Page 53 of Cold Hard Cash

“Oh! Right! So, apparently Cold was just using me to try and get to Augustus because of this whole Dickie White thing, but we made a new deal! It’s okay! And God, I had a crazy panic attack for the first time in years—”

“Jimmy, motherfucker, slow the hell down!” Maury pleaded. “For fuck’s sake, kid. Take a breath.”

Jimmy did as instructed, grinning from ear to ear. “Oh, Maury,” he gushed, a swarm of rapid butterflies invading his entire digestive system. “I think I’m starting to fall—”

“Fuck, don’t you say it, don’t you fuckin’ say it!” Maury wailed. “Fuck! Kid! Dick and heart, remember? You’re gettin’ them all mixed up!”

“But my heart’s bigger than my dick!” Jimmy frowned when he realized the unintended innuendo. “I meant… um…”

“I wouldn’t go around advertisin’ that, kid.”

“It came out wrong!”

“Ya think?” Maury groaned irritably. “Get your ass down here so I can talk some fuckin’ sense into you. I still got—”

“Still got the crowbar, I know,” Jimmy finished for him, very familiar with this threat. “Look, I know it’s totally nuts, and maybe I am nuts, but—”

“James motherfuckin’ David Poe, I swear to fuckin’ Christ!”

“He believes me, Maury,” Jimmy said quietly. He didn’t need to raise his voice. He knew that Maury would understand exactly what he meant and the weight that such a thing carried.

“Well, fuck, kid.” Maury sighed. “Look, we’ll talks about it, okay? Come on down to the shop.”

“Oh Jimmy!” the familiar voice of Rowena Legrand sang out, knuckles wrapping at the door. “Are you decent?”

“I’ll try,” Jimmy said quickly to Maury, then called out, “Yup! One sec!” He turned his attention back to the phone, saying, “I’ll try to come by soon, okay?”

“I love you, ya fuckin’ idiot.”

“Love you too,” Jimmy said with a smile, waving at Rowena as she came sauntering in.

“Aw, who was that?” Rowena smiled, but her eyes narrowed. “Not anybody I gotta worry about, I hope.”

Jimmy laughed. “God, no. It was my friend, Maury Martine.”

“Maury the Mouth?”

“Yeah. We’re close. He’s kinda like a dad to me. It’s, well, it’s a long story.”

Rowena came over and bounced on the edge of the bed. “Oh, I love long stories!”

Jimmy glanced at his phone. It was already after ten o’clock. He was surprised he had slept so late. “Yeah, but I think I’m supposed to be getting ready for work soon?”

Rowena waved her hand. “Pffft! Whatever.”

Jimmy frowned. “Cold said not to be late.”

“Uh, he got you a job working for me,” Rowena said with a dramatic roll of her eyes, then glanced at her nails. “We’ll show up whenever the hell we want.”

“For you?”

“At my club,” Rowena said proudly, then paused to reconsider. “Well, it’s really Roddy’s club, but he lets me run it. La Belle downtown? Ever hear of it?”

“Wow, yeah!” Jimmy had certainly heard of it. It was a popular piano bar housed in a renovated theater. He had seen the marquee lights all his life, and he was excited to know he would be working at a place he had long admired. “Wait, what am I gonna be doing exactly?”

Rowena shrugged. “I dunno. What are you good at?”

Jimmy made a face, mentally reviewing his resume of the many random jobs he’d had over the years. He sighed mournfully. “Losing jobs.”