“No, I’m not,” I laughed. “I want it all illegal!” For fuck’s sake, that was our bread and butter.
“You know that’s not what I meant,” he grated out.
I shrugged and dug out my shades. It was time to sit back, relax, and push play on my Spain playlist. “For the record, I haven’t taken squat in weeks. I’m hardly a regular user.”
He opened his mouth to answer, only to close it and concentrate on traffic for a few seconds. This region was all desert, mountain ranges, and coastal cities. Once we got out of Alicante, it would be smooth sailing until we reached Benidorm.
“Could you be more specific on regular?” he requested.
I shimmied my hips to the music and reluctantly lowered the volume a little. “I have some hectic periods where I use coke to stay alert. Nothing weird. Then I can go several months before the next period. I don’t have a problem, if that’s what you think.”
“I’m not saying you do—I’m just…worried.”
I shifted in my seat and pulled up a foot to rest it over my knee, and I had to ask. “Have you never done coke? Ever?”
“A few times,” he admitted begrudgingly. “When I was young. I wasn’t a fan of how it affected me.”
So that was, what, twenty years ago? A lot had changed since then. “The coke we put on the market is good. Pure—but short-lasting.” Because we wanted customers to come back fast. “It hits within minutes, not like the shit they cut with fentanyl and fucking caffeine powder—”
“Good Christ, you know too much about that,” he muttered.
“Knowledge is king, baby,” I teased. “And when you know a lot about coke, you can use it to enhance your performance. Like when work is rough.”
He shook his head. “That’s how it starts. It’s just a party, it’s just to stay awake, it’s just to get up in the morning, it’s just to get through the day.”
Jeez.
He reminded me of the teachers at Catholic school now.
“I’ve seen it my whole life, son,” he went on. “Especially in our syndicate. Young men who work too much—they party and do drugs to let off some steam. Before you know it, there’s a mistress on the side, the addiction gets out of hand, the family gets torn apart.”
I knew what he was talking about. I’d grown up alongside it too. I saw it every day, though not as much as I used to. Society had changed a lot. The old crew bosses had run their armies of street-corner hustlers, whereas their children who’d taken over today sold most of their drugs online. Views on marriage and family had evolved too, not necessarily for the better all the time, but a mistress was hardly a standard anymore.
Shan cleared his throat and checked the rearview. “Vivian thinks Thomas is having an affair.”
“Okay.” I scratched my head.
“Is he?”
“Shan, you know me better than that.”
“I know that you get things done for our members,” he replied. “I know you’re Finn’s eyes and ears on the ground.”
“You also know loose lips sink ships. Every part of me is tight as fuck. Keep that in mind.”
He didn’t say anything else on the matter.
Staying awake in order to beat the jet lag and sleep all night instead was proving to be a giant challenge. A shower didn’t help. But at least I got to see Shan’s reaction to my skimpy swimwear. I hadn’t been bullshitting about the Speedo. I wore what competitive swimmers wore, and now I had the memory of Shannon being caught off guard and abruptly averting his gaze because of it.
The rooftop pool was for adults only, so we made our way up there and rented a king-size sun bed under an open cabana, including bottle service and snacks. I was feeling snackish as shit, partly because of the hunk traveling with me. I was ready to eat him up.
He didn’t need Speedos to look indecent. Khaki-colored trunks worked just fine.
“I’m still blown away by how this town has changed.” He looked out over the stretch of city between us and the sea.
“Yeah, it’s not a quaint fishing village anymore.”
He huffed. “Quaint fishing village. I’ll have you know Benidorm was party central back in the nineties too. It just didn’t look like Europe’s own miniature Dubai.”
Solid description. There were junior skyscrapers all over town, and many lit up in neon colors at night.
“Where’s Luna’s condo?” he asked.
I threw myself onto the cushy mattress and let out a long groan of pleasure. Holy fuck, it would be easy to fall asleep here. The billowy white drapes provided shelter from the scorching sun above, and the breeze fifteen floors up was actually worth writing home about.
“Old part of town.” I gestured in some direction, not really caring if it was accurate. “Come lie down, Shan. We’re in Spain. The weather’s perfect, we don’t have work, and there’re no kids around.”