“Where are you two going?” Maverick asks.
Hopper sends him an enigmatic look. “You don’t wanna know.”
They make their way down to Hopper’s car before any of us can react. As they take off, Maverick’s hand goes to his chest, and he looks over at his twin.
“That’s not good, is it?”
Holmes’s jaw tightens. “I think he’s going to kill Whitaker, and that is very, very bad.”
“Why? If Whitaker’s responsible for the death of his own son, why do we care if they go out and kill him?”
I clear my throat. “Officer of the law right here.”
“But didn’t Joni just say that’s what my family does?” Maverick asks, suddenly over his concerns with murder.
That should really bother me, right?
Right.
Honoré walks over to Holmes and whispers in his ear. Maverick looks like he’s about to lose his head.
“Hey!” he yells. “You two!”
They snap to attention.
“Maybe don’t have secret conversations about the shit we’re already discussing,” he says, body strung tight. “This? Is what makes me think you don’t trust me. That you think I’m too stupid or weak to handle the truth.”
Holmes shakes his head. “It’s not that. It’s just that you’ve never handled something like this before, and we might actually be in an emergency situation.”
“And whose fault is that?” Maverick asks. “Why have I never handled something like this before? What about all those years of self-defense training and the martial arts we learned as kids? Doesn’t that count? Doesn’t the training I’ve continued to do count at all?”
“Of course it does. But there’s a difference between a dojo and a firefight.”
“Based on your reactions, I’m guessing Hopper and Silas are about to do something that’s going to be a big, big problem for everyone.”
“You’re not wrong,” Honoré responds. “We need to drop you at a secure location, and then we need to go after them.”
“If they’re racing into a bad situation, you don’t need to waste time running carpool,” Maverick insists. He gestures between him and me. “We know what we’re doing, and if you need to stop them, we can run back up.”
I tug Maverick to the side. “Who’s thisweyou’re talking about here?”
“Didn’t you hear what Joni said? This is the work you’re supposed to be doing,” he says with a rolling gesture. “So, let’s get to it.”
“Look, I know you’ve been left out of something really big and important, but you have to understand that up until about thirty seconds ago, I didn’t realize this is what Joni has been mentoring me for, you feel me?”
He steps back. “Wait. Are you afraid?”
Is this thing on?
“The fact that you’re willing to go off and chase down Hopper and Silas with whatever they’re gonna do to Whitaker… Yeah, that’s a little frightening.”
Maverick put his hands on his hips. “Do you feel bad about killing the four men who broke into your apartment?”
I roll a shoulder, uncomfortable with my answer.
“Boone?”
“No,” I spit out.
