blurring_the_edges_29_ups_and_downs birdmad Sensing your apprehension, Tommy and Pete reiterate Annie's introduction, but add in the critical detail that sets your mind more at ease, Apparently these guys aren't just buddies, they are related to each other. Tommy and Pete are brothers, Joe, the man in the prison guard uniform is their dad, Steve, The guy in the CHP uniform is Joe's brother and Paul, the third guy sticking out like almost as much of a sore thumb as you and MeeKrob, but for obviously different reasons in his well cut, but clearly off-the-rack charcoal grey suit is Steve's son. Apparently this little criminal enterprise is quite the family affair. Paul reaches his hand across the table to shake, each of you does. Something about his bearing seems rather familiar and as you stand around the small dining room talking, you realize that in all likelihood that he is a lawyer or someone in a position where he must be required to do a fair bit of talking. With the exception of Tommy and Pete, everyone in the room comes across more intelligently than your first impression would have conveyed. Joe has apparently been working deals with some of the prison gangs to get merchandise in, he has like-minded friends all around the state correctional system in four states, Arizona included. You admire that apparently Joe adopts the same philosophy with his illicit gains that you do, keep just enough to keep up with the bills, save a little for fun, offload the rest as the situation allows. The only person here anymore who makes you really nervous is Annie who is grinding her teeth as she walks about, clenching and loosening her fists between interjections into the flow of the conversation. Even knowing what you know about how badly tweekers can decay, you realize that she is not the same woman on the pictures of Pete and Tommy as children that sit in a small hutch by the kitchen walkway. You wonder what her relation to all of this is. You wonder, but you are a guest and you are not in your own secure digs, so you leave it alone. You will learn as life progresses that there will be more than a few times when, no matter how urgently the questions may press at you, you will be better served not to ask them. Joe, Steve and Paul have come up with a plan to get the junk across state lines without any questions. Steve, as it turns out, works an extradition detail and is assigned to escort prisoner transports to and from Arizona and Nevada. When he isn't doing a rotational stint up in Lompoc, Joe works for a private, medium security correctional facility under contract to the state of California, supervising inmates and pre-trial detainees who are allowed out on work details. You are starting to see how this adds up, a lot of these guys are white-collar types with drug records, guys like the Ngoc brothers who have records in both states and who sometimes have to stand trial in both states. You can see how the plan works, Joe uses the transfer inmates in his custody and their van as mules for Steve, Steve and his partner bring the mules into friendly hands where the merchandise makes its way to people like Henry who, in turn either deals direct or farms out product to smaller fish to move for him. Tommy and Pete, for the sake of causing as little harm to the operation, play bird-dog from safe distance making sure nobody moves on the stuff. You realize that they are not unlike you and Billy in their purposes, but more single-minded in it. Paul's role in this, besides the planning stages is that he is the man who moves the money. It comes out through a roundabout turn of conversation that he is heavy into real-estate and owns a string of properties up in and around the Paradise Valley area of town back home. Cute, with this guy working his magic, much of the money stays relatively clean, or at least harder to run back to this little enterprise. Their fee is ten percent of the previous shipment's gross profit. To establish the pattern and as an act of good faith, Paul, above the protest of his father and uncle agree to do this one for free with the guarantee that the next consignment will be paid with the agreed upon percentage of cash brought in by this one. Henry and MeeKrob agree, with Jones proposing to open an "office" in a building where Paul's real-estate firm has space to lease and where Joe's charges are frequently assigned to clean up. Jones does some relatively straight work as a talent scout for a couple of small record labels and as an agent for a few people who you are polite enough to never say should seek better representation. Tommy reaches over to Zoe as she is about to lean into you as you are standing against one of the walls, having respectfully declined a seat. He attempts to cop a feel, but his hand is met by a sharp slap. At first, everyone looks with consternation at the two of you, but then Pete speaks up and lays the blame on Tommy's head for the faux pas. "I knew enough not to keep trying after the first crash-and-burn, Tommy's not so bright, though." Joe's hand stops Tommy from backhanding Pete right in front of everyone. "Tommy, look," you start in, still trying to maintain a calm and respectful tone, "the lady said 'no' at least a couple of times already tonight, please