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That meant yes. This was the same answer Johnno had given me back when we shot the shit on the futon, and I had asked him if Tasha, the girl he was seeing, had broken up with him. None of your fucking business, bro, he’d said, his upper lip twitching.
Still, it didn’t add up. I opened my hands again, trying to sound casual. “Five K is nothing to what Tim makes. What’s the rush?”
Kaz cleared his throat, eyes still on his phone.
And then I realized. “You got yourself into some other shit, didn’t you?” Someone was after him, too. So he thought he’d shift the load.
Instead of answering, Johnno reached for the cup holder, grabbed a bottle of Sprite, and took a swig. Johnno had always drunk Sprite like it was water.
With a jerk he palmed my head and whacked it with the butt of the gun, Sprite spreading in the air like a fountain. Pain streaked through my nerves, my teeth, my spine.
“I need more time,” I slurred, lemon-lime pop in my eyes. “I’m serious. You can kill me but I don’t have it.”
“If you don’t have it, I’ll come for your family, too.”
I broke out in a cold sweat. “What am I supposed to do?”
Johnno chugged the rest of the bottle. “Not my problem.”
“Half in three months,” I said, blinking against the knives in my skull. “Half when I get back.”
“Fine.”
I tried not to shake. Johnno spit out the crack of the window. Kaz pressed a button to unlock the doors, and I staggered out, dripping blood.
The squeak of a door opening sounded from across the street, and my breath caught. Jake stepped out on his stoop. JJ’s little blond head poked out from behind him.
He caught sight of me, and paused.
Go back inside, I silently commanded. Jake’s gaze turned to Johnno through the open window, then to Kaz. His face hardened. I knew what he was thinking. We were double-parked in the middle of his peaceful street. It would look the same way if we were pulling some other shit. If we were high. He turned away to shuffle JJ back inside.
This wasn’t the plan. The plan was to say sorry, to show him I’d changed. Now it looked like I had lied to his face. It looked like I was the same fucking idiot I’d always been.
