Page 25 of Bad Medicine
“What do you know about Frankie the Wolf?”
“I know you’re a dead man if word gets out that you’re holding me here,” he went on, and I had to give him credit. He may have been shaking in his boots, but he kept his head up, which was more than our crying friend in the corner had done.
“You can relax, boys,” Francesca cut in when it looked like Enzo was about to blow. Pushing forward, she crossed her arms and smirked at the kid. “This one’s with me.”
“You know this punk?” Enzo questioned, clearly struggling with the concept.
“Sure do.”
“Caught him spray painting the back of the building atSin City,” Massimo drawled, shoving the kid forward and forcing him to stumble closer to Enzo. “He was drawing a wolf’s head when I rolled up.” The kid tossed a look at Francesca, who was smiling at him like a proud mama hen. “Little shit runs fast, but I caught him in the end.”
“Sway,” Francesca said mockingly. “What did I tell you about breaking the law?”
“Not until my homework was done,” he said, grinning. “Got it covered, Frankie. Finished that shit in class.”
“What the hell, Francesca?” Enzo cut into their banter. My boy did hate being ignored. “How do you know this kid?”
“Francesca?” the kid, Sway, laughed. “That’s an old lady name.”
“Hey,” she barked, whacking his arm playfully. “Watch your mouth,Sway.”
“Alright, alright.” He shook his head and raised his hands defensively. “So, you wanna tell me what we’re doing here in what is clearly a torture den? I didn’t realize the penalty for tagging had been increased from a warning to an unmarked grave in the desert, but hey, what do I know?”
Francesca laughed. “Sway, this is my husband, Enzo Argenti,” she said, and that’s when the kid finally realized whose house he was in, his face going pale at the name. “Enzo, this is Sway. My eyes and ears on the streets.”
“Gotta keep my streets under control,” Sway said, though perhaps with a little less swagger than before. “Watch out for the little guy, you know how it is?”
At those words, something inside my chest clenched, and I had raised my hand to rub at the spot before I even realized what I was doing.
Memories from my childhood began to resurface from where I liked to keep them buried, moments of stress, fear, hunger, and sadness that I preferred not to unpack if I could help it. In fact, it had been years since I had taken a good look at my past, but that was how I liked it.
Because I knew exactly what Sway was talking about.
Shoving those thoughts back into their darkened corner, I tuned back into the conversation and tried to keep up.
“You mean my streets,” Enzo growled at Sway, and while the kid kept a defiant look on his face, I did notice how he had stepped just a little closer to Francesca.
“Sure, okay,” Sway said with a snort. “If you say so.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Masi asked, delivering another shove to Sway’s shoulder. Francesca scowled, but said nothing.
“It means—” Sway drug the word out dramatically “—that if they were his streets, he’d be doing a better job of keeping them clean, that’s all.”
“Clean how?” I asked. I knew the type of shit that could happen when kids were neglected and everyone turned a blind eye.
I knew that all too well.
“Look, man. There’s shit going around that ain’t good for no one, you know? That Frost Bite is tearing shit up, and it’s messier than fuck out there.”
Enzo blew out a breath. “Fuckin’ Frost Bite again.”
This was the drug we had been hearing about; the thing that had been turning up in our clubs, but so far, no one had been able to find a source.
“Yeah, man. Frost Bite. That shit is everywhere right now. Started out real cheap, you know. Five bucks a hit, something like that, but the price is going up as demand rises. Now, you want that shit, you gotta shell out huge, and you need to trade in favors. It’s bullshit.”
“Favors?” Enzo pressed.
“Yeah, you know, like, you wanna score, you gotta rob a store first, bring your haul to prove you did it. Or maybe, you already did that, got your hit. Next time, The Chemist ain’t letting you off easy. Next time, you gotta bring him something serious to prove you’re legit.”
