The Kings Of Cool

220

“What did you give them?” Chad Meldrun asks, sitting across the table.

“Nothing,” Crowe says.

“Don’t jerk me,” Chad says. “I need to know.”

Yeah-Duane knows who needs to know.

It’s been the deal forever. You get busted with serious weight, you’re allowed to play certain cards-you can give up locations of stashes, safe houses. You just tell the lawyer, who tells the boys so they can move the stuff.

What you can’t use to trade your way out are people. You do that, it’s a problem.

“I gave them shit,” Duane says.

“Go ahead and give them something,” Chad says.

Duane shakes his head. “They don’t want it. They just want the guys.”

“And you didn’t do that.”

“How many times you need to hear it?”

“Okay, we’re good,” Chad says.

“No, you’re good,” Duane says. “I’m fucked. This was a setup. The fucking fed is in bed with Leonard. Leonard set us up.”

“If you knew that, why did you do the deal?”

“I fucked up,” Duane says. “I thought he was, you know, cowed. And thirty-five cents on the dollar… shit.”

“Okay, okay,” Chad says. “What about Hennessy? Will he hold up?”

Duane shrugs.

“We have another lawyer coming for him,” Chad says. “He’ll get Hennessy out on bail.”

“Fuck him,” Crowe says. “Get me the fuck out of here.”

“I’m going to do my best, cowboy.”

“I’m not a cowboy,” Duane says irritably. “You see boots and a dumbass hat?”

Cowboy…

Fuck.