“We agreed to launder money for guns, not this bullshit. Not again.” Dax sighs and runs his hands over his head. “How the fuck did you miss this, Preach?” he asks.
Preacher lowers his head, but it’s not his fault.
“I vetted the company, Dax. They stuck us with Brennan after I vetted them, but you’re right. I should have looked into him.”
“Call a meeting.” Dax doesn’t look up, but I know he’s talking to me.
“Consider it done.”
Chapter 44
Eden
“You won’t believe this,” Selene whispers over lunch. She takes her strawberry iced tea and downs half of it. “My dad called me yesterday. I should have gone with my first thought and not picked up, but I did. There was no hello. No, how are you? He spoke in tongues for a full three minutes. I had the phone on speaker while I ate my peanut butter crackers. When he started praying, I ended the call.”
She lets out a breath. Cori rolls her eyes, and I shake my head.
“What brought that on?” I ask.
“Your man,” Selene says. “I think your sister called my dad.”
“And said what? He’s my man, not yours.” But I’m not the least bit surprised. Since I haven’t been around Sylvie for the past decade, I had forgotten how she could be. She always thought it was her right to tell me and my friends what to do, and when we would tell her to go fuck herself, she would go to our parents.
“You’d think that as a trad wife, your sister would have better things to do than to snitch on us,” Cori says.
“Forget her,” I say. From what I’ve noticed between her and her husband, she has her own problems to deal with.
My phone buzzes with a text from Rip. He didn’t come back last night like he promised, but said he would pick me up from work this evening.
Rip:No
Me:Huh?
It’s been hours since he’s texted me, and I have no idea what he’s talking about.
Rip:Not that car
I sigh. He’s had something to say about every car I’ve texted him.
Me:What’s wrong with it?
Rip:Everything. Talk later. Gotta go. Do. Not. Buy. A. Car.
“Eden, can you leave your man alone for a minute?” Cori asks. “I have some news, but I need to know that what we talk about stays between us.” Instead of eyeing Selene, her shrewd eyes remain on me.
“Um, I know you’re not saying that to me. Selene’s the snitch.”
“If you don’t let that go already,” Selene snaps.
“It’s about stuff that involves Rip, but you can’t tell him what we talk about.”
“I would never break girl code.” Then I think about it. “Unless he’s in danger or something.”
“This is nothing like that.” Cori gestures for us to come closer, and Selene and I lean in. “I don’t think that old man with the humpback and dick nose is the leader of whatever this is. He’s a front.”
“It’s not our business,” I say.
“True. First Thessalonians chapter four says we should live quietly and mind our own business,” Selene says.
