“That’s how it started for all of us,” Hollywood said. “Even Knight.”
I nodded. “That’s true, except you kind of pulled your shit on purpose. Wasn’t really a mistake.”
Hollywood smirked and spread his hands. “Guilty. I wanted to stick it to the man.”
“And take a little tip for yourself?”
“I mean, I spent a lot of labor in writing the code that would skim NGO Corp’s profits. It was only fair to compensate myself, right?”
“You didwhat?” Joyride asked.
Hollywood delved into the details of his embezzlement scheme, which had a little Robin Hood flavor in that hediverted profits to former employees cheated out of their retirement funds by company bullshit.
“Of course, I never meant to get caught,” Hollywood said. “That part was sure as shit a mistake.”
“Damn,” Joyride said. “What about you, Ghost?”
Ghost’s jaw tightened, and he looked away. “Doesn’t matter. We’re all in the same place.”
He was never one to talk about his past. I suspected he’d gone to prison for something really fucking bad. He’d been in a long time, longer than any of us.
I cleared the plates, returning just as Aiden’s car came into view.
“All right, guys, it’s been fun, but Aiden’s here. Time to clear out.”
“Damn, just like that, we’re not welcome,” Joyride grumbled.
“Well, maybe if you hadn’t blocked the drive like an asshole…”
“My bad,” he said, pulling keys from his pocket. “I’ll see you guys next week.”
He jogged down the steps, and Ghost followed.
I put a hand on Hollywood’s arm as he moved to follow. “I know you don’t want to talk about Tex. I respect that. But I can’t stand by and let him go off the rails.”
“Do what you gotta do,” Hollywood said. “Just leave me out of it.”
Damn. That was not the answer I’d wanted.
The Hummer took off and Aiden pulled into the drive. Ghost tipped his head at him as he silently passed. Hollywood exchanged a hasty greeting and made a beeline for his Toyota. Kind of ironic that the flashiest guy among us drove the least flashy car. But then, Hollywood had been hit hard by restitution, just like I had. He lived in a tiny room for rent, far fromthe upper-middle-class life he’d been living before he went all Robin Hood on his corporate overlords.
“Hey, didn’t mean to break up the party,” Aiden said as he came up the sidewalk.
“Oh, we were about done.” I folded the two chairs I’d brought out of the house to carry back inside. “Did you get dinner?”
“Yeah, I grabbed something at the cafeteria.” He held the door for me, and I went inside, a chair under each arm. He wrinkled his nose. “Probably won’t make a habit of that.”
“Not great, huh?”
“It won’t kill me,” he said. “Not sure I can say much more for it.”
I chuckled as I resettled the chairs around the table. “I could make you a snack. I make a mean hatch-chili quesadilla.”
“Thanks, but I’m just going to call it a night,” Aiden said, hovering by the entrance to the hall.
I paused, surprised. It was only seven. “You can chill and watch TV or something. This is your house, too.”
“I know. I’m just tired.”
