Page 4 of Gold Rush (Murphy’s Pub #3)

Chapter Three

Murphy showed back up, Eazy by his side, each carrying cases of liquor. All the guys helped unload the van and then, when he could, Goldie asked Murphy and Easy to meet him in the secret room in the basement.

Murphy got into the bookcase/door right after Eazy, and the door closed behind them. Tense, Goldie had gone over what he’d say a hundred times just while he was helping unload the van.

“What’s the problem, Gold?” Eazy asked in his smooth, sweet voice.

“I, uh…” Suddenly, his entire speech left his head.

They invited him to sit, and he took a seat beside Murphy and across from Murphy’s lovely husband.

“Goldie, you’re not one to be afraid to tell me what needs said,” Murphy told him. “Spill it.”

“Sorry, but it’s…I don’t even know. I was scoping a job with Abs, and we went down this alley. We found a guy with a needle sticking out of his arm, and we called 911, got the cops and ambulance there…”

“The…cops?” Eazy asked. “None of the BBC, right?”

“No! Oh, no, just regular, dicky cops. No, it’s the guy I’m talking about.”

Murphy asked, “The one with the needle in his arm?”

“Yeah, yeah, Murph. He’s not a junkie. I have seen junkies, you know?”

“I know. So?”

“He needs help. Our kind of help. He had a pimp dose him to get him hooked, but he’s…”

Eazy sat back with a sigh. “Thank god. I thought they were starting up again.”

“Don’t thank the man upstairs yet, baby. I can’t say as I want some hooker here.”

“Murph, come on! You can’t say that. All of us have done bad shit, worse than hooking to make a living.”

Eazy was eyeing his husband hard. “Murphy…”

“Fine! But…what the fuck do you want from me? I have all the bartenders I need. We don’t have another room. What can I do for the guy?”

“Give him a job, like…shagging booze when we run low. Bussing. We’ve hired plenty of bussers in the past, when we weren’t worried about their safety.

Kitchen staff, you know people would like us to offer more pub food.

Just…give him a chance. I’ll share my tips with him, some of the others might, too. He won’t cost you all that much, but…”

“And where is he gonna stay?”

“I’ll bunk with Abs or Haze for now, and he can have my room.”

Murphy smiled and asked, “Are you in love with this guy or something?”

“I just met him!”

Eazy whispered, “That wasn’t an answer.”

“I’m not some romantic ass that believes in love at first sight or anything of the sort. I just want to help someone like you helped me.”

Eazy told his husband, “He’s got you there. You hired folks right out of prison.”

“Don’t throw my shit in my face. I hired them for more than working around here.”

“And I’m a bad guy for not having a second agenda for him?”

“You do. You like the guy, even if you don’t love him.

Theft is one thing. Love is just as destructive and unpredictable,” he said, firing up some.

“I’m not a bad guy here, but with everything that just happened to all of us, and my husband and me wanting our two little kids back home, having a stranger here isn’t exactly making me overjoyed.

But fine, if you want him here, fine, but he’s your responsibility!

If anything happens because of him, it’s on you! ”

During the entire rant, Eazy was laughing silently. “Oh, Murphy, you’re so stern.”

“You’re a real dick,” Murphy said to his husband, then laughed, and they started to kiss. Goldie excused himself.

“Thanks, Murph,” Goldie said in a whisper as he left the two lovebirds.

They’d met much the same way that Murphy met all his bartenders, in the visiting room of a jail. He broke his own rule about not dating one another, and he hadn’t regretted it for a moment. The two were meant to be in a way that Goldie had rarely seen.

But they weren’t the only ones who’d found love in the pub.

Cosmo, and most recently Mimosa, had as well.

Cosmo to an FBI agent and Mims to an undercover cop.

They were all after the BBC for their smuggling of drugs, weapons and worst of all, humans.

The hated cartel was lying low, but the buzz of fear and anger they’d given the pub hadn’t diminished.

When he went to Haze after leaving the basement, Haze was busy painting in his room, as usual. His room, done in purple for his name, Purple Haze, was always filled with paintings either finished, just started or in some part of still being painted.

“Hey, Haze, I gotta talk to you.”

“Yeah?” he asked as he set down his brush and turned on the stool. His big brown eyes were tired, as he’d likely been up half the night painting. “This about your new fella?”

“What?” he asked, surprised, then realized that Abs had already spread the word. “He told you.”

“Yeah, of course. What’s up?”

“If I can talk him into staying, I would like to give him my room for now, until I can help him save the money for a place of his own. Can I bunk with you?”

“Sure. If you can stand the smell of paint and paint thinner.”

Goldie nodded. “Thanks.”

After he got Dean from the pub, he took him upstairs to his room, where he showed him around and started packing a few things. “The bed’s real comfortable, there’s space in the closet, whatever you need. I’ll take you to get your stuff after you meet the bosses.”

