“Eventually,” Reid says, pulling a burner out of her jacket and snapping the SIM. “But I’ll torch her records. Clear Vitaly’s name from everything she had. No one’s coming for him.”
“So we can breathe?” Orion leans against the doorframe, stretching his back with a crack.
“Better than that,” I say. “We fucking celebrate. We’ve got a family business now. I’ll sign on. Make an honest living baking shit.”
“Fuck no,” Orion says instantly. “You stay out of the goddamn kitchen.”
“Asshole. I can make shit too.”
Reid wipes down a weapon and drops it into a duffel.
“We are celebrating though,” Orion says. “Vitaly’s free. Juliet’s still breathing. We’ve got two new family members.” He turns to Reid. “Yeah?”
I glance at him. “Yeah.” Offer my half-sucked lollipop. “He’s in.”
Reid shrugs, but there’s something almost shy in it. “Haven’t survived the group dinner yet. Elliot, Noah, Vitaly. They might not vote me in.”
I laugh. “Nah, man. Family dinner’s just a trial by fire to see if you can keep a bone while we roast the shit out of you.”
“Oh, and the new rule is Vitaly gives you a nickname that no one understands,” Orion adds. “We all have to Google our own names now.”
“No matter what it means,” I say, grinning. “That man could say booger in Russian and Juliet’d come.”
We all laugh.
We’re almost done. Two bags zipped, the third waiting. Reid’s hunched over it with his black light, methodical as hell.
Orion’s dragging a crate to block the loading bay camera.
Everything feels almost normal.
Too normal.
My grip tightens on the bat. Knuckles pop.
Orion notices. Of course he does. Man’s a battering ram with the emotional perception of a wolf.
He straightens, wipes his hands on his jeans, and gives me that look. The one he only gets when he’s about to pry open a lid I’ve nailed down.
“You good?” he asks.
“Peachy.” I don’t look at him. Start wiping down the bat that’s already spotless.
Reid clicks his light off. “Callum.”
My name hits me like a shoulder check.
I swallow. Hard.
“She could’ve died,” I say. “I saw her blip on that tracker jump three blocks in under a minute. I didn’t know if it was her running or someone dragging her. I didn’t know if I’d get to her before…”
My jaw locks.
Words jam.
I shake my head.
“If I’d been two minutes later, we’d be zipping her into this bag.”
