“What are we doing about it, Nassir?”
“Putting a fucking stop to it right fucking now.” He motioned to the guy on the floor. “I got names, I got addresses, and a whole world of hurt is coming anyone’s way who wants to question who is or isn’t in charge. I suggest you do the exact same if someone doesn’t come through on what they owe you.”
I hadn’t run into that problem yet, but my time as a bookie was still pretty new.
“Yeah. I guess there can’t be any perceived weakness.”
Nassir’s eyes flashed. “There won’t be any weakness period. I waited far too long for someone else to handle Novak and all his madness. I should’ve done something about him long ago, but I waited, and his poison spread. You and I might not see eye to eye, Race, but we both agree that someone has to feed the monster, and that as long as honorable men are doing it, the city doesn’t have to be sacrificed to keep it fed.”
Honorable wasn’t a word I would equate with Nassir, but that wasn’t a point I wanted to push right now.
“Is Honor all right?”
Something crossed his face that was beyond frightening. I didn’t know much about his past, or where he came from, but I never mistook Nassir for just some guy in a suit afraid of getting his hands in the dirt and muck. He was a man who could kill if he felt it necessary, the kind of man who would take on an entire army if he thought the battle needed to be fought.
“She’s pissed.”
I sighed heavily. “I have a deposit I want to hand over. College football started.”
He nodded and we left Chuck alone to clean up the mess on the floor. It was cold, it was inhumane, and a tiny piece of me knew it was wrong, but it was just the way it had to be. We went into the office that the guy who used to run the club used, and I handed over the bundled-up stacks of cash. When I was younger, throwing around hundreds of thousands of dollars had meant nothing to me. Now I watched Nassir take it and put it in the safe behind the desk with all kinds of trepidation. One thing about being a criminal that really sucked was that you had to rely on other criminals to make a living. As a whole, we weren’t really a trustworthy lot, and we were all inherently looking out for number one.
My apprehension must have shown on my face, because Nassir lifted a dark eyebrow and gave me a grin that was anything but reassuring.
“I need you, Race. I’m not going to rip you off.”
I snorted. “What happens when you decide you don’t need me?”
“You’re a smart man. You can figure out the answer to that on your own. By the way, I heard one of those punk college kids pulled a gun on you while you were collecting. You need to take a stand when shit like that goes down.”
I sighed. “He was just some kid.”
Nassir pointed a finger at me and his voice was all seriousness when he told me, “So are you, only you’re just some kid running an entire city from the outside. Anyone fucks with you, Race, and you put them in their place. Bax has a reputation to stand on, it’s in his blood. He was born as bad as they come. You’re just some rich kid playing at being a crime boss. You need to prove that you are serious, that you are in this to the end. Be that by your blood or theirs. There is only one way to do things . . . our way.”
I wasn’t ruthless like that. I don’t think I would ever be the kind of man who just took and took without a thought as to whom I was taking from. It was too close to the coldness; the black and empty way my father operated. I never wanted to be the kind of man who could consider killing his own flesh and blood just because it was a messy story he didn’t want to try and explain.
“I handle my business, Nassir. Don’t worry about what I’m doing or what I’m not doing.”
He grunted and took a seat at the desk and steepled his fingers under his chin. “I’m more worried about Bax coming unglued if you get your dumb ass killed and ruining everything we’ve managed to patchwork together. Plus, the cop would start poking around, and that would be unpleasant for both of us.”
The cop was Bax’s half brother, Titus King. He had played a big part in helping take Novak down, and was now a constant pain in my ass. I liked Titus. He was a good man, a dedicated cop, but if he really knew what I was into, the kinds of things Bax and I had working on the side, he would flip his shit and have no qualms about shutting my operation down cold. He was always watching us with an eagle eye, and I think he knew more than he let on, but Nassir was a ruthless bastard, and if Titus did indeed get too close, I didn’t doubt he would try and take him out of the game.
I didn’t have anything else to say to him and my patience at having to deal with the slick bastard had reached its limits. I wasn’t playing at anything. I knew how serious this shit I was deep into was, and treated it as such. I just didn’t have any intention of turning into a Novak while doing it.
As I rounded the corner I almost slammed into Honor. Her real name was Keelyn Foster and she was probably the most beautiful girl in the entire world. Granted, she paid a lot of money to keep that appearance up, but in the dark, there was no difference between man-made and heaven-sent in my book. She had on a silky black robe, her long, auburn hair was a tangled mess, and her heavy makeup was smeared all over her face. Even in the dim light of the strip club, I could see the nasty split in her bottom lip and the bruise flowering across her high and elegant cheekbone.
I let out a whistle. “Are you all right?”
She winced a little and lifted her fingers to her cheek. “Been better. Did Nassir bring that idiot back here?”