Page 24 of Ryder
I clearly wasn’t alone, and I wearily lifted my head, feeling like it had bricks on top of it.
“Who thefuck… is here?”
“Ice.”
I groaned, my head woozy, and full of the bizarre images from my dreams.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
“Well, I’ll tell you what I’mnotdoing. I’m not cleaning that shit up, man. You’re on your own.”
I moved around on my bed, until I could finally see him on my sofa. He had a laptop on the table, which was the right way up again, and he was messing with something on the screen.
“Does everyone know?”
He glanced away from his screen at me for a moment.
“Know what? I was asked to track the sender of some text messages, and that’s what I’m doing.”
“I appreciate your discretion, but you saw it, didn’t you?” I pushed myself up from my position of dangling half off the bed,and groaned when my stomach gurgled at me. I could smell vomit, and it wasn’t helping me not want to do it again.
“Brother, I’m just doing what they told me to do. I stayed here, because they were concerned you might… you know… blow chunks everywhere, and I figured I could stop you before you choked on it.”
“That’s so comforting.”
He shrugged. “I was keeping my eyes on a few things, so I was gonna be up anyway.”
I ran my hands through my hair, which was sticking up all over the damn place, and glanced around for my phone, finally remembering that they took it, and Ice or my fucking President or VP had it.
“I need to get a fucking clock. I’m lost without my phone.”
“It’s almost six in the morning,” Ice muttered, waving my phone at me.
“She didn’t send anything else?” I asked, suddenly wanting, and yet not wanting, to know, all at the same time.
“Nothing more came through. I’ve cloned it, so I can track any further messages in real time.”
I got up from the bed, heading for my bathroom, stepping carefully around the mess I’d made.
“So I get no privacy at all now?”
“Well, I’m not gonna watch you take a piss, so there’s that.”
Prick.
I used the bathroom, taking ages to brush my teeth, because post-vomit mouth is not pleasant. When I came back out, there was a prospect grimacing as he cleaned up the vomit on the floor.
“Sorry, brother,” I muttered, as I carefully edged past, my bare feet missing the splash zone, but only just. I didn’t even know when I’d taken off my boots. I remembered drinkingvodka, and… oh yeah, they dumped me on my bed. I must have crashed out straight away.
Jesus.I’m that guy now. Drunk and sleeping when I should be working. I went to the kitchen, and filled the kettle.
“Coffee?” I glanced at Ice, and he nodded. So caffeine was allowed, but no alcohol. Wouldn’t want to accidentally dilute all the fucking drugs in his system.
“Prospect?” He glanced up from his cleaning, and I couldn’t remember his fucking name. It wasn’t Jacko or Tommy. It was the newest guy. He shook his head, looking like he wanted to throw up too.
I brought coffee with me, to sit opposite Ice. I didn’t want to see his screen, because I didn’t want to see if the video was up on there.
“Shipment is coming in later this morning, and I’ve got a team covering it,” he muttered, knowing that I’d normally be involved when we had drug shipments coming in. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t use the stuff, but I’d help issue it to those who did. What they chose to put in their bodies wasn’t my business, after all.