Dean sat on the edge of the bed and asked, “Why are you packing?”

Goldie stood straight and cocked his head. “I’m bunking with one of the other guys.”

Dean’s hand ran over the black and gold bedspread. “How am I paying for this then?”

Goldie huffed and sat beside him, then laughed. “Not everything is a negotiation for sex. I don’t want that. I mean…not for payment. If we liked each other and one day wanted to…you know, whatever, but now? No. I’m not after you like that.”

With both his hands on his thighs, Dean’s head dropped, so his face was veiled by his hair. “That’s new to me.”

“Yeah, I bet. But it’s true. Don’t steal my shit or I’ll knock you the fuck out, and don’t go into the other guys’ rooms. The bathrooms are across the hall, and if you don’t have a tote for your shower shit I’ll get you one. Let’s go get your stuff.”

With his hair falling away from his face, what was revealed was a sweet, rather shy smile. “What’s your deal?”

“I’m just being real with you. That’s all.”

“Okay. Okay, great.”

They pulled up to the motel on the bad end of Sheridan, and the place had people all sitting outside their rooms, smoking cigarettes, pot and whatever else they might be toking on. Goldie told him to stay put, but Dean wasn’t having that. “It’s my stuff. I’ll get it.”

He was out and heading to the door fast, and Goldie just laughed to himself.

He was a stubborn thing, for sure. After he opened the door, Goldie followed him inside to find a very neat room.

All his clothes were stacked on top of the dresser.

His food was next to the microwave, all in line with the labels visible.

After grabbing his bag from under the bed, he packed quickly and asked Goldie to get his toiletries from the bathroom and pack them in the two plastic baggies he had. “Shower stuff in one, face cream and teeth stuff in the other, if you don’t mind.”

“I don’t mind at all.”

Goldie packed the things like Dean had asked, but once he came out of the bathroom, he saw something that made him stop cold.

Dean had yet to notice him, and he was pulling drugs from the mattress. Kilos of what looked to be heroin were going into the bag that was half filled with his clothes.

“Dean,” he said in a growl.

Dean jumped and dropped one of the kilos. He stood, shaking all over. “I…I…it’s not how it looks!”

“Sure,” he said as he threw the baggies down on the ancient carpet and started for the door.

“Please, Goldie,” Dean yelled as he ran to him, grabbing his arm and trying to stop him. “Please, let me explain!”

Goldie turned on him and gritted, “I put my own job and home on the line to get you some help. And this?”

“It’s the pimps. It’s his. It’s what he’s dosing his people with. He doesn’t know I have it!”

Goldie’s eyes closed as he took a long breath in to keep his calm. He wanted to tear the smaller man into pieces.

“I had to steal it. I had to! He’ll get more, but for now…for now, those people are off the streets and going through DTs, and that’s not good, I know, but I also…I also hope some go get help.”

Goldie opened his eyes and said, “Why didn’t you tell me about it then?”

“You found me with a needle in my arm. You’d never believe me, like you don’t now!”

Goldie told him, “So, what were you going to do with the shit?”

“I have no idea. Sell it maybe. I don’t know. I need to get myself out of this city and somewhere else.”

“How’d you even get it?”

“He took me to his place. He wanted to woo me into working for him. I saw it in this locked closet. He had to get into it to show off all I could have. He had money in there, but it was wrapped in plastic. Tons of it, but no way could I sneak that out, so I took five bricks.”

“Five bricks of heroin. Fuck, Dean!”

“When I still turned him down, he said he’d try again another time. He had one of his guys take me back. Instead, they dosed me and dropped me where they did. Please, Goldie, I will leave it here. Anything!”

Goldie heard him, but his mind went back to the stacks of cash. “How much money do you think he’s got?”

Dean’s head cocked a little. “I don’t know. The thing was like two feet tall, all wrapped in plastic. I didn’t really look, but they were hundred-dollar bills, at least the ones on top were.”

“Get the fucking heroin, get your shit and come on. I swear if you lie about one more thing, I’ll leave you for dead.”

When he got back to the pub, he dragged Dean downstairs after telling Mims to call a meeting. “What am I missing?”

“I’ll fill you in later. Call Sonny and have him come by, if it’s safe.”

Dean looked around the secret room and his jaw dropped. “What the hell is this?”

“It’s secret, and if you tell anyone, I’ll kill you. Do you get that?”

“So, I’m not the only one who has secrets.”

“Shut up before I break your face,” he said, still seething.

Dean sat in one of the chairs, dejected, and soon, the room filled with the people from the pub. They all stared at Dean as they walked in, and Goldie was sure they were wondering why he was there, in the room they didn’t show anyone until they were sure of them.

Murphy’s face wasn’t confused. He was furious. “Goldie, there better be a damn good reason for this.”

“There is. I know what our next job is, and we can do it pretty fast.”