The Big Time

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

TROY SLIPPED HIS FINGERS into the pocket.

He looked at his father. Drew gave him an odd half smile and tilted his head. Troy wondered if his father would keep him alive long enough for the FBI to get there in time, if they were listening.

His fingers closed around the cool metal disk and, hesitantly, he removed it from his pocket.

"Open your hand," Luther grumbled.

Troy's fingers slowly spread. The quarter gleamed up at them.

Luther began to laugh.

It started in low, then grew to a mad cackle.

"Twenty-five cents!" Luther hooted. "Look at your boy, Drew. Your little man is some kind of player, right? Five million in the pipeline, and he's got a quarter in his pocket."

Troy's father joined in the laughter, as did G Money; soon Troy realized it was real laughter, all of it. He broke out in a relieved laugh of his own, looking from one face to another. When it died down, Luther wiped a tear from the corner of one dark and red-rimmed eye and sniffed. Then from his own pocket he removed a fat wad of hundred-dollar bills.

"This is how you carry your money, little man, in a roll," Luther said, "if you're lucky enough to have this much. But you are lucky, right? Lucky for your dad, that's for sure. Lucky like a rabbit's foot."

Troy's father hesitated, then said, "I was lucky to find him."

Luther snorted, stuffed the roll of cash back into his pocket, and looked at G Money, who shrugged as though afraid to take a side.

"That and more," Luther said to Troy's dad with a scowl before he glanced at his watch. "All right. I got this meeting in two minutes, so you take this little family reunion someplace else."

Troy studied G Money, thinking that since it was his house, he'd have something to say about who would go where. Troy was wrong. G Money listened to the big thug like a schoolboy hoping to get out of the principal's office. The rapper flicked his chin, signaling Troy and his dad to follow him. Even though he hadn't completed his mission, Troy could only feel relief at the thought of being free from the horrible gaze of Luther Tolsky.

They hadn't taken two steps before a guard barged in from the entrance and said, "Hey, G Money. We got another kid now."

"What?" G Money said, rumpling his face.

That's when the guard reached behind him, grabbed hold of a collar, and shoved Tate into the big room.