Excerpt from All Them Dogs by Djamel White, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"It can go in the shed. When you need it, you can hop the wall and get it. You don't need to come in here again."

"I don't give a rat's where you put it so long as you have it for me when I want it. Does anyone be in the shed?"

"My daughter's da comes around to cut the grass."

I looked out at the garden. The grass wasn't in need of a trim. "You better hope he doesn't shoot you then," I said, smiling all wide. "Give me your phone."

She gave it over. I put my number in. Then I took my own phone out and made her give me hers.

"That number, yeah? It's me you contact. Nobody else. Not Flute, me."

"Who's Flute?" she said. Her whole top lip was slick with snot.

"Stop crying. You're a smart girl, aren't you? You're not going to let anything go wrong."

She shook her head. I gave her back her phone. I tried to sniff clear my left nostril.

"You haven't got any Sudafed or anything?"

She just looked at me with tears streaming down her face.

I made my own way out of the gaff, her standing there staring at that package, terrified to touch it, wondering what fresh hell she was after landing herself in.

Excerpted from All Them Dogs by Djamel White. Copyright © 2026 by Djamel White. Excerpted by permission of Riverhead Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.