“The dead guy the cops were out there for?” Warrant asked in pure disbelief. “The one the cops, and Rae, examined from headto toe? Who they took pictures of at the crime scene?” His voice was getting louder with each question.
“...maybe.”
Warrant sputtered something unintelligible, then looked over at Cypher like, are you going to do anything about this?
Cypher heaved a heavy sigh and stared up at the ceiling like he was asking what he’d done to deserve the things that happened to him. Namely us. We were what happened to him. “Rotor. You can’t keep a knife that was the murder weapon in an open investigation.”
“Why not?” Rotor scowled. “There were so many fucking people trampling all over that place after the cops left and before they got back again, there’s no way for them to tell who took it. Besides…I like it.”
Warrant looked like a fish gasping out of water at his explanation. “All it takes is for Owen to fucking see that thing. Or for it to show up when you kill someone with it and forget it.”
“I won’t forget it,” Rotor shot back as he stood and jerked the blade out of Scythe’s hand. “I’m keeping it. It’s precious to me.”
“It’s got some other guy’s name on it,” Cynic pointed out.
“A dead guy,” Torque added with a sardonic smile.
“It’s fun keeping dead people’s shit,” I said, almost as an afterthought. But it was enough that they all stopped arguing and were staring at me again as ifIwas the psycho. I wasn’t sure why they kept doing that.
“You want to be like him?” Demo asked, jerking a thumb in my direction.
Rotor studied me, then stared down at the knife. “It’s mine.”
Cypher sighed again. “Fine. Keep the damn thing.” He lifted his hand, cutting off Warrant’s explosion before he had the chance to lose it. “But if you fucking leave that at one of our jobs, I’m going to make you regret it, Rotor. Keep track of your shit.”
Rotor grumbled something about never losing his shit, that was Jury, but nodded and slipped the knife back into the sheath on his belt.
Cypher shook his head. “The plan right now is to just lay low. Make sure none of those other bodies surface, and let things die down.” He eyed each of us. “Which means all of you need to keep everything buttoned down tight for now. Don’t cause any fucking problems.”
“For howlong?” Jury asked, horror creeping into his voice.
“Until I fucking say,” Cypher barked. “This is the second time this fucking crew hit here at home. We need to make sure our luck didn’t run out with covering everything up.”
“Last time, though,” Scythe said. “They’re done.”
“Now what are we supposed to do for fun?” Demo asked in a mournful tone.
“Nothing,” Cypher snapped. “That’s what I’m telling you. No fucking fun. No excitement. I want boredom from you assholes until the smoke clears. Got it?”
There were groans, but everyone nodded in agreement.
Cypher shook his head, his lips turning up in amusement even though he was clearly fighting it. “Alright, get out of here. Oh. You.” He pointed at me. I stared at him. “Go get your fucking old lady before one of these assholes convinces you to do something stupid in the meantime.”
“Stupid?” Warrant asked in confusion.
“Our ideas aren’t stupid,” Jury added. “They’re effective.”
Glitch laughed. “The fuck they are.”
Cypher muttered something under his breath and headed back to his office.
Shoving away from the table, I decided it was time to follow my president’s advice. He was level-headed enough to give good advice. I ignored my brothers’ taunts and unhelpful ideas as I walked out the door.
“Pyre!”
My name came out as a squeak as Rae stepped out of her house and nearly slammed into me. She placed a hand over her heart and bent a little at the waist. I supposed it made sense that she was a little jumpy after everything that’d happened. Kidnappings and firefights weren’t normal for most people.
She straightened up and eyed me like she was just realizing me being here wasn’t necessarily a good thing. “How are you?”
