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Sweet’s car is metal. Sweet will be inside the school with Mercy. We use the tracker for twenty minutes. We get an answer. We protect the shipment. We protect the club.

We protect her too.

And if I ask Sweet, she might say no.

So I don’t ask.

The realization sits ugly and clear in my gut.

It is amazing how easy betrayal sounds once a man starts calling it protection.

I sit back down, my jaw aching.

“Sweet stays with Mercy.”

CSI watches me. “That a yes?”

Last night she looked into my face while I was inside her and told me she trusted me.

I stare at the map.

“Do it.”

Something in Nevermore’s face closes.

Hyde nods once. “Ghoul drives. CSI runs cameras. Bitter stays here until the car is back.”

“No.”

Hyde’s eyes harden.

“I’m going to school.”

“You’re going to stay the hell away from her until the operation is over because you have the subtlety of a chainsaw in church.”

Chainsaw looks offended from the wall. “That feels personal.”

Nobody answers him.

I look at Hyde. “She notices the car gone, she’ll know.”

“Then pray she doesn’t notice.”

That feels like a warning from a God I stopped believing in years ago.

Church moves on to shipment route, Reaper van, road coverage. I hear all of it.

None of it sticks.

At some point Hyde says, “Bitter.”

I look up.

His expression is hard, but not cruel.

“I gave the club order. You made the personal promise. Those are two different debts.”

I laugh without humor. “You trying to make me feel better?”