Page 64 of Not Your Romeo
“Ziggy, oh, thank fuck. Oh, my God. Ziggy. Ziggy,” Cane kept saying my name, his words coming like he was trying to make love to every damned syllable.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Oh my God. That little bastard. Shit. Shit, I’m sorry– Man, I didn’t mean that.”
Ro cackled and Cane hushed.
“Who is that?”
“My wife, she can hear you going batshit from three foot away, what the fuck is going on? Are you good?”
“I’ll be better when this fucking formaldehyde wears off.”
“For– What?”
“Man, I ain’t no fuckin’ doctor. All I know is shit goes slow motion and then I speed. I should just close my eyes. When I wake up everything will be good. What's the worst thing he could put in some weed, am I right? It’s just embalming fluid, right, Ziggy?”
“He is tripping balls,” Ro whispered the obvious, causing me to cross my eyes before I rolled them for her benefit.
She broke out into another fit of giggles.
“Cane–” I tried to make him focus through what were likely racing thoughts. “Where is Sauce now?”
“That’s what I was trying to tell you, Zig. I think I followed him to Dev’s gym. Well, I’m at Dev’s gym. Can you believe he made all his customers leave because he thinks I’m on meth? He said I have a motormouth that would make Bizzy Bone jealous.”
“I don’t know who that is, but you’re definitely guilty.” I closed my eyes and tried to coach him again. “Take a deep breath, and tell me where Sauce–”
“He went across to the dope spot. The Deuces got that hot spot by the gym. I can’t fuckin’ go in after him like this, I can barely walk. I don’t even know how the hell I got here, Ziggy.”
It sounded like a scuffle broke out, on his end, but I was too busy processing what he’d just said. It was broad daylight, and my son walked into a known dope spot.
He drugged my enforcer to get there.
I sucked my teeth, but the sound of my own pulse grew louder in my head.
“Zig?”
I squinted at the new voice.
“Zig, this is Dev. My dude, he’s out there. I don’t know what the fuck he’s on about. He said he and Sauce smoked some shit and that Sauce supposedly went into the Deuces spot. So, I went down there. I didn’t see him, man. They even let me come inside. Their dude, Lando said he hasn’t seen him. He calls the shots, so I can’t imagine he’d be in the dark about a thing like this. He wouldn’t lie to me, either. I let him know what would happen if he did.”
“What does that mean?” I pushed the hair out of my face and tried to make sense of it. “Is Cane high and hallucinating that Sauce went inside, or–?”
“I can put eyes on that block if you want. I mean, I can see it from here, but I can have a prospect sit around back and watch that side, too, if you need me to.”
“That would– be awesome. I’ll call around and see what I can find out over here.”
“Alright.” Dev hung up.
“Who was that? What did they think about all of it?” Ro fired off questions.
“Cane’s former brother-in-law. He’s going to see what he can find out, and I’m going to do the same.”
“Oh.” She nodded and nibbled on her lip while I unsuccessfully blew up Sauce’s phone. When I finally accepted that he wasn’t going to answer, I started at the top of my contact list and began the task of calling the guys one by one.
Someone had to know something.
Chapter Thirty-Two
