The Setup

Stef

It had been 3 days since D stopped the supply. 3 excruciatingly long days. On a day like today Stef could not help but question what he was doing with his life. Sophie always took forever to get ready, but she always looked fine when she was done. She was the one good thing Stef could say this life did for him, and he had saved her from a life of vanilla misery.

“come on let’s go girl, what’s taking so long?” He said peering around the corner towards the bedroom.

Sophie had come over leaving her parents’ house in sweats. She had told them she was going to her friend Gigi’s to study. Her parents were the horses with blinders type, they only ever saw what they wanted to see. To them she was an obedient, school going, daddy’s girl. The first time Stef saw her she was with some ivy league douche bag, and even though the only reason he bothered to mess with her was because she was rich, she had grown on him and now he didn’t know what his life would look like without her in it. 20 minutes later she walked out and Stef could not help but smile. She was perfect. She liked bright colors, and they agreed with her. She had put pink highlights in her naturally brunet hair to match her hot pink mini dress. The dress of course paled compared to the body that was wearing it.
They headed out to Nitro, a club Stef always showed out to on Tuesdays, the DJ was fire, and the crowd was always decent but more importantly the Rossi’s had a table booth there every Tuesday. Some weeks only the low-level guys would show up, to show off to whatever sponge they were trying to bang that night, but occasionally someone who was somebody would show up and those were the days that were important.

Stef liked working for D, he was good to Stef, but if the past few days showed Stef anything it was that D was getting soft. He would end up starving if he stuck around with D. He had to find food where the food was at.
Nitro was jumping tonight, and they got there just in time to see Vic, one of the Rossi brothers, plop down at their regular table. Stef grabbed onto Sophie’s waist and pulled her to the dance floor. He swayed back and forth with her, constantly looking up at the booth. When Stef was sure he might get a second with Vic, gathered up enough courage to go over and talk to him.

“I’ll be right back” He shouted next to Sophie’s ear.

“where are you going, we just got here” she asked annoyed.

“I’m gonna get us a couple drinks” He replied kissing her on the cheek.

“O.K.” she responded, throwing her hands in the air as the tempo of the music rose.

He pushed His way through the crowd and pulled at his collar as he climbed the metal stairs to reach Vic’s table. Vic had noticed him coming and whispered something to the girl sitting next to him. As Stef came closer, she studs up and left. Stef watched her pass by him and impulsively stared at her ass as she went.

“Nice right?” Vic lamented as he watched Stef’s reaction

“Very Nice”

“Your one of Dave’s people No?” he asked throwing his arms over the back of the couch.

“I work with him sometimes”

“Well, what can I do for you, guy that works for Dave sometimes” he said sarcastically with a smirk on his face.

Under normal circumstances Stef would have driven his face into the glass table, but this wasn’t the type of guy you wanted to casually insult. Sure, he wasn’t a hard-core killer like D, but he knew people that were and those people feared him, or rather feared what he represented.

“yeah” Stef responded gesturing to the couch “you mind?”

“knock yourself out”

“So,” Stef continued sliding into the booth, “I’m looking to expand my horizon, now I know you been places, know people, I figure you’re the guy to talk to about something like that.”

“That so” Vic responded, glancing over his shoulder”

“That’s what I heard”

“And if I help you out, what’s in it for me?”

“Name your price and it’s yours”

“How about that fine thing you walked in with” Vic responded, smiling deviously.

Stef could feel a heat rising in the pit of his stomach and his teeth were clenched so hard he was sure that they would break. He pulled his clenched fist off the table and dropped them in his lap.

“she aint yours, is she?” Vic asked, bringing both hands to rest on the table between them, pulling closer to Stef.

After what seemed like an unreasonably long pause, Stef looked back at Sophie twerking on the dance floor, then back at Vic.

“Nah, she’s just some chick that hangs around me” He said forcing a smile.

Vic seemed to be deterred and fell back into his original position. This made Stef feel less tense, as it seemed Vic’s act was over. The muscles in his body seemed to relax, though his anger remained. Vic Kept the same dipshit grin on his face as he spoke and for a second, Stef considered just getting up and walking away, except this was too important.

“I might have something for you, but like I said aint nothing free in this world. Leave your digits I’ll let you know”

Stef grabbed a waitress that was passing by and asked for a pen which she fished from somewhere. Stef wrote his number on a napkin and handed the pen back to her.

“We good” Stef asked, pushing the napkin in Vic’s direction and rising to his feet.

“We shall see’ Vic responded, throwing back a glass of whatever the hell was in his glass.

Stef left the booth in a worse temper than he had gone in. The fire he had been holding in was building now, and he could no longer hold it in. As he got closer to Sophie, she looked disappointed and Stef just could not care less. He grabbed her by the arm and headed for the door.

