Bad to Be Worthy (Bad to Be Good #2) - Andrew Grey Page 0,1
was what he once had, and there was no way he was ever going to have that again.
The guy drew closer again, and Gerome could see him more clearly now. He came nearer, checking the shore as he moved. That drew Gerome’s curiosity. He waited until the man passed, heading south, and then slowly got to his feet, ambling out to the water’s edge. Whatever this guy was looking for, it wasn’t likely he was going to find it, not at night. The water gave up her secrets reluctantly, just like Gerome, and she only did it when she wanted to. Still, Gerome wandered the way the guy had come for a little while. He didn’t have anywhere he needed to be, and it wasn’t late, just dark. He turned back after a while, watching for the other guy but not seeing him.
Gerome figured it was time to go home and let this guy have whatever he was looking for. At the path back to the road, Gerome was about to turn when something tumbling in the surf caught his eye. He checked both ways, but the beach was deserted. He bent down and lifted a floating bundle out of the water. It was wrapped tightly in plastic, and he groaned as he looked it over.
His first instinct was that it was drugs, a bundle packaged for transport, but it wasn’t heavy enough for that. Gerome took off his sweatshirt, wrapped the package inside it, and strolled off the beach, across the main road, and down the small side street toward the low apartment building where he lived. Terrance had an apartment there too. Together with Richard, they were as close as—maybe closer than—brothers. Richard was just a mile or so up the road from Gerome and Terrance’s building. Thank God the only family he’d ever really had was here with him.
“You want a beer?” Terrance asked from his doorway, and Gerome went right inside and sat down. “What’s that?” he added as he handed Gerome the beer.
Gerome set the bundle on the counter and closed the door. “I found it on the beach. I thought I might have seen some sort of transaction offshore, and then a guy wandered up and down the sand. He was looking for something… this, I suspect.” Gerome took a swig of his beer as Terrance picked up the package.
“What the hell?” Terrence asked. “This is a bundle of trouble.”
Gerome nodded his agreement, but he wasn’t too concerned. No one had seen him. “Don’t get your panties in a wad.” He took the bundle. “I’m not sure what’s in here, though.”
Terrence got a knife and gently peeled back some of the covering.
“It looks like money,” Terrance pronounced. “I’d guess about a hundred thousand, if the bills are twenties. If they’re hundreds, about half a million.” He lifted his gaze and put the plastic back the way he found it. “What the hell did you stumble on, and what are we going to do with it?”
“I have no idea. I assume it’s something that fell into the water during the exchange and it washed to shore. The other man was looking for it, and I found it first.” Not that there was a single thing he and Terrance could do about it. They couldn’t spend it or put it in a bank—it would draw too much attention to them. He could keep it, but holding a hot potato like this was a risk that could draw even more attention. “I need to talk to Richard.”
Terrance sat up. “Fuck, why? He isn’t the only one who can think.”
Gerome shook his head. “Because he’s the one who can help figure out what to do and not screw it up so we end up back in a place like fucking Iowa. Remember?” He growled at Terrance, who puffed out his chest. “I don’t like it here, but I hated it there, and I’m sure if we fuck it up, we’d be separated.”
At one time Gerome, Terrance, and Richard had run the gay mafia business in Detroit. That is until the old man died and his asshole son took over. Garvic Junior decided he was going to take them out, being too squeamish for the “gay” money. They got word and took him down instead by working with the authorities. Now all three of them were in witness protection. Their first stop had been Iowa.
“We all agreed to break the rules in Iowa so we could say goodbye to