Page 7 of Gold Rush (Murphy’s Pub #3)

Chapter Five

In the middle of his confession that he liked Goldie too, Dean blushed wildly. For being a hooker, for some reason, Goldie thought that meant he could no longer blush. He was wrong about a lot of things, though. Preconceived notions never did him well.

They went back to the pub, and Goldie walked him to his room. As he was leaving Dean there, Dean said, “Want to come in?”

As much as he wanted to, he didn’t. He couldn’t. Starting something with sex had also never done him any good. “If I go in there right now, I’m going to stay the night, and…as much as I want to, I am going to stay out of there. For now.”

Again, Dean raised onto the balls of his feet and kissed Goldie, a chaste peck, but it heated him through. “I’ll see you tomorrow. I hope.”

“You will.”

The door closed, and Goldie couldn’t help but smile, but as he turned, he saw Abs, glaring hatefully at him.

“So, you’re together now?”

“Abs, listen…”

“No, it’s fine,” he said before turning on his heel and heading off to his own room.

His room was on the third floor with Haze and Cosmo. Goldie followed him up the stairs, calling him the entire way up to the third floor. “Abs,” he finally said, grabbing his arm tightly. “Talk to me!”

Abs spun on him right in the doorway, hissing, “I knew it!”

“Knew what?”

“That you liked him! Goldie, he is a liar and a hooker, and for all we know, he is really addicted.”

Abs stomped off to his room, and Goldie saw that Hippy and Haze were coming out of Haze’s room to see what the commotion was about. “Everything okay?” Haze asked.

“You don’t want in the middle of this,” Hippy told him, pulling him back into his room.

Goldie went into Abs’s room without knocking, and Abs gasped hard, yelling, “Against the rules! You can’t come in uninvited!”

“So, go tell Murph on me!”

Abs sat on his bed, arms crossed over his chest, pouting like a two-year-old.

Goldie laughed, he couldn’t help it. “God, Abs, stop.”

“We always said that we wouldn’t get with anyone if the other one didn’t like it.”

Goldie remembered their pledge, and sat by him on the bed, grabbing his hand, even with Abs trying to pull away. “I know, but something we didn’t think of. I don’t think anyone you could be with would pass my inspection. Same for you, I’m guessing.”

Abs opened his mouth to argue, but then he snapped it shut.

“I don’t think there is a guy in the entire world I’d see you with and approve.

You are the one person in my life I’ve always been able to depend on, and who loved me, and I never, ever doubted you loved me.

Sure, the other guys here are my friends and family too, but it’s you, baby boy.

I love you more than I love myself. You are the guy who will always be in my life.

He’s…special. He’s sweet, and maybe it’s not going to work out, maybe it will, but either way, I know you’re here for me, always.

Maybe it’s the whole reason I can take a leap with a guy.

If I fall on my face, you’ll be there to pick me back up and dust me off. ”

Abs started to sob and straddled Goldie’s lap, hugging him around the neck tightly enough that Goldie could barely breathe. “You’re the best. You’re my best friend, and I love you, I do! I love you forever and ever, and please don’t get hurt. I don’t want to have to kill him.”

“You’d kill for me! See, that’s what I’m talkin’ about.”

Abs laughed through his tears. “You’re a dick.”

“Yeah, you are too. Listen, I didn’t go in and fuck him. I’m trying to start something that means more than that. Can you handle it?”

“Yeah,” he said after a slight hesitation that meant he would still be on the lookout for any signs that he wasn’t good enough for Goldie. Goldie knew he could live with that.

“I love you, baby boy. Forever and always.”

Abs kissed him and said, “I know. You better.”

“You’re the worst. Get off me. I’m going to bed.”

“With Haze. Lucky guy.”

“Right? Hot Latino man in my bed with me? Maybe he’s the one you should worry about.”

The next four days, Goldie went to scope out the pimp’s place. He took enough notes to fill a thousand-page book, but he’d yet to see them moving the money. Murphy let him off work for the weekends, which was unheard of, but the meeting they had was likely the reason.

Murphy was going to play pimp to the six of them. They were going to move into the other pimp’s territory. The other pimp, namely Sammy Dane, who claimed to own fifty men, women, trans men and women, and even an entire line of underage kids.

All Murphy had were the six men, but they planned on making it look like he was pulling in ten thousand a night, just with the six. The rumors were already spreading as Dean played his part, bragging to his friends he was trying to get in the stable of Mickey Connor, the new pimp in D-town.

Taran was in on it, and so was Sonny, who was calling his police contacts to let them know what was happening. It was all falling nicely into place.

The men from the neighborhood and those close to the people Murphy and the men at the pub had helped were in on it as well. They would play the clients, the Johns, if you will, and Murphy would sit on his throne, watching over his stable.

