He was still bald, although it looked freshly shaven and it made his beard that much more pronounced. He looked a little older around the eyes, but he was otherwise the exact fucking douchebag that sold me out.

“Don’t ‘hey’ me,” I retorted. “You think three years means I’ve forgotten everything you did? Fuck off, man.”

Boss’s eyes widened, but instead of getting angry, he roared with laughter. “Man, prison sure hardened you up, didn’t it? Look at you. Not a kid no more, huh? All bearded up and brawny. Look at those shoulders.” He grabbed a hold of one and squeezed. “Fuckin’ Jesus, that’s all muscle, ain’t it?”

I didn’t reply. I was bigger, sure, but he didn’t know what was on the inside. I wasn’t a pussy anymore. Whatever soft side I had dissipated over the years, and I was definitely not a fucking coward. Standing in front of the man that used to intimidate me and make me fear my life, I suddenly saw him from a different angle.

He was just a man. Just flesh and bone that had enough money to buy people off to do his bidding. He brought drugs in and sold them to gangs in and around the town, and he did it behind closed doors so nobody would know his identity.

The only reason Boss could do what he did was because he had the connections and wasn’t afraid to put a person in the ground. But then again, he was getting old and frail, and the only way that got done anymore was having his men do it for him. That meant having more money to buy more people off to do big favours.

“You didn’t come to me once in there,” I said, watching him walk to the table in the centre of the room where his whiskey bottle sat.

He picked it up and poured himself a glass. “Mm, you’re right. I didn’t. You wanna know why? Because no dumb bastard is gonna walk in there and visit one of my best men in prison. You think that shit just passes through like water? The fuckin’ guards see everything, and I couldn’t afford that kind of attention. Always gotta think ahead, Ryker. I told you that time and time again.”

“Did you do it on purpose?” I then asked, feeling a bit of adrenaline shoot through my body. I’d longed to ask him this from the time I got arrested.

He looked resignedly up at me. “Do what on purpose?”

“Have me arrested. I never sold drugs. Distribution wasn’t my area. You had me tag along with Ricardo right from the start. I hurt people and gathered aside money with Ricardo. So the one time you tell me to make a drop, I’m suddenly arrested. I’d been tipped off –”

“Don’t be a fool,” he cut in rudely, glaring now at me with those beady blue eyes. “You were my favourite – hell, you’re still my favourite – and the last thing I wanted was to see you put away. I had big plans for you, Ry. I wanted you to lead. Look at me. I’m fifty nine years old. I don’t have much left in me. I needed you. No fuckin’ way in hell would I have sold you out.”

“Then who was it? Ricardo?”

He shrugged like he didn’t give a fuck. “I don’t know who it was. Besides, I can’t ask that cunt anymore. He’s dead. Not like he didn’t deserve it, though. Fucker had enough enemies and was bringing us down.”

“And why did he stalk my family demanding for the money I was caught with?”

He looked at me oddly. “The fuck you on about? I didn’t send him to get money from your family. What fuckin’ family are you talking about anyway? Your brother? That boy had his own troubles by the sounds of things. He got his throat cut up. You hear about that?”

I didn’t respond. My face remained impassive while my thoughts swirled with images of Heath having something that atrocious done to him.

“Who authorized that?” I asked him. Had he gotten it done? But then it didn’t make any sense if he didn’t even know about the debt.

Boss chuckled, shaking his head. “Are you fucking serious right now? Did I not just say I had nothing to do with his hit? I had enough shit on my plate than to worry about some fifty thousand dollar debt. Whatever Ricardo said to him was full blown bullshit, and now I wish that poor bastard had come to me with his troubles. I’d have known Ricardo was doing the dirty, pocketing money without letting me know. That makes me rage.”

Now I was really confused. All this time… Fuck, all this time I was obsessing over demanding answers from the wrong guy?

“Besides,” he added, taking a giant gulp of his glass before he pounded it on the table, “I got someone stealin’ from me. They’ve been robbing me for two years now. First they stole from the cash house Ricardo was at, and then it took off from there. I’m talkin’ fifteen walls knocked down in the last two years. I’m being bled dry. The tension in Hedley is through the roof. I’ve got men I don’t even trust working the streets tellin’ me they’re trying to find the guy responsible. But fuckin’ hell, it’s hard to trust anybody now.

“And you wanna know the most fucked up thing of all? I heard the fucker. There were two of ‘em. I got a call from some junkie – Adams was his name or some shit – and I know he called to tell me their names. I just wish the dickhead had shouted it out or somethin’. He ended up with a bullet to the head, which tells me these fuckers are hard. They ain’t scared of getting their hands dirty. They ain’t amateur.”

I frowned, considering his words. “Did you recognize the voices?”

“I didn’t recognize shit. You know how many people I talk to in one day? I don’t have time to log away every fuckin’ voice in my head. But one of ‘em was shot. I had the men tear through the streets looking for a wounded guy.”

“Anything turn up?”

“No. Not one fuckin’ thing.” He exhaled, looking exhausted as he collapsed on the chair. “With you gone, I tried to rely on my fuckin’ kid to get things done. But he’s useless as tits and I couldn’t take him. I need you. I’m glad you’re back. You were hitting your stride. You were toughening up, but now I take another look at you after all these years, I see you’ve changed. You’re hardened, aren’t you? See, that’s what I wanted. I needed you to harden up.”

“You weren’t hardening me up,” I retorted. “You were scaring the fuck out of me. You paired me up with a lunatic that thrived on killing people. I saw shit nobody deserves to see.”