I finish my drink and head outside. It’s a decent day and the sun feels good on my face. I make a call, let it ring, and Ansell answers right before it goes to voicemail. “My former best friend,” he says with that odd affectless drone.
“Ansell. How are things?”
“Busy. Drake’s been going through some changes. House is coming along. Marie’s happy, which is good. How’s Blair?”
“Doing fine. I’m actually calling about her.” I hesitate, not sure how much to tell him, and decide to stick to the bare minimum. “Listen, do you still have those contacts on the seedier side of town?”
That’s our slang formobsters.
Ansell Drake was my boss at Drake Entertainment and remains my best friend in the world. He’s a hard man to get close with, but once you see beyond the ice-cold exterior, there’s a decent person buried beneath all his pain and trauma. He had a hard upbringing and came by his money honestly, and he still retains some connections to his more troubled youth.
Connections I’d like to exploit.
“I know people and some of them owe me favors. What’s Blair into?”
“Nothing really. It’s actually Cowan. I wanted you to put the word out, that Cowan can’t be a customer. Not for a while at least.”
He’s quiet for a moment. “What did he do?”
“Just put out the word for me.”
“I can do it, but I don’t know if anyone will listen. Tony Cowan has his own star power.”
“The guy’s got to be clear for a while. No fucking drugs.”
“I’ll do what I can. Is everything okay, Baptist? Should I be worried?”
“Do you ever worry? No, don’t answer, we’re fine.”
“I’ll see what I can do then.”
He hangs up and I shove my phone away, feeling guilty. I shouldn’t have called in a favor from Ansell like that. I walked away from Drake Entertainment to start on my own because I wanted to get away from his extremely long shadow, and yet now I find myself needing his help all over again on top of taking his money as an early seed investment.
It’s far from ideal, but I can’t have Cowan getting himself killed by mobsters or dragging Blair into danger again because he got himself hooked on fucking crack or fentanyl or whatever else is popular on the streets these days.
I shoot a quick text to Blair.I’ll have the paperwork ready. We’re nailing him down ASAP.
She answers right away.Great, now leave me alone. I have a date with my bubble bath.
Chapter6
Blair
Ipark outside of Cowan’s house and kill the engine. Beside me, Baptist is unusually subdued, even for an early Monday morning.
It’s been a week since I went to pay off Cowan’s drug debt. In that time, I had my first visit with an OB, and while it felt good to talk to an actual doctor about what’s going to happen throughout the pregnancy and what my options are, I’m still lightyears away from knowing what the hell I’m going to do.
The not-knowing is killing me. And the man that should know about all this—the man thatneedsto know about all this—it sitting beside me in this car, my business partner, my nightmare, and the only person that might potentially understand what I’m going through.
I still can’t find the strength to open my mouth.
“It’s quiet,” Baptist comments as we sit there staring at the door.
“I think that’s a good thing. No shotgun blasts.”
“His lawyers were too easy.” He frowns and leans forward. “Did you notice that?”
I hadn’t noticed, but now that he says it— “They didn’t ask for any revisions.”