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Brick and I both nod. I clarify, “They got cameras. Because they got needles and shit and it’s all highly regulated by the Louisiana Board of Health.”

“My face popped up on a camera?” Brick and I nod.

“You’d been real good, doll. Staying in the shadows. Shocked the hell out of me that you were in New Orleans. But it seems I found you after your first tattoo, but Enzo didn’t pick up until the second.”

Brick claps and looks at me. “You. I never saw any of this mess coming. Y’all had me good.”

“Lou and I have had more practice, that’s all. We were in Chicago and the woods of Michigan as we worked shit out and put traps out for Enzo and his puppet master, Phil Cady. But moved all we had here that day, we discovered she’d become reckless.”

“I wasn’t reckless!”

“Drinking, bartending, tattoos, drugs, fighting.”

“I only fought Tabi,” she says.

Boomer laughs from the corner. “And a half dozen hand grenade swilling bachelorettes on a biweekly schedule.”

“Fine. There was that.”

“Or that guy who kicked a cat,” Boomer offers.

“You would have kicked his ass if I hadn’t thrown a bottle at him.”

The big man smirks, and I’m happy he’s on my side. “True enough,” Boomer says.

Brick points at her, “That was one of my favorite reports, before it was confirmed it was you. When you sent that guy to the hospital with a broken arm.”

We both laugh deeply as Poppy shrugs. “He shouldn’t have touched my butt.” I squeeze her ass, just to prove I can.

She points to Brick and me, then says, “You two weren’t in cahoots?”

Brick shakes his head and I answer. He doesn’t know this part, but if he and I are going to be square, it’s time to tell him. “Nah. He’s the reason I’m not dead anymore,” I say.

Becca pulls her chair closer. “About that.” Brick hauls her to his side, seeing my need to unburden.

“Hummingbird, I’m going to need you to find your quiet while I listen to this man’s tale. I feel like I have amends to make.” I nod to Boomer, who exits the room, so it’s just the four of us and passed out Skinny Pete in the room. “Boomer, if it’s ok to ask a favor of you, sir.”

“Go ahead.”

“I have a key to this place to lock up. Can you see my man Pete home?” Boomer picks up Skinny Pete and tosses him over his shoulder.

“Thanks, Boomer,” I say.

“Yes. Anything for Miss Poppy.” She beams as his loyalty shows.

Poppy says, “Can someone explain this moment? Then we can figure out what the next one looks like.”

I pat her curls out of my face, and she slides into a chair next to me. I lean forward on my elbows, looking into the faces that I trust the most. I’m going to need the old, cold, strategist Becca to pop back up soon. I can usually see ten moves ahead of everything and everyone, but right now, it’s like I’m wandering through a fog and I can’t get goddamn clear of it.

“It was handled, and I could stay dead while I worked to figure out how to get to Cady and make sure to end my dear fucking nephew in the process without devastating my sister. And then---”

“Tabi,” Becca says. I point at her. “I didn’t know she was here. I only found out on my way to Gulfport. Brick tried to take off without me, but we don’t keep secrets, do we, honey?” She pats his hand aggressively.

“Hell’s bells. Not anymore there, Hummingbird.” His earnest gaze turns to me. “It was Tabi that triggered this?”

“It was always a powder keg. And she’s as good of a spark as anything else.”

“Took Pete a minute to find the Three-Legged Dog,” Brick remarks.