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She’s running out of options, so she stops in front of Fletch. “You’re a cop, and you’re duty-bound to arrest all of these men for the things they’ve discussed today.”
“Delicious…” He rocks back on his heels. “I’m not arresting them.”
“You’re a cop!” she booms. “It’s yourjob. These men are colluding to partake in organized crime. They’ve killed! All three of them have. They’ve committed crimes you can’t ignore.”
“We know whonotto call to the stand during our trial,” Felix sniggers. “Little Miss Snitch-Face over here ain’t gonna provide us with a useful character reference.”
“Lix,” Dropping my head, I look down at my boots and exhale. “Shut the fuck up already. Jesus.”
“We have to go,” Tim concludes seriously. Turning to the bar, he moves around to the other side and opens drawers that only a handful of people are aware exist. And most of those people have the last name Malone.
Taking out a MAC 1911 handgun, he checks the barrel and drops the mag so the mechanism clicks. Pushing it back in, he sets the piece on the bar and goes back to collect more. “We’ll get what we need from home.”
“Home?” Aubree stops in the doorway of the bar and watches Tim with a face too pale not to make a man’s heart race. “You’re leaving? And you call that other placehome?”
“Aubree?” Statue-still, Tim watches the woman everyone in this building knows he’s head over heels in love with. “What are you—”
“You’re leaving?” she repeats on a growl. Angry, she looks to Minka. “They’re leaving?”
“They won’t listen to sense.” Now that she has someone on her side, Minka charges across the room and stops behind an invisible line that separates them from us.
Me, Tim, and Felix are over here, while Aubree and Minka are over there.
Two sides. Two competing opinions.
And then Fletch in the middle, not stopping us, but not pushing us out the door, either.
“Felix is a prick, gleefully willing to lead his brothers to a war they have no part in…” She meets my gaze with a sneer. “While the other two are too loyal and too dumb to say no.”
“Honestly,” Felix simpers. He moves behind the bar and grabs a handful of ice to wrap in a cloth. Slapping the lot to his face, he smirks. “The name-calling isn’t necessary. Have you no ounce of professionalism at all?”
She looks to me. Implores. So I save us all the paperwork and step between my murderous wife and my suicidal brother.
“Felix,” I sigh with exhaustion. “I swear to god, if you don’t shut the fuck up, I’ll give her a gun and let her have her way.”
He scoffs. “Like she has the lady balls to do shit.”
He stops beside Tim and reaches into his back pocket. Then he takes out an envelope thick enough to make my brows jump high.
“New ID for flying to New York. Fresh bank cards. Cash. Driver’s license.” He looks over at me and winks. “Same for you. If we’re quick, we can get Micah home and Pastore on his way to the bottom of the ocean, then you guys can come back home to your pretty little playthings.”
He casts a smug look past me until he stops on Minka. “Would you prefer fresh documents, too, beautiful? IfMinkadisappears and Pastore can no longer find you, that might save us all a bunch of trouble.”
“No.” She brings her eyes to mine and simply stares. Breathes. Processes. “Minkais staying right here and taking her ass to work. A little girl needs me right now, more than any of you seem to want me. She needs an advocate, and you don’t seem to care for my opinion at all. So I’ll go where I’m useful.”
I take a step forward. “Babe—”
“I’ll see you tonight,” she bites out. “In our apartment. Just you and me, exactly like you promised. By then, Tim will be working his bar again, and Felix will have tossed himself into a ditch.”
She moves her attention to my grinning brother. “I can’t be okay with you leading them toward harm. It sucks your dad is dying, and it’s even worse that Micah’s in danger, but he remained in an unsafe world. He stayed for money and power and thrills, while at just sixteen, Archer was braver than you all and broke away to do better.”
Shaking her head, she looks back to me, only to reach up and hook her finger in the band hanging around her neck. “You know the right decision, Archer. You know what you need to do.”
Turning on her heels, she pushes through the door and onto the street outside, then turning right, she heads to her apartment. To shower and dress for the day. To prepare for a different war, tracking down a killer and giving peace to a little girl taken before her time.
“Phew.” Cheerful and carefree, Felix whistles when Aubree spins away and follows her boss. “Chicks, huh? What a drag.”
“Shut the fuck up, Felix!”
