Read Online Fragged: A BWWM Military Romance by Paige Notaro - Free Book Online Page B

flame.
    “Are you in pain?” My father stood. “Come, sit. I’ll get another chair. Would you like some sweet tea?”
    “Sweet tea never hurts.” I sat as my father went in for it.
    “Diabetes, brother,” Homer said, chewing on tobacco even as he said it.
    He held out a hand.
    I stared at it for a long while before clapping my hand down.
    Brother.
    I would have said that word without hesitation before I served. But it was becoming almost impossible.
    It felt very close to another lie.
    I was grateful when my father came back and handed me a glass of cold tea. He clacked down another chair next to me.
    “There’s no permanent damage, I hope,” he said.
    “I doubt it. It missed the knee.”
    “Then we are lucky.” He clapped my intact leg. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be more supportive over the phone. I was praying for you.”
    “Yeah, brother,” Homer said. “We were both worried. I’m glad it all worked out. They even released you early.”
    “I asked for that.”
    “Why?”
    “To get back on base on soon as possible. We have our next window to move guns next week and I wanted to be prepared.”
    “Ah, there’s no rush for that. We have no buyers for those and we’ve got enough hardware for our operation.”
    I had the urge to smash my glass on his ball head.
    “No rush?” I measured out my words. “Will your money be worth a thing when this nation falls apart and we have to stand for ourselves?”
    “We understand,” my father cut in. “I think Homer just meant we don’t want to risk your health over reaching this deadline.”
    Homer spit a wad of his tobacco in a tumbler resting on the arm of his chair. “One missed load ain’t gonna make or break us in the long run. We should focus on what we can get.”
    It wasn’t what he said that was wrong. It was the way he threw the matter aside with his tone. This was how people lost their way, taking short term pleasure over long term achievement.
    Even as I indicted him, my brain flashed an image of Rosa’s face slack with ecstasy.
    I shook her from my thoughts. That was a different matter.
    “So what else can we get?” I asked my father. Homer might stray, but my father could pull him back.
    “We were just talking about our preparation,” my father said gently. “We’ve been buying gold with about a third of the profit Homer and the Soldiers pull in. That said, we can make much more in the long run if we reinvest some of that into growing their distribution further.”
    “Grow distribution?” I was almost slack-jawed. “You enlisted my help by telling me the Soldiers just wanted to get rid of what they had in storage. You called it a singular event.”
    “That event was a one-time thing,” Homer said. “We didn’t have the manpower to move the product we had at the time. That’s why we need to grow.”
    “I was shot in front of your facility by the Cartel,” I growled. “They knows where it is. They’ve sent their message. Do you want to start a war?”
    “Calix,” my father said. “There has always been a war. There will be more before we achieve our end. And wars need soldiers, training and financing. Increasing distribution is the way to build all three.”
    “Distribution of drugs,” I said. “Of meth. That’s what we’re talking about.”
    “Actually what we were talking about was expanding beyond meth,” Homer said.
    “You’re on board with this?” I asked my father.
    “It took some time, but now I am. I made up a list of drug markets, actually.” My father gave a bashful, almost ashamed smile.
    At least he had some sense of how messed up this shit was getting. How far we were from the goals he had instilled me.
    The goals we had formed to give meaning to my mother’s murder.
    I stared out viciously at the green backyard. Nothing there offered a handle for my anger.
    “Who are we going to be if we go down this path?” I asked. “What’s the difference between us and some ghetto hoods or those barrio