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“It wasn’t just that first exchange with Ripper. Later, Ripper told your guys about where Becca and I were staying at the cabin, and then he executed them once they turned their backs on him.”
“So that’s twice that your guys have gotten killed, all so those two assholes could have their war that it sounds like nobody else wanted,” Becca said.
Skinny fell uncharacteristically quiet for a while. Becca could almost hear the hamster wheel that powered his tiny brain squeaking along in an effort to process everything they were telling him.
“So why are you telling me all this?” he finally said.
“Because we’re going to put an end to all of it,” Becca said.
“How? The shooting’s started. Blood’s been spilled.”
“You’re going to contact your people,” Griz said. “Tell them what we just told you. Get them to set up a meeting between our people and yours.”
“Just like that?” Skinny said. “You think you’ll meet, and the war’s just going to stop?”
“You leave that up to me,” Becca said.
“You? Bitch, what you going to… okay,” Skinny said, correcting course quickly when Griz took a hold of him. “Okay. Ease down, big man. Ease down. We’ll leave it up to her.”
“Just set it up,” Griz said. “And make sure Mal is there.”
“Why would I do all that?” Skinny said. “Since you’re the ones who put me in this cast in the first place?”
Griz leaned over to stare closely into his face. “Because you’ve still got one ball left to lose.Trevor.”
33
The meeting with Death’s Head was held at a neutral spot, in an abandoned warehouse outside of Philadelphia. It wasn’t anyone’s territory, and the warehouse had stood empty for decades, so it was unlikely that anyone would stumble across their meeting.
Griz was with Becca, of course, and Kate had insisted on being there as well, which meant Wyatt came along, too. Devil and Pony also demanded on being there to back them up in case anything went wrong. They all stood as a group near their motorcycles and the same shot-up van that they’d taken into Philly at the start of the hostilities.
Opposite them, on the far side of the warehouse, also standing near their vehicles, a half-dozen Death’s Head stared them down with undisguised malice. They all seemed to blend together into a mass of ugly, dangerous-looking scumbags to Becca, but some of her friends were able to pick out individual players amongst them.
“There’s Mal,” Griz said.
He was the easiest to pick out, being twice as wide as any of the rest of them. Mal seemed to displace several times his size in air, as the others all made plenty of room for him as he flexed his over-inflated muscles almost constantly.
“That’s him?” Devil said. “Dang, he’s so juiced up, I’m surprised the needle isn’t still hanging out of his ass.”
“Holy shit, they brought Lou,” Wyatt said, shouting over to Death’s Head, “Hey, Lou! How’s the shoulder?”
“Don’t, Wyatt,” Kate said, putting a hand on his arm.
“What? You’re the one who shot him.”
“You’re not helping, Wyatt,” Becca said. “This is supposed to be a negotiation. You don’t start out by taunting the other side.”
“Look,” Wyatt said. “You can’t show these guys any fear, or hesitation. Okay? They’re like junkyard dogs. They can smell it.”
“Junkyard dogs,” Becca said. “Right.”
“Maybe I should be the one to talk to them, Becca,” Griz said.
“Griz, you are many things, but you are not a talker,” Becca said. “You trusted me with this idea. Trust me the rest of the way.”
“All right,” he said.
“So, Skinny said their leader’s name is Victor,” she said.
