“Two?”
“I need to get the girls home.”
Blaze doesn’t ask which girls. Doesn’t waste time. “Tessa and the sister?”
“Yeah.”
“You need bodies?”
“Hammer. Joker.”
“Done.”
“Have Doc come by and call Eli,” I add, keeping my voice level because Olivia is listening and so are Tessa and Mia. “I want status updates.”
Blaze goes quiet on the other end. He hears what I’m not saying. “On it,” he says. “Five minutes.”
I hang up.
Tessa steps closer, arms wrapped around herself now. “Who was that?”
“A ride.”
“I have a car.”
“You’re not driving.”
Her brows shoot up. “Excuse me?”
I look at her. Not hard. Not like I would a threat. But enough. “You’re rattled. Mia’s worse. You’ve been drinking. You’re not driving.”
Tessa opens her mouth, closes it, then looks at Olivia.
Olivia gives her the smallest nod.
That pisses Tessa off more, but she reins it in because she loves her enough to listen.
Mia rubs her hands over her arms. “Where are we going?”
“Home,” I say.
“With who?”
“Hammer.”
Tessa blinks. “Is that a person?”
Olivia makes a tiny sound against my chest. Almost a laugh.
I look down. Even now. Even after the alley and the knife and her head hitting concrete, some piece of her is still in there, still sparking. It does something to me I don’t have room for. “Yeah,” I answer. “He’s a person.”
Tessa points a shaky finger at me. “You people have weird names.”
“Yeah.”
Olivia murmurs, “You don’t even know the half of it.”
That almost pulls something out of me. Then my phone buzzes.