just accept that as her answer, alright?" "Man, Fuck you!...fuckin' beaner." "Ugh." "Goddamnit, Tommy," Paul says sharply, sounding older and wiser even though you peg him for the same 25 that they are, "don't insult the man if he's going to help us make money. Have some fucking sense, will you?" Tommy hears nothing and lunges across the table at you, quickly but clumsily, tipping it over. You don't see where it comes from, but you see a silver flash as he does and feel a warm trickle down your right eye. Joe and Pete pull him off of you and drag him outside into the backyard where you hear them beating him. Steve, Paul and Annie, embarassed by Tommy's outburst split between helping you up and picking up the mess. You do your best to assure them that if Henry and Jones are still up for the deal, you have no objections. Inwardly, you have to laugh because apparently they have taken your seriousness and calm demeanor to mean that you are the brains on that side of the table. Henry, realizing a possible advantage in this, plays along. Zoe walks with you to the bathroom and watches as you tend the vertical slice that Tommy made just above your right eye. It appears to be a clean slice, more likely a razor than a knife cut, deep, but thin. It won't need stitches, but it's deep enough to sting once a drop of sweat gets into it. Tommy, black-eyed, handcuffed and slightly bloodied, is led back into the kitchen where he apologizes as if it were a playground scuffle broken up by a teacher. "I'm sorry, dude," he sniffles, trying not to cry from embarassment over being paraded back into the room like that. You ask Annie if you may, and go over to the fridge. Getting a beer, you open it, and lay it on the table in front of him, stifling the urge to shatter the bottle across the table and use the shards to leave him with a permanent but fatal smile, you ask Joe to let him loose and clap him on the shoulder in a way you learned from your dad that manages both to reassure and intimidate. "No problem, Tommy." The sharp, defiant edge of his glance is dulled as he takes a drink of the beer and spends the rest of the conversation quietly looking at the tabletop and the floor like a scolded child. When the evening is all said and done, you get back to the Hotel surprised that it is barely 1 AM. As you shower, Zoe steps in with you and you take turns washing each other. "After all that excitement," Zoe starts, freshly dried and stalking catlike, naked around the hotel room, "I don't know about you, but i think i want to playyyyyy." "Really?" "Yes, what, are you not in the mood or something?" "Quite the opposite. MeeKrob gave me a card, said he knew somebody who could provide us a little extra 'entertainment' for the evening and that he would pick up the tab." "Well, now. Consider me intrigued, make the call, Alex." Dialing the number on the card, you are greeted by a smoky female voice that reminds you a little bit of Jana from Political Science class a couple of semesters back, before you became a quasi drop-out. You negotiate to have two girls sent over who like to play with couples, when she asks you for a credit card number you inform her about MeeKrob's role in referring you. "Ahh, Siri sent you, in that case, you've been paid for already, enjoy. We have just the perfect selection for the two of you. They should be to your hotel within the half-hour." When the girls arrive, like Allison, they've brought their own toys. Both are petite and a little pale, not unlike Zoe. Diana, the taller of the two has short platinum blonde hair with black tips, she is dressed in what looks to be a fairly expensive cocktail dress and other than her hair, she would not look out of place at a reserved, conservative evening function. Leila, the smaller of the two is dressed in black jeans and a simple white blouse. Her hair, something of a blue-black is just a little bit longer than yours and is in a loose ponytail. She looks like the type who wouldn't look out of place with a courtside seat in the vicinity of Jack Nicholson at a Lakers game in Inglewood. No, these are not the sort of cheap, cute-if-you-don't look-too-close girls who walk Van Buren street back home and offer you a blowjob for twenty bucks, you can tell by everything about them - movement, attitude and general bearing that these two ladies command fees above the thousand dollar mark for their attentions. You do your best to keep up, but between the Valium you took and the adrenaline level finally falling out of your blood from the little incident with Tommy's blade, you only last a few rounds with the ladies, but not missing a beat, Zoe enjoys the two gorgeous young visitors to the fullest, keeping them and herself entertained while you are content to witness as you pass out. You wake up long enough to watch them dress in the pale blue-grey half-light of the moments just before dawn and leave as Zoe curls up in bed next to you. "Remind me," she says, "to send MeeKrob a nice big thank-you note." She smells deliciously like sex as she drifts off beside you and you both sleep off the evening's revelry until one in the afternoon. 030429 ... birdmad we'll ive gone and fucked up, this should be chapter 30 030430 what's it to you? who go blather from