Arsen nodded. “Mm.” He gestured to the sandwich. “Eat something.”
Ever took another bite, chewing dutifully. He jumped when the side door—the one connected to the apartments next door—popped open, Nico and Levi entering before shutting it and pushing a big lock into place, barring anyone else from doing the same.
They looked at the body on the floor.
“Shit,” Levi muttered. “Jericho said you iced a cop, but I didn’t believe it. How’d you do it?”
Arsen shrugged. “I grabbed a screwdriver and jabbed it into the base of his skull.”
Ever’s turkey sandwich threatened to make another appearance as his stomach sloshed. Was that what that sound had been?
Nico walked over and hunkered down beside the body. “This guy isn’t one of ours.”
“One of ours?” Ever echoed.
“Our cops. I know every cop in our neighborhood, even the narcs. He’s not one of them.” He shoved the man onto his side and pulled his wallet free, flipping it open and showing it to them, even though there was no way for them to read from that distance. “Jamesville. Detective Soderberg with the violent crimes unit.”
“He had some kind of arrangement with Jennika,” Arsen said. “It makes sense how she kept slipping through the cracks if she had an inside man.”
Ever remembered something then. “He has a boss.”
Arsen frowned. “What?”
Nico tossed the wallet onto the body, then floated closer with Levi. “A boss?”
Ever gave a stilted nod. “When he was threatening to sell me—”
“Sell you?” Nico said, sounding furious.
Ever nodded, a feeling like bubbles in his chest. “He said his boss could find a lot of uses for me.”
“Like his literal boss?” Levi asked, but not like he expected Ever to have an answer.
“I fucking hate dirty cops, man,” Levi muttered. “If they sent him here to threaten Ever, then there’s going to be more of them.”
Ever’s heart tripped. More of them? What if, next time, they hurt Arsen? Or Jericho or Nico? Even Levi? “I should leave.”
Arsen looked at Ever like he’d kicked him. “What?”
“It’s not safe for you if I stay here.”
Arsen stared at him for a full thirty seconds, then squished his face between his palms and kissed him hard on the mouth. “You’re not going anywhere. We can handle ourselves. There’s safety in numbers, and I promise you, if it comes down to us or the Jamesville police force, we still have the numbers on our side.”
Nico nodded. “You haven’t even seen how deep the rabbit hole goes, gumdrop.”
“Gumdrop?” Ever echoed, confused.
Levi nodded. “Gumdrop.”
As far as nicknames went, he supposed it could be worse. Arsen called himbesenokand he didn’t even know what that meant. A shock of adrenaline shot through his veins as something else occurred to him. “He called me Ever.”
They all looked at him. “What?”
“He called me Ever. He called me Ever,” he said, voice rising in panic.
That wasn’t possible. How? How would he know that?
“Isn’t that your name?” Nico asked.
