Looking in the direction Lucian had started to point, Basil saw the black SUV that was even now merging with traffic. The word he used then was much worse than the little shit Lucian had called Bricker.
Seventeen
“You know, Lucian is going to be seriously pissed at our taking off like this,” Justin warned as he pulled into traffic.
“I don’t care,” Sherry assured him. “This is urgent. My father’s ding-dong is in my hands.”
“Yeahhhhh, that just sounds wrong,” Bricker drawled.
“What?” Sherry asked with bewilderment, then realized what she’d said and clucked her tongue impatiently. “You know what I mean.”
“Actually, I don’t,” he informed her. “The council decides these things, Sherry. His ding-dong is not in your hands at all.”
She bit her lip at this news and then asked, “Well, surely if I tell Mortimer that I don’t want them to shred his ding-dong a hundred times or whatever, he’ll let him go? I mean I am the victim here. Well, my mother was, but she’s dead, so that leaves only me to care one way or another. Besides, isn’t there a statute of limitations or something? It happened thirty-two years ago, for heaven’s sake.”
“Yeahhhh, I’ll just drive around the block and pick up Lucian and Basil now,” Bricker decided.
“What? Why?” Sherry asked with a frown. “I wanted to get back to the house before them to convince Mortimer to release my father to me.”
“Yeah, but it’s not going to work, honey pie,” Bricker informed her. “You can plead with Mortimer until you’re blue in the face and he won’t release your father without Lucian’s say so. And,” he added dryly, “all our leaving them behind would do is piss off Lucian and make him less likely to listen to your pleas.”
Her eyes widened in dismay as she realized what he said was probably true. “Turn around. Go back.”
“I am,” Bricker said soothingly as he took the next corner.
Sherry bit her lip and began to wring her hands, worrying over whether the men had come out yet, and realized that they had left. As Bricker took the next corner, she muttered, “I wished you’d said that earlier. Why did you agree to leave them in the first place?”
“Because I wanted to know what you were up to, whether you planned to try to break your father out of jail or what,” he admitted with a shrug, and then paused as he negotiated the next corner before pointing out, “I’m an Enforcer. It’s my job to make sure you won’t be a problem.”
Sherry turned on him with dismay at this news.
Bricker caught her expression, grinned and admitted, “I also couldn’t resist seeing what Lucian’s expression would be when I pulled out and left him behind.” His grin widened into a full-blown savoring smile, and he assured her, “Believe me, that was priceless.”
Eyes narrowing, Sherry growled, “You’re a shit disturber.”
“That I am,” he agreed easily.
“Ass,” she muttered with disgust.
“Oh, don’t be like that, Sherry. Look on the bright side, this way you can nag the hell out of them all the way to the house,” he pointed out brightly as he took the next turn. “They’ll be captive listeners, unable to escape your arguments. See how this all works out so well?”
Sherry merely scowled again. It was pretty obvious that Bricker had a bit of a twisted sense of humor. It made her wonder just what kind of woman the nanos would pick out for him.
“I think Lucian wants the front seat,” Bricker said with amusement.
Sherry glanced around to see that they’d stopped in front of the store and Lucian now stood outside the passenger door, scowling unpleasantly. She considered locking the door and making him get in the back, but it didn’t seem the smart thing to do when she wanted something from the man.
Unsnapping her seat belt, she slid out of the seat and crawled into the back as Basil opened the door to get in beside her.
“We thought you’d left without us,” Basil admitted as he closed the door and claimed the seat next to her.
“We drove around the block,” she muttered as she did up her seat belt. When she finished and straightened, she found Lucian in the front passenger seat, peering from her to Bricker with a glowering expression. He, of course, could read her. Grimacing, she pointed out, “We came back for you.”
“Bricker always intended to. You, however, only agreed because you are concerned about your father’s family jewels,” Lucian said dryly.
“You are?” Basil asked with concern, taking her hand.
“Er . . . actually, the family jewels aren’t what are imperiled,” Bricker announced. “Family jewels are the testicles, Lucian. Not the ding-dong.”