Chapter Thirty-One
Where is the Sauce
Ziggy
It was kind of weird. If I didn't know any better, I’d think taking care of Rumi kind of gave Ro a new purpose. She was twice as determined to stay positive and busy. They talked constantly, and that painting stuff didn’t stop at Florida coastlines.
When I came out to see why I was still sleeping alone at one in the morning, they had a scenic calendar sprawled out on the table between them. Each of them with a paintbrush in hand, moving color around canvas while idly speaking about their mothers.
Neither was crying, and their tones seemed to be upbeat, so I left them to it and went back to bed. I’d woken up to a knock on the door a few times in my life, but it had been a long damn time. The proximity left me sucking in a wild breath, even if it wasn’t all that aggressive of a knock.
“What is it?” I barked.
“Uh–” Rumi timidly stammered.
“Shit.” I groaned; having forgotten she was even there in my dazed state.
“Open it up, Rumi, it’s okay,”Ro murmured, as she shifted to her elbow and sat up slowly.
“My dad said to bring you the phone right away, I’m sorry,” Rumi chirped, holding the phone out and looking away, despite the fact that I was buried beneath a mound of covers and Ro was wearing shorts and shirt.
“It’s okay, Rumi.” I tried to sound gentle, but the sleepiness left me rumbling and her scurrying.
I shrugged at Ro as she hurried after her and put the phone to my ear.
“Yeah?”
“You need to get your phone and answer Cane. He’s got a situation with your son.” Henny seemed to be talking fast. “Light changed, gotta go.”
I heard him accelerate before the line went dead.
I sent the covers flying and tossed Rumi’s phone onto the bedside table before doing a mad scramble to locate my own.
“Ro– Ro, where is my phone?” I barked as I danced around the room in a pair of long sleeping pants. I threw an undershirt on and surveyed the dresser to no avail.
Fuck, I inwardly cursed over and over. I sprinted toward the bedroom door and threw it open just as Ro reached for it on the other side.
“Who the hell is 357?” Ro asked, holding my phone out.
I snatched it from her hand and glanced at the long list of messages. It was like I’d ghosted a prom date.
“Oh, this is bad.” I thought out loud, before my delayed answer came, “Cane.”
“That one of your guys?” she asked.
I ignored her while trying to make sense of the texts that had been shot machine-gun-style, judging from the time stamps.
“Yuh. The one Candy was lap dancing–”
“Right.” She sniffed, before looking over my arm to read them with me.
Zig, I need you to answer.
Zig, pick up, please.
Jesus Christ, Zig, Sauce played me. Wake the fuck up.
“What does he mean ‘played him’?” Ro quietly asked, when I paused on that one and tried to imagine what he meant myself.
I shrugged and kept scrolling.
Zig, he tricked me.
Your son laced a joint after insisting we smoke it to seal a damn deal toward his future sobriety with the harder shit.
“Oh my God.” Ro laughed. “Sauce may be my favorite stepchild. It’s too early to say, I haven’t met any of the others, but he definitely just earned points.”
“You laugh now. Wait. Just wait ‘til our two are up to shenanigans and you’re pullin’ your hair out. It’s in the genes, babe.” I kissed her and pressed dial, ignoring the other twelve messages.
“Ziggy, oh, thank fuck. Oh, my God. Ziggy. Ziggy,” Cane kept saying my name, his words coming like he was trying to make love to every damned syllable.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Oh my God. That little bastard. Shit. Shit, I’m sorry– Man, I didn’t mean that.”
Ro cackled and Cane hushed.
“Who is that?”
“My wife, she can hear you going batshit from three foot away, what the fuck is going on? Are you good?”
“I’ll be better when this fucking formaldehyde wears off.”
“For– What?”
“Man, I ain’t no fuckin’ doctor. All I know is shit goes slow motion and then I speed. I should just close my eyes. When I wake up everything will be good. What's the worst thing he could put in some weed, am I right? It’s just embalming fluid, right, Ziggy?”
“He is tripping balls,” Ro whispered the obvious, causing me to cross my eyes before I rolled them for her benefit.
She broke out into another fit of giggles.
“Cane–” I tried to make him focus through what were likely racing thoughts. “Where is Sauce now?”
“That’s what I was trying to tell you, Zig. I think I followed him to Dev’s gym. Well, I’m at Dev’s gym. Can you believe he made all his customers leave because he thinks I’m on meth? He said I have a motormouth that would make Bizzy Bone jealous.”
“I don’t know who that is, but you’re definitely guilty.” I closed my eyes and tried to coach him again. “Take a deep breath, and tell me where Sauce–”
“He went across to the dope spot. The Deuces got that hot spot by the gym. I can’t fuckin’ go in after him like this, I can barely walk. I don’t even know how the hell I got here, Ziggy.”
It sounded like a scuffle broke out, on his end, but I was too busy processing what he’d just said. It was broad daylight, and my son walked into a known dope spot.
He drugged my enforcer to get there.
I sucked my teeth, but the sound of my own pulse grew louder in my head.
“Zig?”
I squinted at the new voice.
“Zig, this is Dev. My dude, he’s out there. I don’t know what the fuck he’s on about. He said he and Sauce smoked some shit and that Sauce supposedly went into the Deuces spot. So, I went down there. I didn’t see him, man. They even let me come inside. Their dude, Lando said he hasn’t seen him. He calls the shots, so I can’t imagine he’d be in the dark about a thing like this. He wouldn’t lie to me, either. I let him know what would happen if he did.”
“What does that mean?” I pushed the hair out of my face and tried to make sense of it. “Is Cane high and hallucinating that Sauce went inside, or–?”
“I can put eyes on that block if you want. I mean, I can see it from here, but I can have a prospect sit around back and watch that side, too, if you need me to.”
“That would– be awesome. I’ll call around and see what I can find out over here.”
“Alright.” Dev hung up.
“Who was that? What did they think about all of it?” Ro fired off questions.
“Cane’s former brother-in-law. He’s going to see what he can find out, and I’m going to do the same.”
“Oh.” She nodded and nibbled on her lip while I unsuccessfully blew up Sauce’s phone. When I finally accepted that he wasn’t going to answer, I started at the top of my contact list and began the task of calling the guys one by one.
Someone had to know something.