“Yeah,” said Dimitri, sounding sad. “Before they got to us, he told me the guy the cops were looking for had been good to him. Had been the one to take him to the bank, to show him where the banks were on his route. Hooked him up with the shelter people. I-I don’t know what they did with him. Maybe he’s in jail.”
And that there sounded like the most hopeful possibility.
“Why do you think that’s a danger to us?” Ace asked.
“’Cause the other guy next to me seen that cop car hanging out here,” said Dimitri. “He knew the place across the highway. I guess….” He shrugged. “The night clerk at the convenience store sells good meth.”
Ace scrubbed his face. Important to know, but that would be another adventure. “What did you tell him?”
Dimitri shrugged. “I couldn’t tell him anything. I did not know this man. If I tell him not to mention you, he knows I know who you are. I told him I was going to the john,” he said bluntly. “I grabbed a sandwich, a bottle of water, and left. That was this morning.” He glanced at his empty plate, and Ace got him another slice of pizza. “Spasibo.”
“You’re welcome.” Ace blew out a breath and looked up to see Sonny walking back in and gesturing to the bathroom.
“All set,” he said quietly.
“Thanks, Sonny. We got any more of Ernie’s donuts? I’m thinking Dimitri here’s gonna want dessert.”
“Sure, Ace.”
Ace could have done it himself—preferred to have, actually—but Sonny got nervous with people. If he had a thing to do, such as set a table, fix a car, walk a dog, he forgot he wasn’t great with the human race in general. Sometimes.
And then Ace asked a stupid question. “Dimitri, I… I gotta tell you, didn’t I drop you off in LA? How in the hell did you get to Barstow?”
Dimitri stared at him with swimming eyes. “I…. You were right. I had nowhere to go. I thought at first I’d come here and kill you. Get revenge. But after the hospital kicked me out, and I had no food, no water, no money, I remembered.”
“Remembered what?”
“You gave me food and water. I’d shown up to kill you with no conscience, no care that what I was doing was wrong. You shot me—’cause that’s how the world works, right? Your man shot me because I would have killed him. And then he put me in the garage and kept me alive. Food. Water. Painkiller. It was more than I’d done for any human in my life, and you did it for me. So I thought… I had no idea where you were. I came from Russia to Vegas—lived in Vegas for ten years. Never went to LA until you dropped me off in the middle of it. Halfway from LAto wherever the hell this is, I started to wonder. Why kill you? You had done nothing to me I didn’t earn. And then I….” He tilted his head, and water rimmed his eyes. “You told me, and I didn’t believe you. My whole syndicate, every friend I’d ever had—gone. Dead or in the wind. And if they were in the wind, they wouldn’t be thinking of me. In fact the closest thing I had to family had just shot me in the leg, kept me alive, and dropped me off at the clinic. I….”
He gave a weak, sad smile. “I really do know how to work on cars. I could sleep in a tent in the desert. I would bathe in your garden hose next to your house. A little money. A little kindness….” What came next was almost a sob. “But I get none of those things if the police kill you, do I?”
Ace took a breath. “Nope, Dimitri—and it’s not a lot to ask. And you’re right. It all goes away if they come here asking questions.” He gave a sigh. Yeah, he was moved. Full of trust? Well, no. “Look—so you know? Me and Sonny sleep with weapons under our pillows.” He didn’t say they were knives, because Sonny was just too damned trigger happy to keep a gun nearby, but armed was scary enough. “And we’ll be taking your clothes to wash and any weapons you have.” He grimaced in distaste. “Unless… you know. You’re carrying anything someplace we can’t see.”
Dimitri’s grimace felt like looking in the mirror. “Ouch,” he said simply. “I knew men who would do this. Fuckingouch.”
Still, Ace was sleeping with one eye open. “Agreed,” he said simply. “And I’ll tell you what. While you’re in the shower, I’ll start making calls. Your news means we gotta change up our plans a little. We can’t shut down the shop—we can’t. We shut it down, the cops’ll be all over our ass. But I can leave you and Sonny here to watch the store. The cops come, you say your boss is gone for the day, but you got a shitton of work to do. Feel freeto call me names if you want. But if I leave nobody here, I don’t got no hope of getting back to having a home left.”
Dimitri nodded hungrily. “A shower?” he practically begged.
“Yeah. Soon as you’re done with your dessert.”
Ace was on the phone textingeverybodyalmost before Dimitri left the table.
YOU’RE LETTINGhim WHAT?That was Burton—he got protective over Ace, which was sweet, but Ace didn’t feel it was an all-caps sitch, not yet.
He’s sleeping on my couch.
Uhm, Ace? Texted George.Didn’t he try to kill Sonny and Ernie?
He did. Look, he coulda come up and shot us through the front of the house, no worries, if that was what he’d planned. He wanted to warn us. I guess he was trying to get back here to, uhm, ask us for help?
I could take care of him so quick and easy, Ace, Burton said, and Ace grimaced.You wouldn’t even have to remember he was in your living room.
NO. We WILL NOT KILL the man who just offered to help us out tomorrow.
How?Oh God. That was Jason.
So Brady breaks into the station house, and we make a distraction so he can get out—that was the plan, right?
