“I didn’t do it for you,” Mickey snapped without meaning to. He took a deep breath, and he dropped his hand on top of Roger’s. “But you’re welcome.”
Roger was quiet for a minute after that, but then he started humming.
It was that goddamn Toni Basil song.
“I will pull this car over and beat you,” Mickey warned.
“Sorry! It’s so catchy!” Roger cackled. “Is that what you’re named after? That song?”
“No. I was born before the song came out.”
“Well, where did Mickey come from?”
“Are we really talking about this now? Right now?”
“Fuck, you’re such a dick,” Roger complained. “A big, giant, dangling… shit. Look!”
“What?” Then Mickey saw. “Oh,shit.”
There was a line of police cars and news vans clustered around the corner of the street he needed to turn on to get to the safe house.
“What the fuck, what the fuck, what thefuck,” Roger chanted, trying to sink down into his seat.
“Calm down,” Mickey soothed as he cruised on by. “We’re going to very slowly and very carefully drive—”
“Fuck that! Speed up! Come on!”
“No, if I do that, they’re going to see and come after us!”
“Did it occur to you that there aren’t that many slick ass Novas in Strassen Springs and they’re gonna come after you anyway when they see this fuckin’ ride?”
Mickey waited until the flashing lights were in his rear-view mirror before arguing. “Look, those guys have obviously been set up there for a while. Long before we shot up the Luchesis, okay? It’s only been a few minutes since I killed Salvatore. This is something else.”
“We need to go back,” Roger urged. “Come on. What if they got Crybaby? Huh? They had to be there for the fuckin’ safe house!”
“There’s nothing we can do about it now. Try calling Cold again.”
“Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuckityfuck.” Roger was panting as he dialed again, and he growled in frustration. “Nothing! Fucking nothing! This is bullshit!”
“Calm down,” Mickey ordered. “Look, Alistair’s is the fallback location. We’ll go there and wait for them. Okay?”
“But Mickey—”
“I said,calmdown,” Mickey said sternly. “Nobody is following us. We’re safe. They weren’t there for us. We’re gonna make it back just fine. Okay?”
“Okay,” Roger mumbled. He didn’t argue, but it was clear he wasn’t happy.
The rest of the drive was tense, and Mickey almost wished there was music to break the silence. The route he was taking was going to tack on an additional half hour, but better safe than sorry. He didn’t dare mess with the radio, and as he drove, he tried to sort out all the possible scenarios for the fucked up mess they were in.
Cold and the others might still be working. They could be cleaning up more stragglers from the house. Then again, they could be the reason for all the fuss back at the safe house. The timing wasn’t right, though.
Mickey felt certain that whatever was going on at the safe house had to have happened while they were waiting for the fires to start. The cops could mobilize pretty quickly, but the press took time to set up. From the looks of things, they had been there for a good while.
He parked around the back of Alistair’s house, and he took inventory of the cars. Valdemar and Thirdsies, the one he’d given Duncan, and Jules’ El Camino were all here.
Oh, and that snake Rufus Corman was here too.
What the fuck.
