches my ears.
One of our jobs as enforcers is to do that. Listen and keep note of unusual rhythms in our world. And that’s what I’m doing and this one’s taken an unusual tempo on.
The other thing we keep an eye on is criminal types. Those for hire. Not gang members, but the hardened type who can slip in and out of the worlds. That is unless you know what you’re looking for.
I do.
Unless this is like some kind of stop-over spot or there’s a fucking weird ass convention in town, there are more than is usual for even this town.
The beauty here is no land is carved by organized crime so a De Luca can go anywhere. I intend to use the fuck out of that and find out all I can.
If her nephew, who’s a punk but just a kid, is involved with a hardened gang, I need to get him out before it’s too late. And if that gang’s involved with the missing girls, then the trouble’s really deep.
Hell, I can even talk to O’Grady if I happen to run into him. This isn’t Dallas. I’ve got freedom here.
But I do need to be careful. I don’t want to stir a hornet’s nest unnecessarily and bring heat down on the De Lucas. That kind of heat can flare to a war. It could, especially if what Nicolo found when saving Avah is connected to something way deeper, it just might.
Nadia’s still chatting to the guy, and he doesn’t strike me as the kind to make a move, wedding ring or no, so I excuse myself to get some more drinks.
At the bar, I listen to the conversations around me. Most are boring as fuck. Hook ups, tits, the brag about last night’s hot babe one night stand, the usual shit for places like this. It really hasn’t changed.
The two criminal types smoothly switch what they’re talking about to real estate of all things. They must think I’m a cop or what I am, potential trouble of the dark side of the law. But even without then giving anything away, which could be about a job they’re doing, they’ve just told me they’re professionals. Only professionals guard themselves so well and easily.
I take a sip of my beer, turning to see Nadia. She’s chatting to someone else, and I don’t like the look of him. I’m about to go when two guys come up to order.
“I’m just saying,” says one. “It was better before they came here. Businesses were safe, and at least if kids got caught up in shit it wasn’t hard drugs and stuff.”
“Dude, you live in the clouds if you don’t think kids are on anything and everything.”
“The good kids, bro, the good ones.”
Ahead, Nadia moves back, and the guy moves forward so I cut my eavesdropping short and go over.
