“Masher,” I murmur through the phone after he answers.
“Yeah?”
“Tell me where the girl goes when she leaves, but don’t let her hear you, and I need the keys to your car.”
“Okay,” he agrees without question. “Here she comes. I’ll be home soon.”
MAXINE
“I’ll be home soon,” No Neck says while holding the door open for me.
“What’d you just say?”
I snap my head to look at the pretty girl stomping up to the door.
“Oh shit,” No Neck mutters under his breath as I keep trucking.
“Nothing, baby.”
“Nothing? Who the fuck are you telling you’ll be home soon, Caleb?”
I wince, realizingCaleb, who looks nothing like a Caleb, got caught talking to his sidepiece, or maybe this girl—I think she’s a dancer here—is the sidepiece and doesn’t know it. There’s part of me that wants to stay to witness the trainwreck that’s about to happen. It seems like she is about to chew him up and spit him out, but it’s a bad idea all around. I don’t need to draw more attention to myself.
“Caleb! Who the fuck are you talking to?” Her shrill voice cuts through the haze of rain that’s just beginning. I don’t hear his reply as I cross the street, since he’s not yelling like she is.
When I glance over my shoulder, he still has the phone to his ear as he backs away from the girl with his arm extended to keep her from grabbing the phone. “Stop, Jess!” he finally barks. His tone is harsh, and the girl actually pauses as if she’s surprised by his tone. That’s the last of it I see before focusing on my own business, like making it back to my car.
Two blocks down, I make a left and step over the low chain-link fence keeping cars that haven’t paid from getting into the lot where I parked. My Toyota is parked in the far corner, an easy spot to get out of even if the lot were full, which it isn’t. I lock the doors after climbing inside and start the engine. It’s hot in here, but I only crack the windows a few inches while cranking up the AC.
The man at the gate doesn’t even bother looking up from his phone when I stop to wait for the bar to lift. I should make a left to get back to the expressway, but the traffic is too heavy to bother waiting, plus it means I get to drive by the club again to get another dose of drama, unless they already went inside.
I get caught at the light, which allows me to see No Neck and the woman he called Jess up ahead. I blow out a raspberry when I realize it looks like she’s already forgiven him. She’s running toward him, as if she tried to leave and chickened out. He wraps his arm around her lower back the moment she’s close enough, pulling her into his body while she gazes up at him. His lips are moving as he explains, probably telling her lies and making promises he’ll never keep.
I’m stuck between feeling sorry for the girl and being mad forandat her for falling for his bullshit the entire ride home. I mean, I’ve never been in a relationship, but if I were, I sure as hell wouldn’t let some man lie to my face. She had to have heard him as clearly as I did, since she repeated what he said. He told someone he would be home soon, and I don’t think he would have been worried if he was just talking to his mom or something.
My garage door opens after a push of the button, and I steer my car inside, then close it behind me. The light stays on while I get out and unlock the door. Now that I’m home, I allow myself to think about seeing Winger, my mark, back at the club. I think he surprised the employees almost as much as he surprised me by showing up tonight.
I learned his name, or at least what everyone calls him, a few nights ago after more than one person asked Saddle when Winger would be back. It wasn’t hard to put two and two together. Saddle’s answer was always noncommittal about when the boss would return, but I got the impression he didn’t know any more than they did, which leads me to believe his absence was unusual.
He looked…better tonight. No longer sickly and pale like he was when I saw him barfing in the alley. I watched his house for two days after that, waiting for him to leave, but he never did. It was only another batch of dumb luck that allowed me to see Expensive Taste from in the G-Wagon and a woman stop by several days later when I was checking to see if he was still home. The woman carried a picnic basket into the house, or tried to, but Expensive Taste took it from her when they got out of the Mercedes. Something about him and the way he moved set off all kinds of self-preservation warning bells in my head.
It’s impossible for me not to wonder who the woman is to my mark. Not his girlfriend, clearly. Expensive Taste is way too possessive of her for that. He even held on to her on the porch when they rang the doorbell. Maybe a sister, sister-in-law, or friend?
The fact that I can’t find out shit about any of them is like a thorn in my side. The Mercedes and the two vehicles in my mark’s garage are all registered to Rex Holdings. Even after all my digging, I can’t find an owner or even what kind of company it is, which makes me think I should back off. They seem to cover their tracks better than the sickos I’m used to, but I suck at taking my own advice.
I head straight for the fridge to grab a bottle of water before going to my room to change. I remove my bra holster first, placing the Glock into another holster designed to fit between my bed and the nightstand. It’s not the only gun I keep within reaching distance of my bed, but it is the easiest to retrieve in a hurry.
I toss my jeans over the chair and climb into bed. My laptop is already next to me, so I pull it over and check to see if I have any alerts on my searches or a response to my inquiry of records to the city of Farmington Hills about the property on Roosevelt Street, where my mark lives. I doubt it will turn anything up, but it’s worth a try.
WINGER
It’s easy to hang back when she’s on the freeway, but when she exits, I exercise more caution while following her. It was only a few weeks ago when I let her get the drop on me and follow me all the way home before realizing she was there. I don’t want to be lulled into a false sense of security.
When she turns into a small community of condos, I drive past, hoping there’s another entrance I can use to cross paths with her. I thought I was playing it smart by taking Masher’s truck, but the trouble with my plan becomes apparent as I drive. I was assuming she was watching me, but she’s been into the club several times while I wasn’t there, and she already knows where I live, so it’s not just me she’s clocking.
I know there are plenty of people who hate me, some because I work for Rex and others just because I have juice they don’t, but no one comes to mind when I think of who could be making moves or looking for a war. I start to feel guilty that I haven’t told Rex yet.
A quarter of a mile down, there’s a matching sign to the one on the corner she turned into, identifying it as the same community. I creep in slowly, looking for headlights or her Toyota, but come up empty. Most of the driveways are unoccupied, making me think her car will be tucked away in a garage too. Damn it, it’s going to be a long night. I think about calling Iron. He’s good with shit like this, so he could run her plate for me and see if it comes up with an address, but I hesitate before dialing his number. He’ll tell Rex, and I’m not ready to come clean yet. I’ll make a few laps of the neighborhood and see if I can spot her car before deciding what to do.
