“Fuck all of you,” Pan growls back. “I’m charging that Armenian bastard?—”
“Albanian,” Kit and I say at the same time.
“Whatever! Jesus.” There’s a mighty engine rev and Pan shoots ahead of us.
“Idiot,” mutters Blue, and accelerates after him. “Wait the fuck up.”
They rocket ahead across the heat of the freeway, weaving farther and farther until they’re all but out of sight.
“Guess they need space,” Fox jokes. Just to me, not on mic. Yelling over the road noise.
I force a laugh. “Guess so,” I yell back.
We ride a bit longer in silence, save the rushing of the wind, the air swiping over cars as we pass them.
“Kit used to get them too,” he says quietly.
I hold myself still. “Get what?”
“Uh. Panic attacks, I guess?” I can hear the expression on his face as he searches for the right words. “I dunno. Not like he ever saw a shrink about it, maybe it’s something else. All I mean was…uh. I get it, I guess. So you don’t have to, you know, pretend in front of me. If that helps. Like, I know it’s better to just kind of ride it out than try to squash it down, you know?”
Suddenly the press of my binder against my skin and flesh feels like it’s squeezing through to my lungs. But I manage a nod.
“I mean, easy for me to say, I guess,” Fox goes on. “Just relax.I knowhehates that, but?—”
You both have jackets on, idiotI think. And the thing’s padded besides. The odds that my boobs—especiallymyboobs, A-minus cups on a good day—would register to him are…
I can’t help it.
I do relax. A little. Against Fox.
And it’s…nice.
CHAPTER 22
PAN
Of coursehe’d call me.
Krye’s got guys. Of course he does. Big thugs with big guns. Sure, they’re fat and slow and I’m always going to be better at what I do, but that’s not why he sent me. That’s not why this drop was supposed to be mine and it’s not why the Lost Boys got sent out as the cleanup crew.
No, I know why Krye called me out for this, and it’s not about him or his guys or even about Zusanna and her gym. It’s not even about the money.
It’s about where that money was going. About who was asking for it in the first place.
About who was supposed to bring it.
It’s about me, and it’s about Hook.
A way for him to get my attention. Force me back into his orbit. And poor Krye and his precious Zuzu just had the bad luck to get caught in the middle of it.
Well, mission accomplished, asshole, because my attention’s got.
So I guess now I’ve got to show that bastard I mean business.
CHAPTER 23
TINK
