I think of her in other ways as well. I put out a warning to all my dealers at her brother’s college not to deal to him, or there will be consequences. “Do not sell to him. Do not talk to him. Do not even f*****g look at him. Am I clear?”
The yes, sir that echoes at the end of each call like that that I make, repeating those instructions, is as crisp and obedient as I expect it to be. I do not have to describe to them the future they will inhabit if they even so much as think about crossing me. My tone tells the story, clear as day.
When I hang up for the last time, and Dani’s brother has been effectively marooned on a drug-free island in the middle of this oasis of sin we call a city, I think about calling her.
But I don’t, of course. The feeling passes swiftly. I am not that sort of m
