Page 17 of Gold Rush
“You don’t want in the middle of this,” Hippy told him, pulling him back into his room.
Goldie went into Abs’s room without knocking, and Abs gasped hard, yelling, “Against the rules! You can’t come in uninvited!”
“So, go tell Murph on me!”
Abs sat on his bed, arms crossed over his chest, pouting like a two-year-old.
Goldie laughed, he couldn’t help it. “God, Abs, stop.”
“We always said that we wouldn’t get with anyone if the other one didn’t like it.”
Goldie remembered their pledge, and sat by him on the bed, grabbing his hand, even with Abs trying to pull away. “I know, but something we didn’t think of. I don’t think anyone you could be with would pass my inspection. Same for you, I’m guessing.”
Abs opened his mouth to argue, but then he snapped it shut.
“I don’t think there is a guy in the entire world I’d see you with and approve. You are the one person in my life I’ve always been able to depend on, and who loved me, and I never, everdoubted you loved me. Sure, the other guys here are my friends and family too, but it’s you, baby boy. I love you more than I love myself. You are the guy who will always be in my life. He’s…special. He’s sweet, and maybe it’s not going to work out, maybe it will, but either way, I know you’re here for me, always. Maybe it’s the whole reason I can take a leap with a guy. If I fall on my face, you’ll be there to pick me back up and dust me off.”
Abs started to sob and straddled Goldie’s lap, hugging him around the neck tightly enough that Goldie could barely breathe. “You’re the best. You’re my best friend, and I love you, I do! I love you forever and ever, and please don’t get hurt. I don’t want to have to kill him.”
“You’d kill for me! See, that’s what I’m talkin’ about.”
Abs laughed through his tears. “You’re a dick.”
“Yeah, you are too. Listen, I didn’t go in and fuck him. I’m trying to start something that means more than that. Can you handle it?”
“Yeah,” he said after a slight hesitation that meant he would still be on the lookout for any signs that he wasn’t good enough for Goldie. Goldie knew he could live with that.
“I love you, baby boy. Forever and always.”
Abs kissed him and said, “I know. You better.”
“You’re the worst. Get off me. I’m going to bed.”
“With Haze. Lucky guy.”
“Right? Hot Latino man in my bed with me? Maybe he’s the one you should worry about.”
The next four days, Goldie went to scope out the pimp’s place. He took enough notes to fill a thousand-page book, but he’d yet to see them moving the money. Murphy let him off work for the weekends, which was unheard of, but the meeting they had was likely the reason.
Murphy was going to play pimp to the six of them. They were going to move into the other pimp’s territory. The other pimp,namely Sammy Dane, who claimed to own fifty men, women, trans men and women, and even an entire line of underage kids.
All Murphy had were the six men, but they planned on making it look like he was pulling in ten thousand a night, just with the six. The rumors were already spreading as Dean played his part, bragging to his friends he was trying to get in the stable of Mickey Connor, the new pimp in D-town.
Taran was in on it, and so was Sonny, who was calling his police contacts to let them know what was happening. It was all falling nicely into place.
The men from the neighborhood and those close to the people Murphy and the men at the pub had helped were in on it as well. They would play the clients, the Johns, if you will, and Murphy would sit on his throne, watching over his stable.
Murphy hated it, but Eazy got a good giggle from it. “Murphy the pimp,” he’d said several times a day and laugh.
At the meeting on Monday, Goldie told them good news.
“Sunday night. This fucker sends the money on an old church bus, if you can believe that. Like, the bus drops off some of his stable, and then picks up these black cases. Seven of them. From what Dean has told me, the cases are the perfect size for all that cash. He takes it to an accountant in Commerce City.”
“Already sketchy,” Haze said. “Any accountant worth their salt has nice offices downtown or somewhere without the smell of chemicals and diesel in the air.”
“Well, those trucking companies and chemical companies need accountants too,” Mims reasoned.
“Still, who better to launder the money for them?” Goldie asked.