“I thought you were going to get up drinks?” she asked with a frown “ah, What the hell your hurting me” she winced as he dragged her out the
door.

*************************************************************************************

Gigi

It had been a few days since Gigi had laid eyes on Sophie, but she had insisted on the phone that she was fine and Gigi left it at that. The summer was ending and Gigi had fallen into the routine of classes. She shared one class this semester with Sophie, who she had met at orientation at the beginning of the month. Gigi had heard about her from a group of students who had gone to high school with her. Sophie sounded like the kind of girl gig could get used to hanging around, so when the opportunity presented itself she made an introduction. Sophie turned out to be less of the snobby, entitled socialite that they had portrayed her to be. Nevertheless, she was still a party girl, which was in line with the experience that Gigi wanted. Gigi could tell from how quickly she had gained Sophie's confidence that despite coming from money Sophie had few friends and just wanted to fit in.

Gigi made plans to meet Sophie for lunch. Sophie had a fight with Stef and wanted to vent. Gigi arrived first at a corner table at the coffee shop just off campus. While she waited, she ordered a black coffee and stared at nothing out the window. Soon after, she spotted Sophie out the window getting out of a cab and waved at her. As soon as Sophie sat down she recounted the fight, she had with Stef after they left the nightclub. Gigi had heard Sophie talk about the club before, but she herself had never been. Gigi nodded and gasped at the appropriate moments and threw in a few “no’s” an “he didn’ts”. After an hour of listening, Gigi learned that Stef’s boss had suspended him from work recently and that is most likely why he was always in a foul mood lately. Sophie had implied that Stef was a pretender, and he struck her. Sophie had been feeling horrible for what she said and had wanted to do something to make up for it.

“Lets go shopping” Gigi suggested putting down her half consumed coffee.

“I mean who can resist a sexy get up right? Plus, it will make you feel better.”

“you’re a genius” Sophie responded “what would I do without you”

Sophie called for a waiter and paid the bill before the two girls set out. They browsed the racks of an upscale lingerie boutique, which Sophie assured had the best quality and variety wear.

“so have you sworn off dating or do you have someone in mind?” Sophie asked holding up a pink lace bra to gigi chest.
“well there might he someone, I’m not sure yet”

“No, tell me everything” Sophie responded, grabbing Gigi’s arm with excitement.

“well nothing is set in stone, but I met a guy a couple days ago. He is older, more experienced, very handsome.”

“did you meet him, meet him, or just saw him?’ Sophie asked skeptical.

I actually met him, Gigi laughed, pushing Sophie into the dressing room and closing the curtain.

“so did he ask you out?”

No,

Did you ask him out?

No

“I don’t get it” Sophie responded pushing her head outside the curtain.

Well, the opportunity hasn’t presented itself yet.

What if it never does? Sophie asked, resuming her fitting.

Then I guess I’ll have to make it happen. How does it fit?”

He won’ even remember why he was made at me. Sophie replied.


David

David checks the mailbox of his house but finds nothing but ads and a local newspaper. Nothing from Mac.
He has sent a text and then another and another all went unanswered. It had been a month since Mac’s last contact and David and was out of the product. He had reached out to a new chemist in hopes of reverse engineering Honey the new trend in designer drugs. David’s plan had been to take over the operation by cut Mac out completely. He had thought he could make triple the profits if he had control, plus he would not have to pay Mac half of the profits. He was sure there was no way for mac to find out about it. He had contracted a guy from out of state and was very discrete.

Unfortunately, after a month of setting his plan in motion, Mac stopped delivering reups. At first David assumed that maybe Mac got arrested, or maybe the package got jacked by the currier. After the second batch of reups failed to appear, it became more apparent that Mac knew what he was up to and was choosing not to send anymore supply. Ax, the chemist he hired to replicate Honey, only managed to make a more deadly version of it that was dropping bodies fast. This was bad for business and bad for him. His dealers were already on edge, having to be benched for an entire week. If he told them they would have to wait any longer, his credibility would be called into question and he would be forced to hurt someone to prevent mutiny.

Stef had called 7 times already today inevitably, David would have to confront him, eventually. David never disclosed his personal address to Stef or anyone else in his crew partly to insulate himself but mostly because even though Stef was a good earner Stef was only loyal to the money and could not be trusted. So despite being his right hand, David kept him at arm’s length.

Until last summer, David had been working as a locksmith. He had been three months behind on his mortgage and they had been living on credit cards for the last month. Molly was a godsend. He had no idea what she saw in him or why she had said yes when he asked her to marry him, but he knew she was the best thing to have every happened to him. He grew up in a touch neighborhood in Everton county, and he got into his fair share of trouble. Back then he was a runner for cutthroat Carter even before he graduated high school. His teachers had high hopes for him because he had shown an aptitude for the sciences. Back then David only cared about making his mark on the streets, so even though he had done well in school, it was a foregone conclusion that the streets were where he would end up. He had made a reputation for himself. That being completely unpredictable and extremely savage. He had been careful to avoid catching a body, but as time went by, it was also one of those inevitabilities.. People had often associated him with murders that had gone unsolved over the years and he made a point never to correct them.

