Page 69 of Keep Him Like Secrets

Shit.

The rest of the dye must have washed off in the shower.

Great. That was just great.

“Nope, same as it was,” I lied. Better to gaslight the contractor than have Soren find out I was secretly dying it each time I saw him, so he didn’t get suspicious about my credentials. “Alright. I’m gonna let Soren handle this. I have… somewhere to be.”

I had to see a man about a dumpster.

More specifically, I had to see a local crew about a dumpster. Because there was no way one guy had pushed that damn thing full of that much marble.

Before Gav could object, I slipped back down the alley.

“What is it?” Renzo answered on the first ring, sounding distracted.

“Someone jacked a shipment of marble from the club,” I told him. “Twenty-five grand in product.”

“Shit.”

“I want to get it back.”

“No shit you do. Alright, look,” he went on, sounding more focused. “I don’t want them knowing you’re involved with that club. At least not directly. If you want to spew some shit about not wanting the club to take this as a sign to choose a different location, when we planned to lean on them, go with that.”

“Got it,” I said. I hung up, then called Bastian.

“You’re calling me?” he asked. “Did something happen?”

“I need some muscle. Literally.”

“For what?”

“Someone in the neighborhood jacked the marble for the club. Just stacked it in a dumpster and rolled it off. I’m gonna need some help rolling it back when I find it.”

“Alright. Tell me where to meet you.”

Done with that, I shot off a text to Serano, then started looking.

The neighborhood was big, and there were many places to hide a dumpster. But there were also a lot of eyes around. While most people liked to mind their own business, sometimes kids or the unhoused would be willing to provide some information for some cash.

It was about an hour and a half before we finally found someone who’d both accept the money to talkandhad actually seen something.

“Should have guessed it was the Gallagher boys,” Bass said.

“What do you know about the Gallagher boys?”

“Haven’t been sitting on my ass since I got out of prison, you know—”

“To be fair, I figured you would be fucking your way through all the boroughs.”

“Well, there’s been some of that,” he admitted, eyes warm. “But I’ve been working hard to figure out all the crews operating not only in Brooklyn but some of the other boroughs. So many have changed since I went away. When Renzo finally lets me have my own crew, I want to be a solid leader.”

“Etiquette lessons aside, I think you’ll run a solid crew.”

“Yeah? Means a lot coming from you.”

“Sure,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“Hey,” he said, stopping mid-stride to look at me. “For the record, I’m not on your ass because I don’t think you know what you’re doing. I really need this job to reflect well on me. Lost years of my life inside. My career should be on par with Rico’s, but I’m doing jobs like an associate instead.”

---