However, that still didn’t tell him where the fuck Big Bobby went.I locked him in here!But he was nowhere to be found.
“I handed him over to Frankie a few minutes ago. Mr. Zrazduel will be happy to hear this was all wrapped up nicely with a bow.”
“Pops?” Jessie blurted out, finding Titan Bonesaw sauntering up from behind his truck. Titan waggled a set of extra keys he’d kept, just in case, in front of him before tossing them to Jessie. He couldn’t help but blurt out as he caught them. “I thought you were helping Elliot?”
“I was. I did. Now I’m helping you,” Titan smirked with a shrug. Jessie tossed a set of keys inside for Nik to turn on the AC while he shut the driver’s side door. Walking down the length of his truck, he glanced into the bed like it might spill his father’s secrets. When it told him nothing, he glanced back up to his father.
“Pops, what? How?” Jessie laughed, throwing his hands out to the side.
“I told you, people still talk to me.” Titan leaned cooly against the glossy metal.
“Rex told you, didn’t he?”
“Yeah, your baby brother ratted you out to me last night,” Titan snorted.
“I’ll wring his neck,” Jessie hissed.
Titan shook his head, still smiling broadly. “No, you won’t.”
“No…I won’t.” Jessie chuckled, glancing around the parking lot. “How’d you figure out which one it was?”
“Well, The Executive wanted to make you the scapegoat, right? I just figured, if he’s using a car to power his device, then he’d make it the exact same car as the person he’s going to blame.” Titan jabbed a thumb over his shoulder at the only other jacked up truck in the parking lot. A massive, dark steel colored truck. It was missing the cuts and bruises Jessie’s truck sustained from being the main vehicle of a mechanic, but to the undiscerning eye, it looked like his truck. “Plus, you know, I found Bobby in your floorboard and he was so rattled, he was willing to help me out with it. Little shit didn’t suspect Frankie followed you here and was just going to ask for him when you were done.”
Jeez…well…
“Thanks, Pops,” Jessie confessed, licking his lips nervously as he ducked his head.
“Look, Jessie, you’re king of the castle now. But you can still count on your old man if you need me.” Titan punched him in the arm. “Especially for shit like this. Just cause I’m out of the game doesn’t mean I’m not truly retired, you of all people know that’s not how this works. Besides, Elliot needed me to help move his weightlifting equipment out of the townhouse. We absolutely could have waited to move it till later. This? This is more important.”
“Well, when you put it that way, a little but…” Jessie exhaled heavy. He peeked up at Titan, feeling like a kid again. Just a teenager having gotten into a scrape again, having his father patch up his busted knee. “I wanted to just need you for grandpa things.”
Titan snickered, nodding with a wicked grin. “Your Ma’s real happy about that, too, ya know. And I’m here for all the grandpa things. But I know you were trying to do this on your own cause everyone still thinks of you as the kid.”
“Not for long,” Jessie shrugged playfully.
“Not if they know what’s good for ‘em.” Titan slugged him in the arm again. “Love you, Jessie.”
“Love you too, Pops. Now scooch, I promised the tiny terror baked goods and if I don’t follow through, she might bite me.”
Titan threw his head back, chortling the whole way back to his car as Jessie climbed into his truck. Throwing himself behind the wheel, he peeked into the rearview mirror to see Isabella beaming up at him. “You ready for a bake sale, Bug?”
“Bake! Sale!” she cheered.
“Bake sale!” Katarina cheered alongside her.
“Bake sale!” Jessie winked at Nik stared blearily out the window with an exhausted huff. “Don’t worry, Fluffy, we’ll get you something to lift your spirits.”
Nik grumbled the whole way to the bake sale.
JessietuckedIsabellaintothe bed, Barnibus squeezed in tight. After an hour-long detour—post council building—at the bake sale, they now owned half the pies in King’s Fall, a stack of assorted focaccia bread, the longest baguette known to mankind, and cinnamon buns. Isabella ate two buns, ran around the backyard a lot, then dropped like a sack of potatoes. Apparently she was up late baking, so she didn’t have the best sleep. Nik was unconscious next to her on the bed, having let Katarina poke him with her paralytic venom to soften his crunchy muscles. He too dropped instantly.
Which left Jessie tiptoeing downstairs to the kitchen where Katarina sat with a mug of coffee in her hands. He slid into the seat next to hers, cocking his head slightly to catch her gaze. It was so far gone it took him cupping her chin and bringing her back to him. “Hey, baby girl, what’s wrong.”
“I made him do it,” she breathed.
“What? Who?” Jessie tried his best not to laugh, but he was so whiplashed from the morning, he couldn’t help it.
“Bjorn. I used my venom on him, and tried to get the device out of him, but he wouldn’t tell me where it was. He just kept saying how he’d made it better, how he wanted them to know how smart he was. So I pushed him to show them. I thought he might just confess to them, then you walked in.” Her face fell into a pale, pained expression with her eyebrows furrowed.
