I returned my attention to him.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because that was Chaos’s goal.My goal was for you torealize he was an asshole and dump him so I could have a clear go.”
It took a second for his words to hit me.
And when they did I nearly busted out laughing.
I managed not to do that but I couldn’t stop myself fromsmiling.
Snap smiled back, so Snapper, not hiding from me he wasrelieved.
Or how deeply.
But his smile didn’t last long.
“Valenzuela has disappeared,” he announced.
I’d been about to take another fortifying slug from my beer,but what he said made me stop.
“What?”
“No one has seen him in weeks.Weeks that are now becomingmonths.”
“Whoa,” I whispered.
“Yeah,” he agreed.
“What does that mean?”I asked.
“We have no fuckin’ clue,” he answered.
“Are you thinking things are better or worse without him?”
“I’m thinking things are uncertain without him.They weren’tentirely certain with him, the man is messed right the fuck up.There wasalways no telling what he would do, just that whatever he did would be what weknow of him.Messed right the fuck up.But at least he was visible, around, andalthough his operation is tight and him being around didn’t give us dick,something is better than nothing.Him disappearing off the planet is justnothing, and nothing in this situation is not good.Uncertain nothing isdefinitely not any better.”
“That doesn’t sound real great,” I noted in anunderstatement.
“It isn’t,” Snap unnecessarily agreed.“But even so, himbein’ gone does not mean his operations have ceased.Hiscrew is still at it like he was in the driver’s seat, full bore.”
“Do you know what that means?”I asked.
He shrugged.“Either he’scallin’the shots remotely, or he’s put someone in charge.We don’t got much of ahandle on it, neither do the cops, and that’s making everyone twitchy.”
I was feeling twitchy right along with them and I didn’treally understand what was happening.
It struck me belatedly he was sharing this with me.
And cautiously, I brought that to his attention.“I thoughtwe weren’t going to talk about this kind of thing.”
“Well, I’m deep in this and your ex is now deeper in this.Not to mention, I had to come clean about what the Club was up to with your exand I didn’t know how you’d respond to that.”He grinned.“So although I’m notgonnagive you daily status reports, I never intended tokeep you fully in the dark, so here’s where we are now.Me, Chaos…andThrottle.”
My Snapper was so awesome.
“Thank you, Snapper,” I said softly.
“Don’t mention it, Rosie,” he replied.
