Green stomps on the third man’s toe with her heel. He hunches over and lets out one hell of a wail in pain, as she pulls her hand pistol out to point at that guy.
I gotta say, I’m impressed. Using a heel as a deadly weapon. Not bad.
“Calm down,” Thomas tells his lackeys, even-keeled.
I, however, am not so calm.
I keep the S&W trained on the big man in charge as I keep an eye on Dice, hoping Thomas doesn’t hold this shit against me.
Wishful fucking thinking, dumbass.
“I’m gonna ask you again, Tom. Can I trust you on that?”
He nods. Slowly. “You can trust me on that, Jack. I’ve got no beef with Donnie. Or his brother.” He says that last part a little louder than I’d expect him to. Then he warns me, “Now, you come back here again and you better hope you’ve got an archangel on your shoulder. People don’t generally question my actions, much less twice in one day. You get me?”
His voice is cool and eerie, and if I’m being a hundred percent honest, it sends a chill up my spine. Not that I’m gonna let his sorry ass know that.
I pull the gun back and uncock it.
“You really believe in angels, Tom?” I ask him sincerely as I holster it away.
“Don’t you?” The way he looks at me makes me think the wrong answer could get me a bullet to the head. So I don’t give him one.
“I get you, Tom. Thanks for the info.”
I give Green a nod. “Get in.”
She points down the street at the Honda she came in. “But my car─”
“Get. In.”
Seriously? I need to fucking tell her twice?
Her survival instinct kicks in, and she hurries to the other side of the car, pulls open the door, and slides in. I’m not even halfway down the street before I start grilling her.
“Do you have a death wish or something?” I glare over at Green, and her expression says it all. She’s shell-shocked.
Jimmy sits up in the back and checks behind us. “That was intense, man.”
“Well, if you hadn’t shown up all─” Green waves her hands around. I have no idea what the fuck that’s supposed to mean.
“Your boyfriend know you’re playing house with Thomas Flint’s gang?”
“He is not my boyfriend.”
“That guy? Dice? Scary.” Jimmy’s still revisiting what just happened. I flash him a look through the rearview mirror that hopefully says shut the fuck up and go back to sparring with Green.
“Then what is he?”
Why did I ask that? That’s not what I was gonna ask.
“He’s…” She can’t answer. Either because she doesn’t want to admit out loud that he’s her boyfriend, or she doesn’t know what they are yet.
I have no idea why I care either way.
“Did you see the size of his─”
“Shut up!” Green and I both tell the kid.
“Jeez.” He throws himself back into his seat with the emotion of a thirteen-year-old girl. The car goes quiet after that, allowing me a few minutes to think and calm down.
I don’t exactly wanna get back on the subject of the boyfriend, so I change the subject.
“Anyone teach you those survival tactics or was that a natural instinct kinda thing?”
“What?” For the first time, I notice she’s shaking. Maybe our run-in affected her more than she showed out there.
“Nothing,” I mumble. I take the opportunity I have to think about what just happened myself.
If Thomas didn’t have his guys do Donnie that means either someone from his crew did it out of order, the kid had an enemy, or it was the cops. My gut is telling me it’s the cops, but I don’t get why. Donnie was small time. Other than that murder he was wanted for, that is. Which brings me to my next point.
How does a kid with nothing but petty theft-and I do mean petty─and street racing on his record suddenly turn to murder?
I didn’t kill that guy.
His plea from the night I took him in echoes in the back of my mind. My stomach churns again at the thought of handing an innocent kid over to the slaughter house.
I am such a fucking moron.
“Two questions.”
Green must be warping out of scared shitless stage and into real life again.
Yay.
She doesn’t wait for me to give the go ahead.
“Why did you lie to me about knowing anything having to do with Donnie Leary, and how do I get my car back?” I’m not exactly disappointed with her ability to interrupt my thoughts. I am a little peeved she’s backing me into a corner.
“Lying is part of my job, Green. And you know you had no business getting your nose all up in Thomas Flint’s world, right? I mean, do you have any fucking idea how lucky you are I showed up?”
She lets out a huge, sarcastic laugh. “Excuse me?”
Offended.
“What?”
“You are such a chauvinistic pig, you realize that, right?”
“Chauva… I saved your ass back there.”