Page 61 of Beni

Was it possible …?

“It could be a distraction,” Beni said.

“What?”

“The gang.”

“For what?”

Beni shrugged. “I guess that’s what I’m going to have to figure out.”

Jerome gave him a look. “Should hurry up on that.”

Yeah, right.

He’d get right on it.

As Jerome had said when Tommas first put him into this crew to work, and the boss agreed, Beni was just young enough, and respected because of his name and status within the life, that he might be able to chill the crew out. Weed his way in, gain their trust, and figure out what the fuck was going on here.

Well, it was not working out that way.

Not so easy, after all.

Beni was thinking he might have to approach this situation at an entirely new angle to work through what was happening here. Not that he really had all the time in the fucking world to start over from the ground up, but what else could he do?

The shuttering of metal being lifted had Beni and Jerome passing a look between one another. A quick check of his watch said the man had been right, and the crew was starting to arrive a little earlier than was normal or expected for them. Loud laughter reached their spot at the back of the warehouse from the guys just filtering in through the front. The Capo nodded toward the door, a silent order for him to head out of the office before he was found back here alone.

He was still supposed to be the new guy, after all. Even if he was Beni Fucking Guzzi to everybody else. New was still new in a crew.

With a wave over his shoulder, Beni exited the office quickly. The Capo’s quiet voice rung out behind him with, “You’ll be helping with the goods today.”

All right.

That order stayed in the back of his mind as he moved through the warehouse again. Only this time, he stopped at the wall of boxes, as that was where he would be working today, and pulled himself up to sit on a pile of crates while he waited for the rest of the guys to gather. It didn’t take them long to start filtering in, really.

Within ten minutes, the warehouse was filled with twenty different guys—all their faces were familiar to Beni in the way that he had worked with them over the last couple of weeks, but some he hadn’t even bothered to learn their names.

Kenny, one of the guys who was slightly kinder than the rest, joined Beni on the crates. He didn’t initiate a conversation while they waited for the day to get started. That didn’t bother him, though, as he had other things on his mind. Like scanning the faces of the young men waiting for their orders and wondering which one—or if it was a small group of them—thieving from their Capo, and if they might be, in some way, working with the gang, too.

He had shit to consider.

A lot.

Out of the corner of his eye, Beni watched as Neil—the one guy on the crew who worked closest with the Capo—headed for the back to speak with his boss. He was typically the one who designated the tasks, gave the orders from the Capo, and kept an eye on everybody.

And he was no better or worse than the rest of them, honestly.

He didn’t care for any of the guys, or Beni, and they didn’t care for him. Of course, that was normal when one was … the favored in a crew.

Kind of like the teacher’s pet, so to speak.

“Anybody know what we’re selling today?” one of the guys asked.

“Unloaded it last night,” Kenny replied beside Beni, “Neil said the usual—counterfeit makeup, purses, shoes … some electronics that were boosted out of a warehouse last week, I guess.”

Another whistled low. “Good payday.”

“Not that Beni cares about that.”