Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 117408 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117408 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Drug dealers, pimps, thieves, gangsters. They all frequented the Graveyard.
And now Jonah and I were entering it.
My blood was pumping, and my pulse was quickening. It felt a little like entering into an active war zone. I could feel eyes on me, even though I saw no one.
It was a good thing we had the time in my office to prepare. I hated going into any situation feeling unprepared, especially when that situation could quickly turn into life or death.
This was serious. All of our warm smiles and flirtatious jokes had vanished, and in their place was a sharply focused determination to get in, get what we came for, and get out.
The only sound was the crunch of rocks underneath our shoes, which echoed around the abandoned warehouses, amplifying the sound.
We were supposed to meet at “Osiris,” which I knew had to have been code for the big graffiti mural of a pyramid. It covered the entire rusted facade of the central-most warehouse, its massive barnyard-like doors permanently opened as though the looming structure were shouting out into the void.
Maybe it was shouting at us: Turn around!
We stopped in front of the towering pyramid. The shadow of the warehouse covered the entire area, the sun sitting behind the dead structure’s crown.
“This is the place, right?” Jonah asked.
“Should be.”
We moved to the side, getting closer to the warehouse, feeling less exposed. I checked my watch and saw it was already five minutes past our set meeting time. There was no Dank69 in sight. Were we being stood up by our drug dealer?
“You two looking for Dank?”
The voice caught us by surprise. A thin man walked from out of the warehouse’s gaping maw, his head shaved bald, his eyes set deep and dark. There was a thin scar that crossed his upper lip and traveled down across his cheek. His clothes were baggy and immediately made me uncomfortable.
A lot could be hidden underneath the folds of baggy jeans.
“You Dank69?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“Sure am.” He stopped a few feet away from us. It was close enough for me to smell how badly the man needed a shower.
The guy was shifty. His eyes were small and beaded, and his black sweater, stained with who knew what, smelled like methane and rust. Chemicals. It mixed with the strong body odor wafting off him, making my head spin.
I was on high alert, not only for myself but for Jonah. I was clicking back into military mode, when it was just me and my squadmates. Five soldiers, all of our lives feeling linked as we fought the odds. Back then, all I had stopping me from crossing the thin border between life and death were the guys in my squad, each of us watching a back, everyone responsible for the other.
That’s how I felt about Jonah. If there were bullets flying, I knew in which direction I’d be going.
“So you two want some Dragon? Neither of you are cops, right?”
“No,” Jonah answered, tone steady. “To both of those questions. We’re here because we want to get in the business. We want to get on the ground floor of this thing before it blows up.”
Dank narrowed those already tiny eyes. “Entrepreneurs, eh? Want a third jumping in?”
“It’s a strictly two-person operation.” I didn’t want this to last longer than necessary. I had to cut to the center of it. “So, who’s your supplier? How can we get our hands on this drug?”
“All right, so let me get this straight.” Dank sucked on his yellow teeth, the incisors as sharp as a canine’s. “You want me to give you information that can one, get me killed, or two, Get me pushed out of my little corner of this drug world. That sound about right?”
And there went our chances of getting any useful information. How had I not planned for the fact that we had zero leverage? Did I think Dank would help us out of the kindness of his drug-dealing heart?
Rookie fucking mistake, and now I had put Jonah in danger because of it.
Then Jonah spoke, confident and firm. “Listen, we can help you in other ways.”
I wasn’t sure where the hell Jonah was going with this, but I trusted him.
Already…
“All right, explain.” Dank shoved two hands into his baggy jean pockets. I tensed. Instinct was telling me to get his hands out of his pockets, but then he’d realize we were undercover for sure.
“Well, my partner and I aren’t willing on bringing on a third, but… we can consider bringing you into our primary business. The legal one. And if you think making a few million off of Dragon is a lot, your mind’s going to be blown when you find out how much you can make if you help us.”
Dank straightened at that, tilting his head back, the gears clicking and spinning underneath that shaved scalp. “What is it?”