Page 110 of Bad Medicine

Shifting down as I approached the turn, I grunted my answer.

“’Course I do. Wouldn’t have asked you if I didn’t.”

Yeah. I was great at this shit.

Pulling over, I parked on the corner of Casino Center Boulevard facingThe Golden Nugget—almost the exact spot I had dropped Sway off last time we were in the car together.

But today, he wouldn’t be getting out.

“Okay,” he conceded, stuffing his fists into his front pocket as he rolled his head to the side, giving me that bored look teenagers were so fuckin’ good at. “So what’s the deal? Is this a date, or what?”

“Get fucked,” I said plainly, and we both laughed. “We’re on a job. This is official business, and you’ll be paid.”

At the mention of money, Sway sat up a little straighter, his eyes wide as he grinned at me. “So quit your bitchin’ and listen up. Do a good job and there could be more work coming your way if you want it.”

“I want it.”

“You don’t even know what it is yet, kid.”

“Doesn’t matter. If it’s for you or Francesca, I’m fuckin’ in.”

I covered my smile with a scowl, poorly.

“Don’t let Mia catch you swearing like that.”

Sway actually blushed, looking down at his phone to hide a grin of his own.

“I won’t.”

We lapsed into silence again, each of us lost in our own thoughts, Sway buried in his texting, me with my eyes on the doors to the casino across the street, waiting.

“So, school’s going good?” I asked lamely, cringing at my own awkwardness.

“I guess.” Sway shrugged, not looking up. “I mean, it’s school, so whatever. Frankie’s pushing me for better grades, though, so I guess I’ll give that a shot.” His fingers flew over the screen as he talked, multitasking in a way a person in my generation would never be able to pull off, and suddenly, I felt old as fuck.

“That’s good,” I said, glad that Frankie was looking out for the kid, too. “Francesca’s right; school’s important.” I knew they had some sort of deal worked out where he provided her information from the street level and she paid him for it, but I’d recently learned that she was also paying him for improving his marks in school, too, which I thought was pretty sweet.

I wish someone had given half a fuck about my schooling when I was his age. I mean, Enzo’s mom tried, but we didn’t exactly make it easy on her. Plus, I wasn’t her responsibility; no, that honor had belonged to the great state of Nevada, whether they liked it or not.

Bracing myself for the next topic I wanted to cover, I decided there was no time like the present.

“You gonna tell me about that shiner you’ve been sporting.”

The thumbs stopped moving.

I let the silence hang, not wanting to push him too much, but letting him know I was there, waiting for him.

Finally, when I was beginning to doubt my strategy, Sway spoke, the single word barely audible even in the quiet of the car.

“Yeah.”

“Was it your foster dad?” I asked, going straight for the most likely culprit.

“Yeah.”

“And was this the first time it’d happened?”

Sway swallowed before answering, his voice sounding rough.