Chapter 25 You Bitches Are the Shit #2
See how awesome the man cave was? And I didn’t even get into the wine racks or the golden Camaro.
And we knew how welcome we were because Titus had set out bowls of snack mix. The good kind with those crispy bread pieces that were spiced to perfection.
He so liked us.
Since it was the first time Gem and Joey had been there, it took a while for us to deal with their awe at their surroundings (again, such was the man cave), and their bigger awe at meeting Titus (such was all that was Titus), but we finally settled in.
Titus was reading the brief.
He was also frowning.
Which took the edge off the happy vibe of snack mix and cocktails in the man cave.
Then again, I was already on edge because Titus was all about copping looks at Shanti, and Shanti was all about pretending she hadn’t felt the sting after Titus turned her down.
But she was so good at this, even I wondered if I’d hallucinated her throwing herself on my couch in despair after that went down.
This of course made Titus cop more looks, and it made Shanti act more like everything was a-okay, nothing to see here.
Which tuned me into the fact that she was fake, fake, faking it.
So yeah.
That was why I was on edge.
“Your expression is freaking me out,” Jessie remarked Titus’s way, taking me out of my thoughts.
Titus stopped reading the brief and looked to us.
“Know Dex. Know his crew. Know they’re a bunch of dumbfucks and wannabe gangsters.
Know this because every guy on his crew is a reject from another crew.
They were pushed out because they were constantly doing dumb shit and they became liabilities.
But they were such wastes of space, they weren’t worth the effort of finding a more permanent solution to them being dumbfucks, nor were they worth the waste of a good bullet. ”
Yikes.
“Problem is,” Titus kept going, “Dex is such a fuckup, everything he touches turns to shit, and he’s got shit for brains, so he doesn’t know the time he shoulda stopped trying was about a decade ago.”
He lifted the papers and gave them a shake before continuing.
“Case in point, he’s told your guy where the drop is gonna be, days before the fuckin’ drop.”
“This is bad?” I asked.
Titus looked at me. “Baby girl, your guy is not on Dex’s crew.
Dex has no idea if your guy is talking to the police.
Or in with another crew. Or out for himself.
And Dex has given him the whole play not thinkin’ your guy could be setting him up for a takedown, at the same time takin’ down who he’s working with.
Or simply just taking the money and running.
This shit, if the cops were involved, or, how it is, you’re involved, gives you plenty of time to pull together an operation.
Exactly what you’re doing. And I know from where the exchange is gonna happen, the man Dex is trying to get in with is a heavy player. ”
Oh boy.
“Only smart thing Dex is doing is finding some poor schmuck to be the go-between with an uncertain exchange,” Titus declared. “That said, everything else about this is dumb as fuck.”
“They don’t think Duane is a poor schmuck. They think he’s a dufus. And because they do, they figure he’s scared of them and wouldn’t go to the cops, or someone like us, or just take off with the cash,” Shanti said.
Titus gave her a look.
Shanti held his gaze and sipped her cocktail.
Luna, who clearly had cottoned on to what was happening between Titus and Shanti, gave me “what the fuck is going on?” eyes.
I sucked in my lips.
Titus spoke. “Problem with dumbfucks is, they don’t know they’re dumbfucks.”
“Right,” Shanti replied.
Titus shook the papers again. “This is what’s goin’ down.
They’re gonna give your guy a shit ton of money.
He’s gonna take it to this player, and this player is either gonna take that money, shoot him dead and no one is ever gonna find the body, or he’s gonna take a shot on giving Dex a chance, and he’s gonna hand over a shit ton of pharmaceuticals.
My money would be on option one. And if I took that bet, I’d bet big. ”
Oh boy!
“So, if you know these players…” Raye said.
“Yeah,” Titus sighed. “I’m goin’ with you.”
We all perked up.
Except Raye.
“That wasn’t what I meant. You don’t have to…” Raye began.
“I do, baby,” Titus cut her off gently. “This player we’re dealing with?”
We all nodded.
“Solid guy. Dig him. He’s good people. Unless he’s doing business. Then he’s a snake. And this guy can be a cobra, quick strike, poison injected, you’re dead. Or he can be a boa, putting the squeeze on you until you wished you were dead, then you’re just dead, and he eats you whole.”
Yuck.
Titus wasn’t done.
“And I can guarantee you, he’s heard of the Angels. And because he has, he’ll take you seriously, but he might also not be a big fan of yours, so he might take it somewhere else.”
Eek!
“So I’m going with you,” Titus concluded.
“I think that’s a good call,” Gemma said quietly.
“So what you wanna do?” Titus asked Raye.
“Well, I’ve been thinking on it,” Raye started.
We all listened.
Hard.
“And I think Duane should get the money from Dex. And then he gives it to us and he’s out,” she carried on.
“We have the money, and we take it to whoever this person is. We just give it to him and thank him for his time. He can have the money, and the pharmaceuticals. That way, he lands on top, Duane is out, and Dex has lost all his money.”
“Give this guy the money minus some to give to Duane for pain and suffering and so he can hire someone to paint his house,” I said.
“And if there’s enough left over, take some to help Jinx pay for tuition to become a kindergarten teacher,” Joey added.
“Did you not see the house her man was in?” Gemma asked. “He can help her with tuition.”
Jessie wandered out from behind the bar to take a seat on the dais by Titus’s leg. “I’m not sure Jinx would be up for that. She’s pretty independent.”
“What’s this?” Titus interjected.
Harlow bopped excitedly on the couch. “Oh, Titus! You haven’t heard? We delivered Jinx to her accountant last night.”
“It was so dreamy,” Gemma cooed.
“Totally. We pretty-womaned the shit outta that,” Jessie bragged.