He had felt an overwhelming guilt for the one murder he had a hand in. He wasn’t the one to pull the trigger, but he might as well have been. Since then he had begun feeling disillusioned by the game he had been playing with his life. When the cops pulled him over with half a kilo of oxi, it was a relief. He had not thought he was tired of the game, but he was. He plead out and spent 5 years in a prison two states over. When he got out, he was determined to walk a new path, to find a new way of living, and as if someone had seen through his heart and answered his prayers, Molly appeared.

David had stayed true to his promise to himself and to her to stay out of the drug game and for 10 years he did. They got married, had two kids, even managed to save up enough money to put a down payment on a house in the suburbs. Molly had a good job as a nurse at the regional hospital and he had a steady job as a locksmith, a trade he learned after he got out. Then his youngest got sick. He leveraged as much as he could and they borrowed as much as the banks were willing to lend. In February of last year, the doctors gave his son a clean bill of health. It had been welcomed news after months of worries and struggles, but as they had celebrated the good news, they had the reality of its aftermath to deal with. Molly had picked up extra shifts at the hospital when she could and got a second job to pick up the slack. He had started to feel helpless when the creditors began calling.

That May a leggy brunet had walked into the shop to get a key copied and had flirted with him. He had considered asking her for her number but decided against it. A few days later she had come in again and said she had lost the copy he had made before. This time she gave him her number and insisted that he call her. He kept the number for a week before he called her. David was sure she had forgotten him, but she had not and that evening they met at a dimly lit both at a diner in the city. Molly had just left for the night shift and he paid a kid from the neighborhood $20 to watch the kids.

She was wearing a skintight top the exposed her breasts and smiled at him when he walked in
.
“I was starting to think I you didn’t like what you saw” she said as David sat down. He smiled and looked at her chest, then back at her face.

“you caught me off guard that’s all took me a minute”

Well then, why don’t we get to it. She opened her bag, and brought out a manila envelop and slid it across the table to him. David kept his smile, but his confusion was obvious. He grabbed the envelope and looked inside to see two bands of cash inside. The smile immediately left his face and was replaced with a frown. He dropped the envelop back on the table and asked;

“who are you, carter sent you?”

David could feel the anger swelling up inside him. He began to look around the dinner in a panic. He had evaded that part of his life for so long now. Had it come back to haunt him?

“relax, Like I said at the Shop I’m Angie. I don’t know who carter is, but I heard stories about you. I think you are the kind of guy I need right

now, and what I want to know is if you could do with some extra income.”

“really, you expect me to believe you aren’t one of carter’s people?”

“ I said I don’t know any carter, but if you want to go out and look around be my guest.”

David continued to look around the diner suspiciously and then back at her.

“I don’t do murder for hire, I can’t help you.”

“ I’m glad to hear it dead bodies draw attention and we wouldn’t want that.”

“Then what are you selling?”

“Honey”

“Honey?”

Angie pulled out a small bag with three star-shaped yellow pills and slid it over to him.

“honey, its similar to ecstasy but a hundred times better”

“hell no, I’m not into that kind o shit anymore.” David replied, rising to his feet.

“wait, just wait” Angie said rising with him and grabbing his arm.

“just hear me out, you don’t have to commit to anything, just listen.” David looked at the door then back at her, then he pulled his hand from her grasp and sat half in the booth and half out.

“my partner came up with this formula, at first it was just for fun but them the kids at our school started paying top dollar for it. Next thing we know people start wanting more and paying more to get it, so we thought if we partnered up with someone who could help us get the stuff to people who want it we could make ten times what we are making now. I happened to hear about you from some people and I looked you up. I honestly didn’t expect to find you in nowhere suburbia”

“This all sounds great, but I’m not really convinced. I guess I wasn’t your guy after all”

“why don’t you think on it” Angie replied, reaching over and grabbing the envelope and the little baggy and putting the little bag in the envelop.

“and as a sign of goodwill, you can have this, if you decide to get on board you have my number, if not here is 10 grand for your trouble” she got up and handed him the envelop and left.

David had begun to wonder if he had said no back then if things would be different now. If he would have figure out a way to break even with the bills. It was pointless to wonder what if now. he was in it and he needed to figure out a way to get Honey flowing again or he would lose out on more than just his cash cow.

David picked up the phone again and texted Stef

Let’s meet at the spot tomorrow.