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“What’s your fucking deal?”
“When’s the last time you saw Crystal?”
“I don’t fucking know.” He looked away, glaring at the corner where a speckling of black fuzz was growing up the side of the wall. That was new andnotgood.
I silently reminded myself to check Bri’s room before I left and somehow resisted the urge to fucking slap him again. “Why didn’t you call me, you idiot?”
“Fuck off, Marek! You don’t get to swing by every couple of weeks and pretend like you fucking care.”
“Pretend?!” I fisted both hands in his shirt and hauled him to his feet so we were nose-to-nose. “Listen to me, you little shit. I bust my ass for the three of you! And then I come here and find you smoking weed? When’s the last time those kids ate? Hmm? Where’s the money I gave you? Did you feed them with it or fucking smoke it?”
“It’s just weed, man. Calm down!”
“Weed this week. X next week. A little coke. A little heroin, just to take the edge off. Then fucking fentanyl and bam!” I slammed him into the mattress. “You’re dead, just like Levi!”
“Fuck you, you hypocrite! You deal the shit!”
“I don’t give a rat’s ass about the people who buy from me! God knows why, but Idocare about you. Now clean this shit up and come downstairs. Try and act like a big brother for once.” I shoved away from him and stormed out of the room.
It only took two steps to get to Bri’s “room.” In reality, it was hardly more than a closet with barely enough space for a twin mattress and a small dresser. Her only sources of light were the single window and a bare bulb dangling overhead. I edged along the side of her bed and checked the wall that divided her room from the boys’. A black spot, about the size of a nickel, was more or less on the opposite side of where I saw the mold in the boys’ room. One room wasn’t enough—it was in the fucking walls.
“Goddamn it,” I seethed, closing my eyes and running a hand over my face. I had no idea how much mold remediation cost but I could take a wild guess. Easily a couple hundred, if not thousands,plusthe remodeling that would have to come after they were done. Until then, Axel would have to get off his ass and bleach the shit to stay on top of it before they all got some kind of lung infection.
Shaking off my fury, I headed downstairs and forced myself to smile before stepping into the kitchen to face the little ones. “You guys hungry?”
“Yeah!” Ezra jumped up and punched the air.
Brianna glanced behind me warily. “Is Axel coming down?”
I touched her cheek and moved past her, grabbing a loaf of bread from the counter. As I could have predicted, it was stale, but at least bugs didn’t come crawling out of it. Closing my eyes for a minute to dispel the memory, I took out a large, chipped casserole dish and started ripping the bread into chunks.
“What are you making?” Brianna asked, stepping up next to me, watching my every move. Sad to say, in her short life she’d become quite the cook. Not that she should have to worry about shit like that at twelve fucking years old. She shouldn’t have to deal withanyof it, but I could only do so much from a distance.
“Breakfast casserole,” I replied, trying to keep the bitterness out of my voice.
“It’s dinner time,” Axel said as he stomped into the kitchen.
“Then don’t eat it!” I tossed over my shoulder.
Brianna elbowed me and I shot her an apologetic look. “I’ll get the eggs,” she said.
“Before I forget,” I mumbled, digging through my pocket for a wad of cash. I chucked it at Axel’s face. Asshole. “Keep it away fromher.”
He caught it with a glare, then proceeded to thumb through the edges. “This is like, half, of what you usually have. Less than half.” For all his fucking attitude, awareness finally registered in his dark eyes as he looked up.
“It’s been slow. Work should pick up again soon.” In the meantime, he was lucky to get that much. I was out of product, which meant I wasn’t dealing because I couldn’t afford to buy more. Sometimes I wished we operated under the old system, where your supplier gave you the shit for free and you’d pay him after the fact, not the “pay for it upfront” approach they were using for Nirvana, the latest and greatest version of Ecstasy that had become my bread and butter since it launched.
I had applications in at a couple of the nicer bars and restaurants in Chicago but no one seemed to have any openings, so I took a shitty job at a rundown bar, working under the table while I waited for one of the other places to call. Which left my clients as the main revenue stream… and sinceIdidn’t make their schedules, I was at the mercy of their dicks and whenever horniness struck. It didn’t help that Ken had scared off most of my steadier clients, like the asshole that he was, so I was basically starting from the bottom up again.
Axel nodded mutely and tucked the money in his pocket.
Brianna and I whipped up the rest of the casserole from the meager ingredients in the kitchen. At the end of the day, it didn’t have to be gourmet, it just had to be hot and keep their stomachs full, at least until they made it back to school and the lunches waiting for them there.
“Let that bake for an hour,” I said to Brianna, kissing the top of her head.
“You’re not staying?” she asked, eyes widening. “You just got here!”
“I got somewhere I need to be.” I leaned down and kissed Ezra’s head too.
