“Christ,” Deeks mumbled from somewhere, his broad body stepping in front of me and breaking the stare down from Chester. I dropped my eyes to my feet immediately as the mood around me changed. No one had to say a word. This was a power play and the power had clearly shifted, and it wasn’t appreciated.
The eyes behind me were burning spots into my cold flesh. I shouldn’t have been out there, and every single one of them knew it just as well as I did. I was the reason things had gone from bad to worse, and no matter how much my fight or flight kicked in, I was stuck. I had to stay because leaving would make Drew look weak, and I’d already done too much damage.
My hands balled around the leather with the last of my strength. Chester was laughing from somewhere beyond Deeks, and though I appreciated the protection, I suddenly felt the need to know what the hell was going on.
“Easy, Tucker. I’m here because Hernandez has gone off the radar. Wondered if you’d seen him on your travels. He was pretty hot about the shit that went down with Ramirez.”
“Her-who?” Drew hit back quickly.
Slater’s rough laughter broke free, his words traveling back to me as he joined Drew in his bravado. “You remember Hernandez, Tucker. He was the guy that followed Ram around like he was there solely to sniff his ass and make sure the stink of shit wasn’t too strong.”
Drew huffed out a laugh, but every time I heard anything from him, it only made the hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention even more. “The Emp who used to hit like a girl in the ring?”
“That’s the one,” Slater said, his boots slapping against the porch as he repositioned his feet.
“Not seen him for years,” Drew answered, shrugging casually before he cleared his throat.
With one hand gripping the leather closed, the other reached forward, my palm against Deeks’ back as I steadied myself. With every passing comment, I just wanted out ofthere. Everything Drew and Slater were building up, I was terrified that one wrong move from me, one cough or shuffle of my feet, would bring it all crashing down around us. The more I tried to stay still, the more my muscles twitched, nagging at me to stretch them out. It was one of those Murphy’s Law moments that made me want to scalp the bastard.
“I told the boys he was probably with that bitch he has on the side.” Cortez paused, and Deeks shuffled in front of me, making sure I was out of view before Chester continued. “She was married, but her pussy must have tasted like strawberries because the fucker kept going back for more. If you see him, you tell the dick I’m looking for him.”
It was Drew’s turn to step up. My view of what was going on was limited, given how much I was staring down at the floor, but there was only one man who moved the way he moved, and as soon as I heard his feet start to slap down against the steps, I knew what he was doing. He wasn’t being the Drew I knew and got to spend time with away from everyone else. He was now beingDrewTucker.He was playing his part and stepping into his role, and that probably scared me more than anything else as I held my breath and waited for him to speak.
“Quit the bullshit, Chester. You’re no more here looking for your man than you’re here to lickBen and Jerry’soff my balls. What’s this all about?”
A few bursts of muffled laughter broke out around us, but even when the Hounds were wearing smiles on their faces, everyone knew that their hands were flexing down by their sides and their readiness to kill was only a heartbeat away.
“Just checking in with all my associates,” Chesteranswered calmly.
“I thought we were enemies now,” Drew said calmly, while I prayed to Jesus for him to just shut the hell up and let them roll away.
“Associates. Enemies… There’s a fine line between love and hate, Mr. Tucker.”
“Not in this yard,” Slater spoke up from somewhere in front of me.
Then there was that silence again—the kind of silence where you never know which side of it you’re going to come out on. The tension in the air was so thick, my stomach rolled from it as I stood there like nothing more than a useless ornament.
“Well, as your associate, as your enemy, and as that lover you dream of but will never get within spitting distance of touching, I’m telling you I haven’t seen your man. I’m sure he hates this place and us as much as you do, Cortez. But if he stops by to deliver my newspaper, I’ll be the first one to call you up.”
I shifted from one leg to the other. I couldn’t fucking help it. I was close enough to Deeks that I was pretty sure no one in front of him saw it, but the intensity from behind me made me freeze the moment I felt it. This was almost as bad as pulling teeth, and I swore to myself then that if I ever heard someone had rolled up again, I was going to stay in Drew’s bedroom and wait it out.
The combative nature between Drew and Chester was obvious, but even blind, I could feel the palpability of the hatred. It rolled from the two of them and put tension in every man on the porch.
“I’ll keep that in mind, Drew. Good looking out.” Theway Chester said it once again made the hair on my arms stand on end. There was a threat buried deep in there, but no one else seemed to feel it. They all seemed frozen in place and locked down.
I wasn’t sure what happened with them at that point. All I could hear was the crunching of ground beneath the soles of boots and the creaking of leather as some men folded their arms and others dropped theirs down by their sides. I was too busy holding my breath and waiting for the sound of shots to fire in the air to really make sense of any of it. It was only when Drew spoke up one last time that I knew he was still safe and more than anything, in charge.
“Cortez?” he shouted out calmly.
No response came from Chester, but I could imagine his face angled up to Drew’s and the look of arrogance that he was no doubt wearing as he waited for him to finish.
“If you ever come through my yard uninvited again, I’ll kill you. You got that?”
The laughter that came from Chester was cut off by the roar of his bike starting, the other two coming to life behind his. I froze as the sound got louder before leaving and sending up a cloud of dust around us. Looking around Deeks, I saw a couple of guys jump from the porch to lock the gates, and Slater hopped down to talk to Drew quietly.
“Deeks?” I whispered so he was the only person who could hear me in the fading of the engines as they hit the street. “Who’s Ramirez?”
Deeks half turned, his eyes moving between Drew and me before he lowered his voice and leaned in closer. “Ramirez is the one that killed Pete, but you’d do best forgetting that name and not bringing it up in front of Drew.”
