Tey is like a walking corpse, a little dead inside but somehow still managing to roam around. I think bouncing from foster home to foster home has fucked him up more than he lets on, his need to escape every second of the day worries me but that’s why I’m here. To keep him in line so he can make it past thirty fucking years old. It’s why I’m the fucking leader in our small tight knit group.
“Don’t let me hear that fucking shit come out of your mouth again. The answer is no. I need your head clear for this. I’ll let you take a few stabs at the warehouse to get your high.”
Do I sound like a harsh bastard? Yeah, but that’s just who I am. Harsh, cold but I love my boys so I’ll be whoever I need to be for them. Besides, if we fuck this shit up, we are all going down until the bars slam shut and I’ll be stuck in one place. That can’t happen.
“You always take the fun away.” He grumbles behind me but picks up his dragging feet when we exit through the back door and he rushes over to my one true love with the keys twirling on his finger.
“Not the Corvette, Tey!” I growl at him as my hand moves lovingly over the hood of my glossy black beauty before getting into the passenger seat. “You're a shit, just don’t scratch her.” Might as well let him have this high adrenaline rush. The engine rumbles and Tey cranks up the music before peeling out of the parking lot.
“Fuck yeah!” He howls out the window like a fucking animal and guns it towards the warehouse so we can have some fun with the little fucktard who decided to become a traitor. Nothing like beating a man on a Saturday evening and washing your sins away Sunday morning at church.
* * *
“I’ll only ask you one more time, Lenny. Where the fuck is the money?” I wipe my hands on the handkerchief that’s always in my back pocket, wiping the blood away from my cracked knuckles calmly as I wait for his excuse.
“I’m telling you, I don’t have the money or the missing drugs! I was just doing my job like I was told by your father. ‘Take the counterfeit money from the warehouse’, he said, ‘deliver it and bring the coke back here!’ I never ratted out to the FBI where the meth lab is, they showed up raiding the place with the SWAT team and took the drugs just before I made it down the street. I would never tell no cops!” Lenny shouts, his body trembling in the chair I tied him to not too long ago.
Tey is bouncing on his toes next to me, about to explode to cause some violence, the crazy fucker. I step back to admire my handiwork, this dumb motherfucker didn’t think we’d realize that some of the supplies would slowly go missing with each shipment. Taking the drugs wouldn’t be the biggest deal, maybe a few pops to his kneecaps would get our message across. But man, you messed with the wrong people thinking you can steal their money. Lenny showed up tonight at the warehouse my old man owns in the bad part of the outskirts of L.A. and actually thought it would be a brilliant idea to change out the good coke as a replacement with the bad shit that you can find on any street corner. Our stuff is pure and clean, expensive as hell, and keeps the clients coming back for more, so catching him in the act made this even sweeter. I’m not sure he was the one to pass the information to the FBI about where one of our meth labs is but something isn’t adding up, so now I have to go into the station to handle it. Lenny’s currently panting through each breath, could be from the broken ribs I just gave him or the blood dripping down the back of his throat from his nose that I repeatedly hit. Usually, this is Dalton’s type of thing, he loves to use his fist but he’s busy tonight in the underground ring, pounding the shit out of someone else at the moment.
“Let me at him, Logan! I wonder if it squeals like a pig and looks like one, if that makes him a pig? I brought my favorite knife.” Tey’s voice comes out as an excited purr, I wouldn’t be surprised if the fucker is semi hard right now.
Lenny looks between the two of us frantically, shivering from the cold, gulping as he looks at the meat hanging from hooks in the depth of the freezer and the clear tarp hanging from floor to ceiling surrounding him. This isn’t our first rodeo and I think he’s finally getting it through his thick skull that the last image he’ll see is skinned pigs swinging from the ceiling.
“Okay! O-kay! I’ll talk! I did take a swipe of some of the blow, but that’s it! I s-swear! It was only one hit. I don’t know nothing about no money being taken or being a snitch to the f-fuzz,” Lenny stutters, sweating like a fucking pig…How ironic. I think the guy belongs in here with the other meat, it’s like destiny or something.
