Hopper gives hisLast Suppertableau one last, forlorn glance, then ashes the bodies with a low, pulsing sweep of his rifle.
“Dex said to re-ash,” the even fucking crazier one says. “They’ll look like stains until we can remove this shitty carpet.”
“Hey.”
I mean, yeah. It’s shitty carpet, but it’smyfucking shitty carpet.
And…wow. That second sweep really does make it look like carpet stains.
That used to be…people.
“Um,” I say, trying to keep down my breakfast taco. “What about the witnesses? Someone clearly saw something and called the police.”
“According to Jake, they were called for shots fired, not for bodies on the ground.” Hopper brightens. “Which is a bit of luck.”
The guy, Honoré, reappears in the doorway. “We’re out of time. We’ll grab the carpet later.”
Hopper gestures at the door, and I hesitate.
“You’re the guy the department has all those myths about. You’re the one who’s been killing the bad guys. For years. Not just this John the Baptist stuff.”
“To be fair, my buddy Anders is responsible for at least half of those.”
That’s when I remember the word Anders used yesterday.Leverage.
No wonder he was so scared. Whoever would go after these guys must be one dangerous motherfucker.
I realize, belatedly, that Maverick’s hands are shaking. Whatever he knew about his family, he didn’t knowthat.
I feel like a dickhead for being so relieved.
“I don’t think you understand, Hopper,” I say, not sure if he’ll get it. “I can’t cooperate with you. I have to call this in.”
Hopper scratches the back of his head, then pulls up his phone again.
My training screams for me to take control of the situation, grab a gun, make him go to his knees, something. But I know, more than I’ve known anything in my life, that if I try something violent now, I’ll be dead before I hit the ground.
Hopper wouldn’t kill me, but this Silas motherfucker? Yeah, he definitely would.
Surreally, Hopper is whispering into his phone. “Yeah, but you said he would be cool. That he could handle it. That he would understand.”
“That I would understandwhat?” Hopper sends me a sheepish grin. “Hopper, who are you talking to?”
He hits the speaker option and shoves his phone into my hand. “Here.”
“What is this?” I ask, my brain desperately trying to make sense of things.
He gestures at the phone again.
I speak into the bottom of the phone. “Hello?”
“You need to know that we were gonna handle this in a completely different way.”
I recognize the voice.
I still don’t know what the fuck is happening.
“Joni?” I ask, wondering if I’ve been dropped in some alternate dimension.
