I blew out a breath. “Yeah. You’re right. Things have been going great. I need to have some faith.”
He smiled. “Yeah, you fucking do.”
He picked up his beer and drained it. “Shit, now I’ve got to hit the head. Be back in a second. Order me another beer if Leo heads back this way.”
I nodded. “Got it.”
Knight had inhaled his food, but I had a few fries to work my way through.
“Well, hell, I didn’t know Knight was your boyfriend,” Snake said, slithering up to the bar on my other side. “No wonder he wouldn’t let me move in with him. That was your doing.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said shortly.
Snake grabbed my pint glass and drained the last of my beer, then pulled a face. “Cheap shit, but then you never did have any taste.”
I barked a short laugh. “And you’re supposed to be classy?”
He wore a paint-streaked T-shirt with a large hole under the armpit. He couldn’t grow a proper beard, so his face sported a half-formed scruff that made him look mangy.
He gestured to the paint. “This is the fucking job that your pal Matteo gave me. Painting fucking houses.”
“Sounds like good work.”
“It’s bullshit,” he said. “I’m not busting my ass like slave labor.”
“Way to trivialize slavery. You’re getting paid.”
“Barely,” he muttered. “I want in at the junkyard. You need to make it happen.”
I gave him a hard look. “We’ve been over this. It’s not happening.”
“Then you’re leaving me no choice,” he said. “You’re going to have to get me the parts I need.”
I laughed. “You’re out of your goddamned mind.”
He grabbed hold of my black jacket, clenching so hard his knuckles turned white. “The guys I’m working for don’t fuck around,” he said in a low voice. “They want access to that junkyard for their chop shop. If it’s not through me, it has to be through you.”
It figured that Snake would immediately get himself tangled up in some shady operation to make a quick buck.
I shoved his hand off me. “I’m not helping you rob my bosses, so just give it up.”
Snake was a manipulative fuck, but I’d never seen the gleam of real fear in his eyes before.
“I can’t,” he said. “Don’t you get it? I’m on the hook here. That means you’re on the hook too.”
“I don’t think so.”
“If I go down, you go down,” he said. “You can bet on that. Do us both a favor, and get on board. Otherwise, I’ll have tomakeyou?—”
Knight’s arms landed on each of our shoulders. “What’s this? You had a reunion without me. I’m hurt.”
Snake shrugged out from under his arm. “I know your boy here has been telling you some stories about me. But do him a solid and talk some sense into him. Otherwise, we’re all going down.”
He stalked off.
“Fuck,” I muttered.
Snake played people well, but I didn’t think he was bluffing this time. He really would try to drag me down with him. But I couldn’t agree to his terms. Even if I didn’t like the guys way too much to steal from them, I’d never jeopardize my freedom like that.
