“What’s going on?”
He rubbed his thumb along the edge of his jaw and considered me thoughtfully. “Some of the girls have come back complaining that clients aren’t wanting to pay. They said that the word going around is that you and I, we’re too new. The city is in flux, no one is in charge, and no one is in line to answer to, so people are getting ballsy and pushing their luck.”
I gritted my back teeth and frowned. “What are you doing about it?”
“We, Race. What are we doing about it?”
He seriously was the last person on the planet I wanted to be in business with, but it wasn’t like I had much of a choice.
“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.”