Fucking A!
I feel as though I can breathe again.
Wren yawns as they nod. “It’s the money that was channeled into crypto that’s proving trickier. All transactions are recorded on the public blockchain ledger, but the majority of them are pseudonymous. In this case, they were transferred into privacy coins, which use technologies like ring signatures and stealth addresses.”
One of the things I’ve noticed about Wren is that they rarely say much unless it’s about their work. Then, they’ll tell you everything they know, and you’ll probably understand only about a third of it.
I look back at Grudge. “Dude. Two thirds of the cash in twenty-four hours is two thirds further along than we would have gotten without Wren’s help. Sounds like the other third is gonna be a hell of a lot harder. Wren should transfer it all to you to hold. If someone knew enough to get the money from us once, there’s nothing to stop them from doing it all over again once they figure out we took it back. I’ll go close the old account today and open a new one to put the money back into.”
“Good idea.” Grudge tugs his hand through his hair, then looks to Wren. “Sorry. Not a lot of sleep. No coffee. Lots of fucking adrenaline from yesterday.”
Wren finds their feet and rolls their eyes. “The mysteriousendingthat no one wants to fill me in on.”
I look to Grudge. He’s my president, after all.
He told me they killed two of our enemies. Father and son. And that Lucy’s mom is gonna protect the club using the “make-my-day” statute. Yet, I can’t help but voice my opinion.
“Knowing might help Wren make sense of this. What are they supposed to do with only half the details?” What if the dead men are a crucial part of the missing money?
Grudge shakes his head. “Need to know. And in this case, they don’t need to know. But I’m grateful you found two thirds of the cash. Shouldn’t have overreacted because you hadn’t found it all.”
“You’re welcome,” Wren says, but the tone suggests otherwise. And as Wren walks by me toward their room, they turn up their nose. “You smell.”
“All the snow shoveling I just did, pup.”
They raise an eyebrow at me, but I see how the endearment gets to them for half a heartbeat. Wren’s got that snarky black-cat energy going, and while I’m no psychologist, I gotta believe it’s a protective veneer.
I watch their back as they leave. Their shoulders are sculpted, arms sinewy, biceps strong. Like Linda Hamilton in the secondTerminatormovie.
It’s hot.
Not gonna lie.
When I turn back to Grudge, he’s looking at me like I’m suddenly speaking a different language.
“Don’t look at me like that. You were a dick, and you know it.”
He relaxes his shoulders. “And only you could call me a dick to my face and me not be angry about it.”
I sniff my armpits. “Wren’s right. I stink. And I need clothes if I’m gonna stay here.” From the moment we decided that the best place for Wren to hide out was this apartment above the bakery, I’ve been here too. “Let me go home and pack a bag while you’re still here.”
Lucy reaches for the flash drive. “We wanted to go to the police this morning.”
“I know. But I’ll only be ninety minutes if I check on Mom too.”
“Go,” Grudge says. “We can wait.”
I hurry to my truck and go to the store on the way. I pick up the groceries I know my mom needs, and some extras given we’re heading into snowstorm season, then take them to her place.
“You stink,” Mom says as she maneuvers her wheelchair to greet me, and I kiss her cheek.
“You aren’t the first person to tell me that today. Morning, Ma.”
I drag the bags into the kitchen and begin to unload them into all the low kitchen cupboards Wraith, Butcher, Atom, and I fitted six years ago.
“I can do all that,” she says. “Want a coffee? Because I want to hear all about Wren.”
I shake my head as I stack the cans of soup onto the shelf. “Willa?”
