the engine.
“And this one?” I ask, watching as Hael pulls out behind us and we start down the road.
“The owner of this car just had surgery and won’t be out of the hospital for days. Her children are with their grandmother; the father is dead.” Oscar tells me this in a total deadpan, like it isn’t completely creepy that he knows all of that shit.
“How do you figure?” I ask, turning around to look at him. He stares right back at me and smiles. Chills trace over my arms and I shudder.
“Because that’s my job, Bernadette, to know things.”
What a fucking non-answer if I’ve ever heard one.
I don’t ask how they got the camera in Kali’s room. It’d be pretty easy to break in there, if one were so inclined.
“Your favorite McDonald’s?” I query, and Callum smiles cheerily, like he didn’t just chuck a dead guy’s body into a teenager’s trunk.
“South Prescott, no cameras, a lot of illegal activity to work under.” His smile gets a bit wider. “Plus, they never give out cold fries.”
Dark humor. But it works. I give Callum a look that he returns with a private one of his own. We have shit to work through, but it’s been—pardon the pun—buried underneath everything else. But I haven’t forgotten. I hope he can tell by my expression.
I turn back to the front and lean into my seat.
We just dropped a corpse off to the leader of the Charter Crew.
Talk about a clapback.
We order pizza and smoke weed together, and I start to realize that what I first witnessed when I joined Havoc—that day we chilled and watch South Park together—was like a … calming ritual of sorts, a bonding exercise. Adrenaline was high after the, uh, body heist, and it’s calmed down a whole hell of a lot with some community smoking.
“I can’t believe you put a dead rat in that guy’s Armada,” I say with a snort. The smell Danny left in the SUV, it was impossible to miss. Hael cracked the front window, sent one of their Havoc lackeys to find us a rodent and … voila, an easy way to explain the stench of rot.
“This job’s all about innovation,” Hael says with a grin, glancing down as his phone buzzes. His lips turn down at the corners, and I have to take a guess on whether it’s his mother … or Brittany. “Shit, I’m late,” he growls, shoving his fingers through his hair. “Time to talk to Britt’s dad.”
Britt.
The sound of the familiar nickname rolling off Hael’s tongue annoys me.
“Keep us updated,” Victor warns as Hael grabs the keys to his Camaro. He looks like … well, I was going to say death warmed over. But really, I could just say he looks like Danny Ensbrook. “And don’t lose your temper.”
Hael licks the corner of his lip in an annoyed gesture.
“I won’t, boss.” He opens the door, and I stand up from the couch, following him out. Aaron and Vic watch me go, Oscar doesn’t act like he gives a shit, and it’s damn near impossible to figure out what Cal’s up to when he hides inside his hood like that.
“You called her Britt,” I say as I pause on the path that connects to the driveway, watching as Hael unlocks the driver’s side door and turns to look at me. He seems surprised somehow, like he didn’t figure I’d care.
“You okay, Blackbird?” he asks, standing up and turning back to me.
I move a little closer, so there’s only about a foot of space between us.
“You know, I keep thinking that if this is your baby, that things are over between us,” I say, and Hael whistles, letting his body slump back against the Camaro. Seems a little weird, to talk about shit like this after what we did today, but then again, what wouldn’t seem weird right now? My whole existence is weird.
“I didn’t think you thought we even had a thing,” he says, giving me a shit-eating little smirk that makes my blood boil. I narrow my eyes on him. Is this the point where I get another lesson in reality? The Havoc Boys have been like fairy-tale boys to me until now. But is Hael really just a cocky prick who likes to screw and run? Am I going to get a dose of his special breed of asshole? “What does Vic think?”
“Not everything is about Victor,” I snap back, gritting my teeth. Hael smiles and then nods, closing his eyes