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“You owe memorethan one, bro,” he counters. “You owe me a dozen. Maybe more with the way she’s carrying on.”
“Has it been bad at night?” I ask, worried she may be having a fretful sleep on top of being in Napoleonic mode.
“No. The nights have been uneventful with Simone spooning Jo. All are fine aside from Chase demanding to sleep in the room too. Thank fuck your couch is a pull-out bed—that asshole would have made me draw straws to see who got the floor. Can you believe my best friend doesn’t trust me to be alone with his girl?”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “You insinuated you would be sleeping with both sisters, so yeah, you earned a jealous brother.”
“Come on, Prez, you know me. I was screwing with him.”
I sigh. “Punk, when you finally get your own woman, you’ll understand jealousy is nothing to fuck with.”
Punk chuckles. “Figured if you kick the bucket during this operation, I’m next in line for Jo. I mean, I’m with her all the time, I’ve slept in her bed, she already takes her anger out on me—might as well make it official after your wake. I’m going to rename herTink, like Tinker Bell—fitting pet name.”
I know he’s trying to bait me and damn him, because it works. “When I get home, I’m going to remove your balls and burn them.”
Punk busts a gut. “Jesus, Atlas! I’m joking, you sick fuck. Not sure if you’re aware, but that’s incest, bro. Burn my balls?! Jo’s already beaten you to the punch. She’s got them in a death grip and twisting them.”
Oh, boy.“How bad is she?”
“Where should I start? Well, the morning after you took off, I woke up to a glass of water being dumped on my head at five in the morning, demanding to know where you were. When I informed her you left to go after Esteban, she proceeded to beat Chase and me with a pillow ‘till the room erupted in feathers. She ordered us to clean it up, saying it was our fault for it happening—and that was day one!
“Because I’m her bodyguard, I’ve had to run ten miles with her at a sub-eight minute pace daily. Hades snarls at me the whole time—her hellhound has a sixth sense of knowing when you’ve pissed off his person.
“When I wanted to watch the Rockies, she and the bunnies took over the living room and put onMagic Mike. She asked me what I wanted for lunch the other day, and I said anything but pizza. What do you think she got? Pizza! And last night she insisted I do a foot soak with her and Simone—she knows I hate that kind of shit, regardless of the wonders it does on my feet.”
Jeez. My woman is relentless.I want to argue he enjoys the spa treatment shit, but now is not the time to push him.
“Oh, and to top it off, she’s making me take her and all the girls to the mall this afternoon. Opal passed her GED, and they’re ‘celebrating’ with retail. Thanks a lot, dickhead.”
I run a hand over my face. Josephine is a spitfire naturally, but when she gets a hair up her ass, she can be a real pill. “Okay, I deserve you fucking with me.”
“You’re damn right,” Punk huffs.
I look over at my best friend, still focused on the horizon. “Opal passed, bro.”
Gauge smiles with pride but keeps his eyes on the task at hand. “That’s my smart cookie.”
I’m half afraid to ask what else Josephine has been doing. “What’s Josephine doing now?”
“She’s out behind the garage, firing at bottles and pretending it’s your head. Tony is with her. Lucky fucker—gets to do the fun shit while I’m stuck with mall duty,” Punk complains.
“Take Tony and another brother when you go to the mall. If all the girls are going, you’ll need more eyes on them.”
“Sure, fine. But you should know you’re in for hell when you get back home. Good thing the pull-out couch is comfortable because that’s where your ass is going to wind up—I’ve got fifty on it against Eagle.”
“Fuuuck,” I groan, knowing I’m on pussy-lockdown once I get back. I want to hear more about my woman, but there are other pressing matters we need to address. “Any update on Tom?”
Tom woke the day after we left for this mission. By mid-week, doctors had removed the tube in his chest. He’s been steadily improving each day, thank God.
“PT should be released from the hospital this afternoon. He’ll be recouping at his parent’s home. I have Brass, Flay, and Triple doing a rotation on his protection detail.”
I frown. “PT?”
“Yeah, PT for Peeping Tom.”
I throw my head back and laugh. PT is a nickname that is going to stick if Tom chooses to sign on with Mercy Ravens. I sober as I ask my next question. “And where are we on our hacker?”
“We have a compiled list of potential shooters from Tom’s attack. Chase is going through that list and seeing if there are any connections between Tom and/or Bianchi. It’s a slow process.”