I exchange a look with Tey, seeing the twinkle in his eyes and we both come to the conclusion that Lenny’s telling the truth. I straighten to my full height, slicking back my brown hair that hangs in my eyes, and adjust my cuffs before giving a single nod to Tey.
“Finally! This gives me the perfect opportunity to try out my artistic skills. Thank you for your tribute, I’m about to create a masterpiece,” Tey whispers and without hesitation whips out his knife from God knows where and slashes across Lenny’s throat.
Tey must have hit an artery because Lenny’s blood squirts out of his neck like a bottle of ketchup, splatting against the clear tarp. He’s fucking lucky I moved across the freezer before he started. If he got one drop of blood on my clothes, I’d have to murder him. I’ve been doing this for a while but I like being clean, thank you very much.
“Hurry up, we still have to get to the precinct to switch out the evidence. Fucking Lenny. If he wasn’t the snitch to the FBI about the raid or missing money… looks like we have a traitor in our kingdom. Can’t have that happening now, can we?”
Leaving the warehouse behind, I see out of the corner of my eye Tey wiping blood off his arms with a baby wipe while he grins the whole time over to the precinct. Rolling my eyes as we step out of my car, I toss Tey the black duffle from the trunk once we get there and he pretends to zip his lips just as we start climbing the steps into the building. The moment we slide through the doors, the noise and chaos are almost overbearing but it helps us slip by unnoticed. Phones ring off the hook, men in suits milling around barking orders while a few grab their guns and rush by us to answer a call coming through. Perfect time to pick up the supplies, there are less cops around the station once the sun goes down. Los Angeles precincts are crazy busy on a regular night and Gale, the receptionist, just waves from behind her desk when I wink at her and point towards the direction of my father’s office. Nobody thinks twice about us being here because me and my boys grew up around cops with my father being Chief and all.
“Like stealing candy from a hooker.” Tey chuckles as we step into the elevator and he pushes the basement level button.
“You mean from a baby, not a hooker.” I roll my eyes at him, staring straight ahead as the light dings for our floor.
“Naw, hookers love their lollipops. It’s how they get those tongue tricks down, my brother, I’m going to have to hire you a hooker for the night. Let’s pop that cherry.” He snickers under his breath and jogs ahead before I can smack him upside the head.
“Shut the fuck up and just grab the dope.” My order comes out loud and clear, forcing him to be serious for the moment as I punch in the code for the evidence storage room that’s full of crime scenes to drug busts.
I’m just here for the drugs.
“Case number thirty-three. Find it and switch the coke with the fake powder.” I’m grumpy as hell, on constant edge because we shouldn’t have to be here in the first place.
Fucking Lenny... I’ll make anyone who’s talking to the cops regret the day they were born.
Tey nods, swinging the bag over his shoulder with a whistle as he disappears around a shelving unit. So many cases of crimes, disaster, some unsolved, some under trial but look how easy it was for us to slip in here. Nothing but Los Angeles love in this evidence room, so much hate, and violence just like how the city is. Little do the citizens know that Franco, Chief of their beloved city, would have a hand in dealing with the most criminal cases in one form or another. Everyone is deep in his pockets, including myself. My phone won’t stop vibrating against my thigh and the distracting constant messaging coming in can only be one person.
Why does he insist on calling constantly when I’m old enough to get the job done without him checking in? I answer without looking at my phone as my eyes skim over an evidence box containing items from a brutal murder, home invasion in the suburbs.
“Chief. It’s almost done, we’ll be dropping the package off before-” My father interrupts me and I motion with my hands to Tey as he comes around the corner to cut off the whistling.
“Get home right the fuck now! No stopping, Logan, just get home.” He commands with an authority that never fails to make me stand up straighter and harden my heart until eventually nothing will be left.
He hangs up, not letting me get in another word but that's just how it goes because he’s the boss. A boss of thousands of corrupt and good police officers but also of a network of crime. He has so many people in his pockets, from the lowest ranking officer to the governor… the Chief of L.A. is untouchable.
