Shoot Your Shot

Chapter 7

The warmth, the feeling of being held tightly, coveted, had him sleeping deeper than he had in years. The only thing that woke him was the shrill ring of his phone. And unlike every other day, it didn't forcefully yank him out of sleep, but more pushed him out slowly. Wearily blinking awake, he looked up as his brain registered everything that had happened the night before. It was Saturday, he'd gone out for dinner with Sir Pentious, the snake had gotten drunk, and Arackniss had, admittedly, taken advantage of him. In his defense, though, he was one hundred percent sure that Pentious had sobered up before they left the restaurant. So he'd had more than enough time to change his mind, and he definitely hadn't if they were to judge by what had happened. Two mind blowing rounds back to back, and then a third roughly an hour later proved the man had no issues at all. His phone went silent and he was pulling himself up to look around the room. Where had they thrown his pants again?

When he found them and dug out his phone, he saw the number of missed calls and felt a rise of panic. Looking back at his lover, who was still pleasantly passed out, still sprawled over the bed comfortably, he slipped out into the hallway. Fifty-six calls and all from the same three people; his father, Chitzero who was one of his generals, and Molly, his little sister. The moment he saw his sisters name, he was calling her and heading down the stairs to the drawing room off the front door. "Al!" Her voice shrieked through the phone but he ignored it, used to her antics.

"Molly, what the fuck happened? Are you okay? Why's everyone been callin' me all day on a fucking Saturday?" Listening closely to the sounds behind her, he heard shouting, chanting, a few gun shots, but those sounded more distant.

"Al, everything's fucking crazy. Where are you?"

"Molly, focus. What the fuck is going on?"

"Some moron told the east side that you're gonna stop selling Codeine to 'em and they're goin' nuts."

"Why the fuck would I stop sellin' 'em Codeine? It's a best seller over there, it'd be corporate suicide."

"Well, I know that, but clearly the mob of angry addicts outside don't see it that way!"

"So why the hell are you calling me? Call Papa and have him go out there and talk to 'em." He said the words before hearing her shriek for a moment, a scuffle, and someone else had the phone.

"And what, pray tell, do you want me to tell them?" Rolling his eyes at the sound of his fathers voice he shook his head and thought fast.

"Does Molly have her bluetooth? The ear piece, not the headset."

"Yes"

"Put it on and get up high. You're gonna need to be where they can see you, but not too high so they can't hear you. This is gonna need some projection." He waited while the man followed his instructions and once the scorpion was ready, the man cleared his throat. "I've heard that someone told you I would stop the Codeine sales for the East side. This is false. There will be an increase of it for the East side, not a cut off. The price is being lowered by 5% from 4 to 3.80. While this influx and price change are temporary, at this time there are no plans to stop sales of Codeine in the East side." He listened carefully as his father did what they'd been doing for years; said what he told him perfectly. He could make out the shouts of the crowd as they settled down, everything going from an eight to a two. "Now that you've been informed, get lost!" He did have a reputation to keep, after all. Just because he was a good businessman didn't mean he wanted people thinking he was soft. He waited for a moment before his father turned away from the crowd and jumped down. Molly took the phone back and put it on speaker phone.

"Okay, they're leaving now, but you're actually gonna do a 5% decrease in the price? That's a loss, Al."

"I am aware, thank you! Not like whoever the fuck told them that gave me much of a choice, Molly. Sure, I could have just told them to disperse and that I didn't owe them a fucking explanation of someone else spreadin' bullshit. Is that what you wanted me to do?"