Page 46 of Joey

“You would, huh?”

“Definitely. You’ve got my brain all twisted up with intrigue, Brooke Alder. So many questions running through my head about you right now.”

“Like what?”

“Like…” He pauses. “Like… how is this gonna end?”

“It’s not gonna end. That’s my prize, right? You guys get the little girl and I get you guys.”

“And then what do you think happens?”

“I dunno, Wald.” I stifle a chuckle. “I have no clue.”

“You and Joey just bought a house. If everything goes well, in a week or two you’re gonna have a little girl living there with you.”

“You’re gonna live there too.”

“Yeah. What do you think that looks like?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well.” He laughs. “I am going to fuck you.”

“Are you now?”

“For sure.”

“Maybe I’ll tell you no.”

“You could,” he says. “But you won’t.”

“How do you figure that? You don’t know me. And my loyalties right now are to Joey.”

“Yeah, but his loyalties are to me.”

“So he’s gonna let you?”

Wald nods. “If I tell him I want to, he’ll let me.”

“And then what?”

“And now we’re back to my question.”

“How do I think this will end?”

“Do you have an idea?”

“No. Do you?”

“Kinda. But I’m not gonna share it with you. Not yet, anyway.” He pauses, then says, “Left, right, or forward?” when we come up to another intersection.

“Forward.”

“Good choice,” he says, then grins.

He doesn’t say anything else as we drive, aside from asking for direction. And when we get stuck in traffic just a few blocks from my building, it starts to get awkward.

What is he thinking about?