“He finally made his play,” Luna filled in.
On the “made his play” comment, Titus looked to Shanti.
Shanti brushed some nonexistent dust from her jeans.
Luna’s eyes narrowed on Shanti’s movement.
I took a sip of my drink rather than clearing my throat.
Jessie took up the story. “He asked for them to level up their relationship by asking her to move in. Jinx threw it in his face. He started missing his regular meetups. She got twisted up about it, because they’re obviously in love, she just didn’t think she could hope for anything good to happen to her because her life, seriously, has been some bad shit.
We had some huddles and talked her into giving it a go.
Last night, we took her to apologize and to tell him she was ready to explore a relationship.
She got not a word out before he picked her up and carried her in his big mansion with its pool and view of the mountains. ”
“It took some doing,” I put in. “She was nervous as all hell. There was a kerfuffle.”
“Kerfuffle?” Titus asked, and I wasn’t sure how he did it, but him saying that word in his deep, smooth Miles Caton voice was both sexy and adorable.
“Yeah,” Harlow confirmed. “She tried to close the door on us, so we essentially had to break into her house and force her to sit down for a peptalk.”
“She was practically catatonic when we did,” Raye said.
“But we got through to her in the end,” Luna completed our Pretty Woman tale.
Once this was out, Titus was silent for a long time.
And then he said quietly, “You bitches are the shit.”
Wow.
Totally feeling warm and fuzzy about that.
“Now,” he homed in on Raye, “the rest of your plan.”
“Right,” Raye said. “So we smooth things over with the big man, he gets the money and gets to keep the payload. Then we go back to Dex and tell him he’s fucked. The money is gone. No drugs for his crew to push. And if he doesn’t leave Duane alone, he’s going to be even more fucked.”
This was a good plan, simple, but it made a statement, and Dex and Amy were screwed in the process.
I wasn’t sure Dex was smart enough to understand the Angels were a threat.
But no one was dumb enough to miss Titus was one.
“To set up this deal with this guy,” Titus said, “that money is gonna be big money. And there’s a good chance he’s already planning to have it and the dope anyway. If there ever was any dope he considered giving this guy. So I think you might want to deliver the full payment.”
Duane’s house really needed painting, but I saw the wisdom of this.
“As much as it would be nice for Duane to get something out of this, agreed,” Raye said.
At this point, Raye and Titus got into the specifics of the plan.
I half-listened and half-tuned into Shanti.
She really did seem to be chill about all of this.
So I admired her ability to be a huge-ass faker.
However, when it was time to leave, we all gave Titus our usual hugs, except Shanti, who just stood at the door, and while we were filing out, she waved at him.
Luna made it to the cars at the curb before she turned on Shanti and asked, “Okay, what the fuck was that?”
“What was what?” Shanti asked back.
“You giving Titus the cold shoulder,” Luna explained.
“She was?” Gemma inquired.
“I noticed the no hug at the end,” Jessie remarked.
“I asked him out,” Shanti announced.
Everyone (but me) sucked in an audible breath.
“He shot me down,” Shanti continued.
Another audible suckage of breath to the point I thought the lot of them would pass out.
“I put myself out there, he was really nice, but he said no.” Shanti shrugged. “No big deal.”
“Titus thinks it’s a big deal. He was all eyes for you most of the time,” Luna pointed out.
“He’s a nice guy,” Shanti returned. “He’s worried about me and what we’ll become after what happened. And I was giving him indication we’re cool, and it’s business as usual.”
“But…no hug?” Harlow asked.
“You wanna hug someone who you shared you liked him like that, and he shared he wasn’t going to take you there?” Shanti asked.
“Good point,” Joey mumbled.
“We’ll get back to a good place,” Shanti assured. “Just maybe some other time, not the next time I see him after he turned me down.”
Everyone gave Shanti a good hard look to see if she was okay about this.
Apparently, they decided she was okay because we piled into our cars.
But, after Raye ran it down one last time what we were going to do the next night, and we all left to head home, it was only me who sat in my car, and after I texted Gabe I was on my way, I texted Shanti, Be straight. You really okay?
I didn’t check my texts while driving, so I was in my car, the ignition off, the door to the garage closed, when I looked at her reply.
That was torture. But I got through it. And it’s not okay, but it will be.
God, that level of faking it had to have exhausted her.
“Fuck it,” I muttered and phoned my best girl.
“Honestly, I’ll all right,” she said as greeting.
“I think Titus, and everyone, would understand if you steered clear of him for a while.”
“It’s Alexis and Jacob planning their wedding,” she said in a rush.
“Cap and Raye getting engaged. Jess and Eric, Harlow and Javi all loved up. You being so into Gabe, and him being that with you. Wedding scrapbooks floating all over the Oasis. I’m happy for you all.
I really am. But it sucks being the one who doesn’t have her one. ”
“Oh, Shanti,” I whispered.
“I’ll be all right. Honestly, I don’t need a man to be happy. I just…you know what I mean, right?”
“I know what you mean.”
“Now, go to your guy, and I’ll see you tomorrow night.”
“Okay. But maybe we can have a besties date sometime soon?”
“You know I’m always down for that, but you don’t have to look after me, Will. I got this.”
“I still want a besties date,” I stated.
“Okay, sis, we’ll plan that.”
“And if you want him, you’ll find him,” I assured. “And he’ll be perfect for you.”
“Right.”
She didn’t sound committed to that, but she also didn’t sound like she wanted to talk anymore, so I let her go.
I got out of my car, let myself in and found Gabe was waiting up for me.
It was just coming on ten thirty, so it wasn’t like he wouldn’t be awake.
But I knew he was waiting for me.
And that made me smile at him.
My Gabe smiled back.