Page 64 of Made of Steele
The thug crossed to a crate that had already been opened. He pulled out items wrapped in bubble wrap and carefully set them on the floor. Next he took out a brick wrapped in cellophane and brown tape. The thug handed the brick to Drew.
He took a good look at the compressed white powder instead of the darker tan powder he was expecting, and his anger rose. He took a beat to swallow it down and eyed Rossi. “You trying to mess with me?”
“What do you mean?” Rossi blinked, acting all innocent.
“You think I’m stupid or something.” Drew held out the brick, likely a kilo or about two pounds of drugs. “This is coke not heroin like Sal said you’d be giving me to hold. Half the value and I’d have to hold a lot more product.”
Rossi laughed off the comment. “Join me at the table and bring the brick.”
Drew followed Rossi to an old wooden table covered in brown paper.
Rossi held out his hand. “The brick?”
Drew gave it to him.
Rossi slit open the cellophane and set it on the table. He tapped it with a small hammer. The exterior of the brick fell apart and inside was another brick, this one tan like heroin.
“We hide the heroin inside the coke to deceive our mid-level transporters,” Rossi said.
Drew met Rossi’s gaze. “Why on earth would you do that?”
“Our shippers charge higher rates for heroin versus cocaine shipments. Gotta keep the costs down whenever we can. And it helps us diversify with two products to move.”
Made sense to Drew. “I’ll need to have my guy test the quality.”
“Of course.” Rossi lifted his chin. “You’ll find it to be topnotch.”
Drew kept his gaze fixed on Rossi. “Once we confirm it’s the good stuff, how much are you prepared to front?”
“Equal street value to the cash you’re depositing for us to wash. If all goes well, you can hold that in inventory, and we’ll keep funneling the money. Once we know you can handle the cash, we can talk about you moving that product for us too.”
Drew smiled. “Exactly what I was hoping for.”
Rossi looked at his thug. “Wrap this up and let this guy get out of here.”
The thug took the brown paper and wrapped it with practiced ease before handing the package to Drew.
He casually tucked it under his arm as if he carried big dollars in cocaine and heroin all the time. The coke was likely worth thirty-thousand dollars or more and the heroin two times that amount. “I’ll get back to Sal as soon as I can.”
“See that you do.” Rossi eyed Drew, the man’s gaze dark and threatening.
Drew looked at the thug. “My weapon.”
The thug looked to Rossi for approval, and he nodded.
Drew holstered his weapon as a sign of his trust and strode toward the door. The evil emanating from this man burned into Drew’s back as he headed for the exit. Each step he feared a bullet to the back. He arrived at the door unscathed. He opened it and wanted to bolt but paused when he heard Rossi speak.
“Something about that guy I don’t like,” Rossi said.
“Maybe it’s because he’s as cocky as you are,” Sal said. “You gotta be number one.”
“Iamnumber one, and I aim to stay that way. I want you to continue to keep an eye on him.”
Drew had figured there would be additional measures taken once he was holding Rossi’s drugs, but the Contis trusted him and he didn’t think they would follow through. Still, Drew had to be more alert and more cognizant that he could be putting Teagan in greater danger if he spent time with her. Dating would need to stop, and he would also encourage her to back away from the investigation.
Yeah, right.Like she would go for that. Still, he had to try.
If the Contis did follow through, they wouldn’t change their surveillance immediately, giving Drew plenty of time for Teagan to join him in taking the drugs to the Veritas Center.
