up until now, he'd assumed that “fallen angel” meant perpetual life, but that was clearly not the case—and if he lost Eddie and Adrian before he learned more of the basics, he was fucked.
About ten minutes later, he and the boys headed back down in the building's elevator and out of the Commodore. The truck had been left no more than a block away, and the short walk through the cool air helped.
“First stop, Hannaford supermarket,” Adrian said as he got behind the wheel again.
Jim and Eddie stuffed themselves into the cab and Jim shut the door. “I'll want to go let Dog out if we're going to be gone all night.”
“And I left my bike at your place anyway.” Adrian checked the side-view mirror and pulled out of the parking space.
As they went along, Jim thought about the two guys he was riding with and wondered about the kind of tricks they had up their sleeves—aside from evidently being able to choose when and by whom they were seen. And being able to get through locks and door chains—which he'd seen not only at Devina's warehouse, but Vin's duplex—
Something dawned on him.
Jim looked around Eddie's thick chest at Adrian. “That night the three of us went out together…Thursday night. Why did you point Devina out to me like you wanted me to fuck her?”
Adrian stopped at a red light and glanced over…only to resume looking out the front windshield in silence.
“Why, Adrian.” Less question, more growl this time.
The guy's broad palm went around the steering wheel in a slow circle. “I told you. I didn't want to work with you.”
Jim frowned. “You didn't goddamn know me.”
“And I didn't want to work with you and I didn't like you and I'm an asshole.” He held one finger up, the conversational signal for
Jim leaned back against the seat. “You set me up. You practically gave me to her.”
“I didn't follow her out into that parking lot. I didn't fuck her—”
“I wouldn't have seen her but for you!”
“What the hell are you talking about? There's no way in hell you would have missed the likes of—”
“Shut up. Both of you.” Eddie uncrossed his arms like he was prepared to break things up with force if he had to. “Water under the bridge. Let it go, Jim.”
Jim ground his molars. Man, this was just like being in with Matthias's bunch of sharks. Even the people you worked with, who supposedly were on the same side as you, were capable of serving you up like dinner to the enemy.
“Tell me something, Eddie,” he bit out.
“What.”
“That binding scale you were talking about. Is sex one of the ways Devina binds herself to people.” When there was only silence, he said, “Is it.
“Yes,” the guy replied finally.
“Fuck you, Adrian,” Jim said loud and hard. “Fuck you for real.”
Adrian wrenched the wheel to the right, slammed on the brakes, and threw the truck into park. As the horns of other cars screamed and people cursed, the son of a bitch got out and marched around the hood wearing the expression of a guy who had a crowbar in his hand.
He yanked open Jim's door. “Get out and let's do this.”
Jim's hair trigger went off, fueled by that dead innocent girl, the fear on Marie-Terese's face, the aggression that Adrian was throwing off…and the fact that he'd had a demon straddle his hips and ride him until they both came.
It was so on.
“Can you two steakheads not do this in public?” Eddie barked.
No chance of that. Jim's fists were up and ready to fly before the soles of his boots hit the shoulder of the road, and Adrian was likewise posed for punches.
“I said I was sorry,” Adrian spat. “You think I like this job of mine? You think I was ready to come back and break in a fucking greenhorn?”
Jim didn't bother talking. He just hauled back and punched the bastard right in the jaw, knuckles snapping out and making contact in the blink of an eye. The impact was so hard, the fallen angel's skull kicked back and sent his great-looking hair into a full Farrah Fawcett, with locks blowing in the wind.
“That was payback for up in Devina's bathroom, motherfucker,” Jim said. “Now I'll work off the other shit.”
Adrian spat blood. “I knocked you out to save your ass, son.”
“Fuck. Off. Gramps.”
Last word anyone got in for a while.
Adrian bull-rushed, catching Jim around the middle and pile-driving him back against the side of the truck. As the impact stung him from ear to heel, Jim just shrugged off the pain in spite of the body-wide dent he was sure he'd left in the quarter panel. Without skipping a beat, he grabbed onto Adrian's hair and head-butted the guy's nose, and as the thing went geyser all over both of them, Ad's response was just as fast—he returned the insult by kneeing Jim in the groin so hard, he clutched his balls and gagged.
Fuuuuuuuuuuck. Nothing made a man see stars like having his hey-nannies in a head-on collision with solid bone, and as his vision went wavy, his gut thought seriously about air-mailing the beer he'd just had at Vin's all over Ad's shirt. Willpower, and only willpower, had him overcoming cock agony and lunging forward, grabbing Ad around the calves, and forcing him off balance onto the grassy ground.
Rolling around. Lots of rolling around. Fists flying. Grunts traded. Mud everywhere. The only thing separating them from a pair of animals was the fact that they were clothed.
And the only thing that stopped them was Eddie stepping in and picking Jim up by the back of the collar and the waistband of his jeans and lifting him out of range. After Jim was hauled free from the fight and tossed aside like a branch that had fallen off a tree, he landed facedown on brown sod, his entire body throbbing like something out of a commercial for HeadOn.
Or in his case, AlloverthefuckingbodyOn.
Breathing in cold air that smelled like fresh dirt and blood, he hurt all over and felt a lot better at the same time. Easing onto his back, he let his hands fall to the sides as he looked up at the milky sky. In the clouds above, he thought he saw the face of the girl he had left behind in that bathroom: She seemed to be staring down at him, watching over him.
Lifting an arm, he tried to touch her face, but the swirling winds of spring shifted the cloud cover, disappearing her lovely, tragic features.
He was going to find out who she was.
And he was going to do right by her.
Just as he had done right by his mother.
Those fuckers in that Camaro had been the first three men he'd killed. “Are we done, children?” Eddie snapped. “Or do I need to spank your asses until it'll be next winter before you can sit down again.”
Jim tilted his head and glanced over at Adrian. The bastard looked no better than Jim felt. “Truce?” the guy said through bloody lips.
Jim inhaled as deeply as he could—until pain stopped his ribs from expanding any more. Well, hell. He might not be able to trust either one of them, but he needed help—and he had a tragic expertise in working with people who were shits.
“Yeah,” he replied roughly. “Truce.”
Chapter 36
“Okay, I love you. And I'll be home later tonight. Be good for Quinesha. What?” As Vin drove them over to the
