Dead Cold Mysteries Box Set #2: Books 5-8 (A Dead Cold Box Set) Blake Banner (read out loud books txt) 📖

He rolled the joint with long, skillful fingers and sealed it with a long tongue. He poked it in his mouth and lit it with a match, then inhaled deeply and held it down for five long seconds before exhaling. He spoke as he exhaled.

“I have no problem with Pat. She was nothing to me. I sold her dope, you understand, and she did not always pay on time. But we sorted it out amicably.” He leered at me. “Like I say, I love Catholic girls.”

He threw his head back and laughed out loud. When the laugh had subsided, he handed me the joint. I took a drag, pretended to inhale and hold it down, counted to four and exhaled slowly through my nose. Then I passed it to Dehan. She took a drag and I turned to Sly.

“I’ll give you two and a half grand a kilo. That’s thirty grand for the first lot of ten K.”

He giggled. “I know how much you’re going to sell it for, man…”

Dehan erupted into a fit of coughing and everybody at the table started laughing. I turned to her and her eyes were streaming. “Oh, man…” She took another drag and passed it to the biker next to her, a giant with a forked beard who was watching her with hungry eyes.

I turned back to Sly. “I sell it to my contact in the Sureños. They get the market price. Two and half K is my offer.”

The joint made another round. I looked at Dehan. Her pupils were dilated but she said, “I’m OK.”

Sly’s voice rose above the music and the noise of talk and laughter. “Agreed, John. We can do business. I can have it for you in… a couple of days, Coyote?”

“Two days.”

“Two days. So, let’s celebrate.”

Coy refilled the glasses and Sly started rolling another joint. Dehan was smiling at me. I was wondering if my damned alarm was ever going to go off. Sly took a long drag on his joint, lay back in his chair and let out the smoke real slow. While he did it, he handed me the cigarette. I took a drag, held it in my mouth for a count of three, and let it out again. I handed it to Dehan, willing her to do the same. She looked slightly worried.

She took a drag, inhaled and held it down, suppressing a coughing fit, then let it out and passed the butt to the big Angel.

My phone rang. I took it out of my pocket and looked at the screen. I turned to Sly, “Excuse me. I have to take this.”

I stood and moved away a couple of steps, saying, “Yuh…uh-huh…OK…”

The big Angel was leaning over close to Dehan, with his arm across the back of her chair. I felt a hot pellet in my belly. I wasn’t sure if it was anger, fear, or a volatile mixture of the two. I put my phone away and returned to the table.

“Sorry to break up the party, folks. We have to go.”

Dehan looked up at me. Her expression was grateful. The Angel’s, not so much. He looked resentful. He said, “The lady don’t need to go. You can go, she can stay.”

I smiled amiably. “The lady needs to go, too.”

I reached out to her and she took my hand. She made to get to her feet but he put his hand on her shoulder and forced her down. Any other time that would have cost him a broken arm. But the dope was kicking in and mixing with the tequila and the beer, plus the wine we’d had with dinner. She dropped back into the chair and looked at me in alarm.

I said, “Take your hand off my wife.”

“How’s about you make me, boy?”

I turned to Sly and Coy. “This how you do business?”

Coy looked at the Angel and shook his head. “Leave it, Scott.”

I pulled Dehan to her feet and looked back at Coy. His pale eyes were real cold. “Nice doing business with you.”

I put my arm around Dehan and guided her to the door, then out into the icy night air. She shuddered. Our steps were loud on the dirt as we crossed to the car. I unlocked the passenger door and opened it. It had to happen and it did. His voice stopped us and echoed across the lot.

“Hey, boy, don’t run away. Let’s talk.”

I said to Dehan, “Get in. Can you drive?”

She shook her head and leaned against the car. “I need a minute.”

But I could see from her eyes it was going to take a lot more than a minute. I turned. It was Scott and two of his pals.

“What do you want?”

“You know what I want, boy. And I want it right here and now, so you can watch.” He laughed. “Don’t worry. I won’t hurt her. She’s gonna love it. Can’t speak for my boys here, though. They might hurt her, a bit.”

I smiled. “You’re pretty tough, huh? You tough enough to come here and get her without the help of your nanny goats there?”

He was laughing. He turned to his pals with a mock Texas accent. “Hold my beer, boys. We gonna party.”

I heard Dehan whisper behind me. “Stone, don’t…”

He was strong, but he had a big belly and he was drunk. He took two running strides at me, swinging a huge right cross. If it had connected, it would have taken my head off. But he was as slow as a sloth on Prozac. I stepped in and easily blocked the punch with my left while I simultaneously drove my right down onto his belly, putting all my two hundred and twenty pounds behind it. His eyes bulged and his tongue stuck out. His cheeks