Murphy hated it, but Eazy got a good giggle from it. “Murphy the pimp,” he’d said several times a day and laugh.

At the meeting on Monday, Goldie told them good news.

“Sunday night. This fucker sends the money on an old church bus, if you can believe that. Like, the bus drops off some of his stable, and then picks up these black cases. Seven of them. From what Dean has told me, the cases are the perfect size for all that cash. He takes it to an accountant in Commerce City.”

“Already sketchy,” Haze said. “Any accountant worth their salt has nice offices downtown or somewhere without the smell of chemicals and diesel in the air.”

“Well, those trucking companies and chemical companies need accountants too,” Mims reasoned.

“Still, who better to launder the money for them?” Goldie asked.

“True.”

Murphy asked, “So these cases, they’re all dropped at the accountant?”

“Yeah, in the back. I didn’t see it, mind you. Pulling up into that alley would have been a big red flag, but I followed the bus after, and…it was empty when they parked it back at Grace Christian School.”

“A school?” Haze was shaking his head. “What assholes.”

“Yeah, well, the reverend at the church next to the school was the one to take the bus the next morning. I don’t know if he’s in on this, but…they didn’t hot wire that bus. They had the keys.”

Murphy nodded and said, “They may all get a piece of this pie, and that means they will not want this pimp to stop business. That means we either make some enemies of them, or we get them to our side.”

“How? They’d want to be paid,” Abs said.

“We pay them once, then we threaten them. To be exposed for having ties with human trafficking would ruin them. They’d lose, and they know it.”

Goldie knew Murphy was right. Still, involving more and more people was messy. They could turn on a dime, but Murphy did have a way with people, and they also had an FBI agent tucked in their pocket, thanks to Cosmo’s boyfriend.

“Well, then, I need to get to some thrift stores and a few of the sex stores that sell clothes. I need to outfit this merry band of hookers,” Abs said cheerfully, always ready to shop for clothes.

“I’ll go with,” Mims told him. “I love thrift stores.”

“How is Sonny dealing with you becoming a hooker?” Eazy asked Mims.

“He loves it. He knows it’s not for real, but he likes…pretending…and stuff…”

Everyone at the table gagged, but Abs laughed. “Kinky,” he commented while silently clapping.

Murphy stopped Goldie after everyone had cleared out of the room.

“The Johns are all ready to pick you guys up, but it doesn’t give me much solace.

If something happens to one of you, it’ll fucking kill me, Gold.

This is nothing to fuck around with, but I get why you are hell bent on it. It’s not the money for you.”

“No, it’s not. I hate the fucker, I do. But Dean…it is, I mean, I like him, Murph. I like him.”

“Yeah, like we all couldn’t tell,” he said with a slap to Goldie’s back, and then he walked off laughing.

“Well, fuck. I’m transparent.”

After running up the stairs, he found Dean bussing tables. The more pub food they were serving meant more business during the week.

“Hey, grab this. You have actual muscles,” Dean said and handed him a full bin of dirty dishes.

They walked together to the kitchen, and Dean complained, “People are gross. They spit food and leave it on the plate! I gotta brush that crap off!”

“Yes, people are much grosser than they are at home, I’ve found. But we get paid to clean up after them.”

“Are they that gross with their drinks?”

“Yes. I can’t tell you how many cigarette butts I’ve found in the drinks I buss from the patio. We have fucking ashtrays.”

“Gross. People are gross.”

Goldie grabbed him once he’d set the bin down and hugged him warmly. “Hey, take a break with me. You’re supposed to get fifteen, right?”

“Right. Okay, sure,” he said and grabbed Goldie’s hand and yanked him out of the hot kitchen.

For being much smaller, the guy was strong, and Goldie laughed as he was taken into the back alley, where he was again pushed against bricks. “I want to do nasty things to you in this alley, if I wasn’t covered in gross.”

Goldie smiled at him, keeping in the laugh. “You’re a tough one, Dean.”

“And?”

He laughed, and Goldie laughed with him, but they ended up kissing, and Goldie held him off his feet to better feel him.

That little body against his big one somehow made it feel terribly erotic.

He practically climbed Goldie, wrapped him in arms and legs, kissing him hard, deep.

God, he was perfect, and Goldie wanted him as badly.

“Your break is almost up, I’m sure,” he said when they came up for air.

“Can we, I don’t know, go on a date or something?”

Goldie nodded as he set Dean back on his own two feet. “Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Not tonight. I’m playing a hooker tonight.”

“Right. Maybe I’ll pick you up and pay you, then you’re gonna have to give me some.”

He jogged back to the door, glancing back and winking before he disappeared into the club. Goldie’s heart was hammering in his chest, and he laughed as he let it slow a little. “He’s gonna kill me.”