“Huh.”
“I told him you wouldn’t do that,” Mack says, and her laughter is gone and now she’s all business.
She likes me, but these crazy mafia bastards are her family now. And she doesn’t have a problem letting me or anyone else know it.
“Rory’s been wicked pissy all day anyway,” Mack continues. “So I figured it fizzled out before it even began.”
“There was nothing to fizzle out,” I tell her.
“Right,” she says. “That’s what I told Lach. Exactly.”
Silence again.
Mack’s baby is making weird baby noises in the background and it still freaks me out. I never imagined her as a mother. But I guess she does a good job of it.
“You need to come by and visit with Keeva,” she says. “Let me get a picture of you two. I promise she won’t bite.”
“I’ll stop by sometime,” I lie.
Babies freak me out.
People like Mack… they can adapt. But me, no way. I wouldn’t have the first clue. I mean, you hold them and they cry. You feed them and they cry. You change their diaper and they cry.
The only thing I like to see cry is a grown man after I bring him to his knees.
“You going to the fights tonight?” Mack asks.
“I thought Crow told you not to go to those anymore.”
“Yeah right,” she huffs. “I put the kibosh on that nonsense real quick. Besides, Reaper and Saint are fighting tonight. I gotta be there to support my boys. Cheer em’ on from the sidelines.”
“I didn’t know Rory was fighting,” I say, and my mouth is stupid.
“Oh yeah,” Mack yawns through the speaker. “Mick hurt his shoulder, so Rory’s stepping in. I guess I didn’t think about that. Probably best you don’t come.”
“What does that mean?”
“Well you know…” Mack says casually. “I doubt you want to see him with another girl at the end of the night. Even if you said what you guys had was nothing. I’m just saying, if it was me…”
I know Mack, and I know when she’s baiting me. My head might be onto her, but my mouth isn’t.
“What other girl?” I blurt.
“You know, the guys have this thing where they let a few groupies from the crowd go back to take care of their guy afterwards. It’s like, a Brazilian thing.”
“Oh.” I rap my fingers against the table and stare down at the mountain of paperwork I need to sort through. “Well, it doesn’t matter to me. Like I said.”
“Right,” Mack agrees. “Like you said.”
“I have to go,” I tell her. “I’ve got shit to do.”
“Kay.” There’s a smile in her voice and it annoys me. “I’ll text you the phone number for the PI when we hang up.”
“Thanks,” I mutter.
“If you do come, I’ll be in the back left corner.”
“I’m not coming.”
