Chapter 20

The next voice seemed out of place. A slender man emerged from elsewhere in the house. He spoke quietly, using good English with hardly any accent at all. “So, are you not the one calling himself El Feo and trying to break in on the turf of Nuestros Familia? That’s very unwise. Our friend Carlos says you are.”

“I can’t speak to that,” Ike said. “But you’ve got the wrong man. I don’t do drugs and I damn well don’t push them. I may have been in prison, but I have no desire to go back. I don’t want to end up dead, either. I don’t know this El Feo dude, if he even exists. Damn sure don’t like being mistaken for him.”

The man laughed, with a sound like a saw blade binding in a hard bit of oak. “Oh, so you admit to having been in prison. Have you violated your parole then? Is that deputy supposed to be your keeper and guard dog? Does he know about your drug dealing?”