Chapter 2

“…So after three weeks of that,I quit.”I finished my story.Conrad’s eyes flicked back and forth to the TV.It was disconcerting to see him stretched out on the other bed like that;my eyes kept skimming down his body.Conrad had grown a goatee and it gave him a devilish,dangerous look.Combined with his usual shaved head,it made him look a little too satanic.

“That’s all very interesting,Steven,but it doesn’t explain to me—why.”

“Conrad,I get in too deep,too fast.This was way more than the undercover jobs I’d done before.Shit,for two years I busted college kids selling dope in their dorm rooms,nothing like this.Benton saw it,he tried to pull me out but by then,the Feds were involved and they didn’t want to blow the whole operation.So,I stayed in and look what happened.”

A car commercial roared onto the screen and Conrad’s gaze moved back to the television.We watched the thirty-second spot in silence.

I wanted him to look at me.