He stares back. Tilts his head. Once. Twice.
The Bluetooth beeps. He ignores it.
“The yolk sees you,” he says solemnly. “The beak has whispered your name into the shell.”
I stare at him. “Buddy, do you need a sandwich? Bus fare? An exorcism?”
He doesn’t answer. Just steps closer. Lays one hand reverently on the bat now in my cart, and whispers directly to the bat. “Strike true, sister. One swing for every stolen egg. Let her skull be the nest that never hatches.”
A single tear rolls down his cheek.
He bobs his head. “She knows how to swing without mercy and still cradle a hatchling.”
I don’t blink. “I... genuinely don’t know how to respond to that. Do you need money? A blanket?” He’s homeless? Insane?
He tilts his head.
Clucks three times, sharp, like a starting pistol.
“Feathers never forgive. Pecking order must be restored.”
Then he presses two fingers to his lips, transfers the kiss to the bat’s sweet spot, and moonwalks into the camping aisle, vanishing between pup tents like a poultry David Blaine.
Like he didn’t just perform a poultry séance in the middle of aisle seven and gift me a fucking enchanted vengeance bat.
I stare at the bat.
I weigh the new one in my hands.
It’s better. Balanced. Mean.
Juliet Lovelace does not tempt fate. Or fowl.
I am a lot of things.
But…
I am not brave enough to test the patience of a man in feather shorts who hears voices from eggs.
I keep the Coop’s bat.
In my car I Open the app to track Oksana.
Bitch had the good sense to leave Vitaly’s. She’s on the move. Headed to the warehouse district.
Probably looking for Dmitry. Or someone to take his place.
I prop the bat in the passenger seat. Nod at it and head after her.
I’m two blocks out when the tracker pings. Oksana’s Mercedes just rolled into an old cold-storage warehouse on Pier 19.
Place is a concrete box. One roll-up door, one man-door, cameras on the corners, two armed guys outside smoking like they’re waiting for the world to end.
Oksana’s inside, pacing, screaming at someone on the phone. I can hear her through the cracked loading-dock window.
I park between two shipping containers.
Options.
