I gesture to the way I’m heading, plucking the rolled paper from my lips. “Takin’ a piss. You wanna watch?”
Leaving it at that, I squint through the glare bouncing off the pavement and start looking around for Carl’s dumbass top hat.
I don’t wanna draw attention to Bunny and overwhelm her with the collective volatility. Cash and Xene care for her, too. Enough for them to stomp by my side and start flipping shit over to find him.
That’s the last thing Bunny needs right now.
Sweat rolls down my neck, walking through the beating heat with my head oscillating and my attention scanning around tents, food trucks, and the carousel twinkling its childish tune while on a test run.
To be clear, I don’t really know what I can do about this.
Everything’s fucked and I have to keep my head on straight. I can’t explode and strangle him in front of others.
Iamgetting Bunny out of here. It has to be executed right, though. And the measly fifty dollars he passes to us in cash each week is just enough for groceries and essentials.
Ripping my cigarette down to the filter, I flick it away from me and hope to fucking God it hits the tent next to me just right.
I watch it skip across the pavement and land in the overgrown blades of grass sticking up around one of the tents stakes, and a disappointed groan heats my nose, watching the last coil of smoke puff away with my idea of burning this place down.
Accidentally. I’daccidentallyburn it down. Don’t twist my words.
Placing a target on VORE embroidered to the back of his obnoxiously orange coat, my eyes don’t slip from him for a second while chewing through the distance between us.
I didn’t hear them sneak up. They’re usually too loud to ignore. But Cash and Xene fall in stride with my steps on either side of me, both sending vulturous looks to the back of Carl’s head.
Cash’s jaw tics, trails of sweat running from his peroxide buzzcut down his mahogany skin. “Been a long time comin’.”
“Shoulda spoke up the first time Ora told us,” I mutter.
As if he feelsMuerte de Tres, Carl whisks around and staples a look of surprise on. “Boys!”
“Slash and dash?” Xene asks under his breath.
“No,” I answer, carving my mouth into a smile. “Not yet… Hey, Carl! I’ve been thinkin’…” Stopping right in front his pornstache, I gesture around and scratch my chin. “I think I have a way to get more traction here. I’ll need access to the library for flyers.”
“No,” he refuses darkly, his mask dripping from his face. But he immediately wipes the evidence and chuckles. “You shouldn’t be on those things. You know that.”
“No computers,” I shake my head. Lying. “Just printer paper and magazine clippings.”
Honestly, that should be a dead giveaway that I’m lying. I’m not plopping my ass down on the floor to glue shit and play scrapbooking princess on two hundred flyers. Fuck that shit.
His brows jam and he frowns. “Oh, well if that’s all you need-”
“And the truck keys,” I add. “Bunny will be going with me. I need hergentletouch.”
He stiffens, sliding his jaw back and forth with cold eyes. “I’ll think about it.”
“No,” I refuse, taking another step closer. “You won’tthinkabout it, Carl. You will happily place them in my hand because you’d hate for folks to find out the truth and us do nothing to stop it from spreading.”
Trepidation dulls his face, but he quickly splits a crazy smile on and shakes a finger at me. “Always giving me a run for my money, starboy.”
I eye his hand, wondering if his right palm is the one that just hurt my little bunny.
Something crackles in my head. It surges like split wires and tunnels my vision, then I’m boiling alive with ire I cannot swallow and control, my hands tensing with vibration.
CHAPTER THREE
BUNNY
