Page 71 of Poisoned Promise
I nod after a few long seconds.
As his mother, my version of things likely won’t be what he wants to hear, and Felix can give him the impartial truth that will either satisfy him or scare him away from any further questions.
Alex’s eyes glint and around a mouthful of pizza, he asks his first question. “Have you ever killed someone?”
“Yes,” Felix replies.
“Have you?” Alex locks eyes with me.
“I have, yes.”
“Do you only kill bad people?”
“Depends on your definition of bad,” Felix says. “To many, we are the bad guys. Bad guys to us are worse guys to someone else. It’s all perspective, but in my opinion, everyone I’ve killed deserved it.”
“Even those people who… who killed Mary?”
“Yes.”
“And Mike?”
“Absolutely,” I reply immediately. “They deserved it.”
“Who killed them?” Alex glances between us and once again, Felix comes to my rescue.
“I did. It was a separate issue that I was involved with. I didn’t know anything about your Mom or the car.”
Alex nods and returns to his pizza, seemingly deep in thought. The freedom to ask any question he wants appears to overwhelm him with choice. “Felix, how do you make money?”
Felix picks up his glass of soda and smirks. “Drugs.”
“That’s it?”
“Is that not cool enough?”
“No it’s just… you hear about drugs all the time on the news. It’s almost boring.”
Felix nearly chokes on his drink. “Boring? Ouch. True, it’s on the news a lot. We supply a lot of medicinal and recreational drugs to multiple markets. Clubs, parties, rich bastards looking to get high. The drugs on the street are different. We supply a select few who then feed it all out to the public.”
“And the medical?” Alex holds his cast arm aloft. “Did I get your drugs when I was in hospital?”
“Maybe,” Felix chuckles. “We tend to supply things cheaper than big pharma but not necessarily through hospitals. Those who come to us with medical needs have less to pay.”
“You make it sound like charity,” Alex replies.
“There’s a balance,” I say after finishing my slice. “Always a balance. You have to know your market and you also have to make sure there’s enough public loyalty that you won’t be betrayed.”
“Wow.” Alex straightens up and sighs. “Sounds complicated.”
“It can be,” Felix replies. “But it’s just another business at the end of the day. Don’t be mistaken though, it’s very dangerous. People kill for money, for power or just because they want to expand and have a bad day. Like your Mom said, it’s about balance. Be scary enough that people don’t challenge you, while being kind enough that the public values you.”
Alex toys with some loose thread at the end of his cast and fixes me with a look. “What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Have you been doing crime all these years?”
I can’t hold in my laughter at how he says it. “Doing crime? No, honey. I haven’t been doing crime. I haven’tdone crimesince I left.”
