Page 54 of Sleeping with the Dark (The Righteous 3)
“Call me Trev. Cody, tell me about what you plan for the meeting with Spike?”
Cody could barely contain his growing excitement as he laid out the idea for everyone. The group lapped into lighter discussion and stuffed themselves with the array of goodies Sally had made. Cody couldn’t help gazing at Trev or stop the ideas of how he was going to thank him once alone.
He shook his head in wonder, it had only taken one chance meeting between Renee and Arek to turn his whole life around.
Cody backed his car into a spot at the end of the row. The races were well underway by this time of night.
“You see those two over there?” He nodded toward the car a little further up and across the street. On the surface, it didn’t look like anything out of the ordinary. The hood and trunk were open, showing off what the vehicle had to offer. The two people heading toward the car were chatting, and the guy was grabbing a girl’s ass as she pointed at the car. Little M proceeded to push that cute little pink-haired girl up against the car as they played tonsil hockey.
“Yeah, I see them,” Arek said, staring at their ghostly reflection in the windshield.
“That is Little M, and his girl. He works for L.L.”
“Whose L.L.?”
Cody smirked. “Lickable Lilith.”
“I shouldn’t have asked.”
“It’s a nickname she gave herself. She has a thing for tongues, and she wears a gold replica of her tongue as a necklace. Has a thing for collecting them from the people that don’t pay her on time.”
Arek lifted a brow. “And people call me weird,” he muttered, making Cody laugh.
“Anyway, the bag he’s holding that looks like a race giveaway with the emblem on it, that has the drugs in it L.L. has purchased.”
“You’re shitting me?” Arek watched as Little M put the bag in the trunk and closed it, all the while acting as if it was a normal date. They slipped into the car and a moment later pulled out and headed back the way they arrived.
“Nope. We never see anyone from the GD other than Spike. If they are here, they blend in and don’t announce themselves. You get a random text once a week with a question mark. You send in your order by texting back a number that always stands for grams and a letter that designates what you want. E100 would be one-hundred grams of Ecstasy. You are then texted a time for your pickup and nothing else. You arrive, do a few races or hang around as a spectator until your time, and then you make your way over to Spike. You always say the same thing, it’s a nice night for a race, and he will respond, ‘Yes, it is. What time would you like?’”
“And you give him the time of your pickup,” Arek finished for him.
“Correct. If you want to race, you say, I’m feeling lucky instead.”
“Simple and yet very efficient,” Arek said as he stared at the fairly large group of people. “I guess I could pick off each one of these purchasers. It would be like fish in a barrel.”
Cody couldn’t tell if he was joking, but he had the feeling Arek wasn’t as his eyes scanned the crowd. He could almost see Arek calculating if he could kill everyone here tonight.
“The cops never show up?” Arek asked.
“Nope, not once in all the time I’ve been doing this. Only two reasons for that—they’re either scared, or the GD have ties to the police and a little green is exchanging hands.”
“Very interesting.” Arek rubbed his hand aimlessly on his jeans, but Cody knew what that meant. Trev had already given him a run down on Arek’s unusual quirks.
“We are not killing anyone tonight,” he gave Arek a hard glare.
“I wouldn’t dream of it.” The smile Arek gave him was far from comforting. “I promise I’ll be on my very best behavior.”
Cody gave his face a rub. This was not seeming like a good idea at the moment. “So just remember, let me do the talking.”
“Mmhmm,” Arek said, pushing open his door and getting out.
Cody followed suit and glanced at Arek over the roof of the car. He said a little prayer that Arek didn’t decide to go all Matrix on him. Avoiding a spray of bullets was not his idea of a good time. He cracked his neck as he looked for his target. Two cars finishing a race roared past, the breeze they created billowing the bottom of his shirt. He took a deep breath loving the smell of the rubber and fumes, the vibration of the engines making the hair stand on the back of his neck. Oh, fuck yeah, he got off on this shit. An image of bending Trev face down over the hood of his car had his body heating up and his cock twitching. Cody quickly pushed the tantalizing fantasy aside. He needed to be on point tonight.
Arek fell into step beside him, his face a hard mask that screamed killer—well, it certainly wasn’t an I’m happy to be here look, but at least he didn’t seem out of place. A cheer rose as two more cars squealed from the starting line, smoke rising in pillars. The scantily clad girl that had given the go bent over, wiggling her ass at the spectators. More cheers went up for a different reason, along with a few offers that shouldn’t have been yelled in public. Then again, this was a different type of crowd. They liked all things rough and rowdy and the more illegal, the better.
Cody grabbed Arek’s arm, drawing him to a halt. “You didn’t bring a weapon, right?” he whispered.
An evil glint lit up Arek’s face. “I plead the fifth.”
