Free Back To The Stars: ROMANCE: ALIEN (Alien Invasion Abduction SciFi Romance) (Fantasy Anthologies & Collections) by Clare Morgan

nutty?”
    Junior picked up the bag and stared at the green crystals inside of it.
    “This is the other reason I sent you over there. When my maintenance guy, Doug, went in to clean out the place he found a few hundred of these, but empty with just a little rids in each.”
    “What is it?”
    “That’s the thing, we don’t know. I had the chemists working in one of the labs run some tests on it to see if we could identify it. They came up with squat. But then I put the word out to a few of my street guys, and they found out what it was. They’ve heard it called Leprechaun, Green Eggs And Ham, and a few other stupid street names.”
    “What does it do?”
    “See, that’s the thing, we don’t know. All we know is that it’s popular as hell with the college crowd, and that as soon as some of it hits the street, it’s gone, and I mean gone as in people buy it up in the pounds and don’t resell, they just use it.”
    “Damn.”
    “Yeah, and the eggheads have tried breaking it down with the crumbs we’ve found, but it’s never enough to replicate it. And I’ll be blunt with you, Larry, I want in on this. This thing could end up being a real money maker. Something that could maybe put the family back on the map.”
    Ever since his old man ended up in jail, Junior had been pining to make the family what it used to be. Sure, he said Chicago was enough for him, but everybody in the life knew that was a load of crap. Once you have the kind of power Junior had, it’s practically impossible for them to size down. I always wonder how the guys in witness protection did it? Of course, guys like Sammy The Bull and Henry Hill couldn’t and got back into the life even while they were in protective custody.
    “Do you have any idea where it’s coming from?”
    “Yeah, well, those kids you tuned up were most likely suppliers. Both of ‘em are from Phoenix, and from what Doug was telling me, those two were making a lot of trips home in last few months they were living in the top floors. So I figured they were muling it in. I put my cartel contact, Juan, on trying to find it, but just when he thought he was getting close to tracking it down, he dropped off the face of the planet.”
    “So I guess you’ve been on this for a while. Do you think another cartel other than your guys are in on it.”
    “They might be? But the thing is if they were into, don’t you think the mid-west would be flooded with it right now? Hell, as soon as those guys started cooking meth, you couldn’t turn around without bumping into some toothless clown who hasn’t slept in a month. But checking in with the other cartels might be a good place to start looking.”
    I didn’t like where this conversation was starting to go. Junior was dropping itty-bitty hints, but to me they were great big bombs of danger that I didn’t want to touch with a ten foot cattle prod.
    “What d’ya mean by ‘start looking’?”
    “Look, Larry, I know how good you are this investigation stuff. Before you came and started working for me, you had a solid reputation. You’re just like your dad with being able to track down clues and all that other crap.”
    “And…”
    “And I was thinking maybe you could head out to Arizona for me.”
    “You want me to go out to Arizona and deal with the freaking cartels? The cartels, Junior? Those guys are freaking maniacs!”
    “Ah, man, come on, so much of that stuff is just rumors. They’re business men, just like me.”
    “Yeah, the only difference is you don’t behead people who screw you over and then post it to YouTube.”
    “Well, posting crap like that to YouTube will only get an American put in the slam for the rest of their lives, or get the needle. Like I said, it’s for show, they’re business men.”
    “I don’t know, Junior.”
    “Look, Larry, don’t make me remind you how much money you owe me. And yeah, you’ve been doing a good job for me, but it’s still a lot of money.”
    “And I appreciate