"What the fuck do I do now?" Jake whispered, mostly to himself.
Klaus knew what. No matter how absurd Jake's reaction seemed, he could understand it. He walked to the closet and handed Jack a change of clothes. Since he was planning to keep the boy in his room overnight, he had had Agnes to move some of Jake's clothes to his closet.
"Here. Dress up," he ordered shortly, and Jake obeyed with brisk moves. "Go throw some cold water on your face, brush your teeth, and calm down," he continued in the same even tone.
Jake muttered something, but marched towards the bathroom on auto-pilot. It took him less than two minutes to be back. Klaus cupped the boy's cheeks and began talking again.
"Stop worrying so much. Your brother will not suspect a thing. Trust me."
"You have no idea how Diaz is. If he ever finds out ..."
"That will not happen," Klaus cut his words short.
"What if ... someone tells him?"
"If you doubt my staff, that is unnecessary. Jake, no one has the word 'gay' written all over them."
Jake pushed him away.
"I should have known better than to get mixed up in this shit," he mumbled.
Now was not the time to deal with Jake's insecurities. Klaus examined himself briefly in the long mirror and gestured for Jake to move. Later, he needed to get to the bottom of things. There was more than what was apparent at the moment, and he needed to find out what.
***
"You look good, little brother," Diaz smiled and opened his arms wide, hurrying to meet him, the moment Jake was through the door to the dining room. "Is Mr. Metzger here treating you right?"
Diaz ruffled his hair and pushed him so he could shake hands with the master of the house, without waiting for an answer.
"And how are you today, Mr. Lopez?" Klaus put on his affable smile that Jake had seen so many times.
Yeah, maybe the guy was right. At least, on his face there was no weird word written when he behaved like the hot shot he was. But Jake was not like that, and he could not fake it that well. So far, he had managed to keep things hidden from Diaz, because nothing had happen. But right now, he was in deep shit. Diaz was going to tell something was funny, and that was when Jake was going to ...
Whatever, he needed to focus right now.
"Please, have a seat," Klaus gestured for them to sit at the giant table.
By force of habit, Jake tried to move and sit by his brother's side, but a firm hand squeezed his shoulder briefly and guided him to sit across from Diaz, next to Klaus.
A young servant girl began moving about, placing what looked like plates loaded with delicious food on the table. Jake could feel his stomach all in knots and he wasn't sure he was going to eat anything if he didn't want to puke all over the table and make a fool of himself.
"Mr. Metzger, we're both businessmen, right?" Diaz gestured towards Klaus like they were alone at the table.
Jake appreciated being left out. He fiddled with his fork, and wondered whether Klaus was going to ignore his usual habit of not talking during dinner.
"Klaus, please," the host said and put on a charming smile.
"Okay, Klaus. You can call me Diaz, too, by the way."
"Alright, what business proposition do you have?"
"I have someone bringing over a shipment next week," Diaz licked his lips and his eyes glinted with something nasty.
"No," Klaus replied and took his napkin to unfold it and place it on his knees.
"You didn't let me finish," Diaz's ugly smile faltered.
"I know all about shipments," Klaus spoke. "I will not have this kind of business run on these streets while I am here."
"Man, you're busting my balls here," Diaz said.
You have no idea what he can do, Jake thought, but kept his mouth shut.
"Let's negotiate a little, will you?" Diaz continued. "From businessman to businessman."
"There is nothing to negotiate," Klaus kept his neutral tone, like he was reading the weather from a local newspaper. "I will not have drugs and dealers in this town."
"Hey, man, who said anything about drugs?" Diaz tried to hide his unease under a wolfish smile.
"Oh, so it is guns. The answer is still no."
Jake stole a furtive glance in his brother's direction. Diaz was working his jaw and this time, his smile turned manic. What did you do, Diaz? Jake wanted to ask, but his jaw was rigid, too, even if for different reasons.
"C'mon, we all know that people kill people, not guns," Diaz made a lame attempt at a joke.
"Without guns, there will be less crime. It is much less what one can do when armed with a kitchen knife than when carrying a machine gun."
"So, there's no way to convince you?" Diaz spoke.
"No. Let us just enjoy our meal."
Klaus was the only one not tense as the dinner carried on. Jake could barely eat, and Diaz was all a frown, chewing each bite like he wanted it dead.
As dessert was brought over, which Klaus denied, and had the girl bring only for his guests, the atmosphere seemed to grow colder. Klaus lit up a cigarillo and looked at Diaz.
"You can always ask the money back," he suggested.
Diaz's head snapped up.
"Yeah, like I could do that."
"All right," Klaus said. "Only this time."
"What? You'll let the shipment through?"
"No. Only this time I am going to save your ass," Klaus spoke, the usual diplomatic affability gone from his voice. "Bear in mind. This is not a white check. Say the exact figure involved. It will be covered. But, in return, you forget all about this kind of shady business while I run these streets."
"Really?" Diaz eyed his host with suspicion written all over his face and a bit taken aback by the change in conversation and the way the man across from him talked.
"Yes. This one time. Do not make me repeat myself. Next time, you are going to deal with this kind of shit on your own."
Jake wanted to laugh like a hysteric person all of a sudden. He could tell Diaz was short of shitting his pants hearing this preppy-looking businessman talk like a thug. But it wasn't making him happy; no, he could not tell the source of the strange bout of laughter threatening to get out. He could just as well burst into tears and he could not even explain why.
"You're going to lose money. A boatload of it," Diaz said.
"I know. Consider yourself lucky."
"Lucky how?"
Klaus's hand landed on Jake's shoulder.
"Your brother here is already turning me a profit."
"Jake?" Diaz looked at his brother like he was seeing him for the first time in his life.
"Seeing that he works for me without getting paid, his work's worth goes straight into my pockets."
Diaz snorted.
"So you're saying. There's no way this little runt could pay off that kind of money."
"You are underestimating your brother. Rest assured that everything you owe me I will collect from him. With interest."
Jake was thankful Klaus's heavy hand was keeping him in place or else he would have bolted through the door.
"If you say so," Diaz eyed Jake again.
"I do. I trust you will do the right thing."
"Yeah," Diaz agreed.
And suddenly, the atmosphere was starting to relax, and Jake wondered what on earth had just happened under his very eyes.
***
"Diaz did something stupid," Jake said once they were alone again. "He took that money you gave him and bought some shit."
