And the one about three coins in the fountain. And the fact that he had a crush on someone.
Over by Wrath, Rhage shifted his massive weight in his shitkickers, the leather of his jacket creaking. Next to him, the king rolled his shoulders and one of them popped. Butch cracked his knuckles. V lit up. Phury and Z looked at each other.
Rehv glanced at iAm and Trez, who were in the doorway. Looked back at Wrath. “Surprise, surprise.”
Putting his cane to good use, he stood up and did a lap around the room, his symphath side respecting the offensive tactic of this unexpected no-show by the other council members. He didn’t think they’d have the balls-
A bing-bong sound came from the front door of the restaurant.
As Rehv turned his head, he heard the soft metallic slide of the safeties coming off the guns in the Brothers’ hands.
Across the street from the closed gates of Pine Grove Cemetery, Lash walked up to a Honda Civic that was parked in the shadows. When he put his hand on the hood, it was warm, and he didn’t have to go around to the driver’s side to know that the window was busted out of it. This was the car Grady had used to get to his dead ex’s grave site.
As he heard the sound of boots approaching on asphalt, he palmed the gun in his breast pocket.
Mr. D was tugging his cowboy hat down as he came over. “Why’d you call us off-”
Lash calmly leveled his gun at the lesser’s head. “Tell me why I’m not blowing a hole in your motherfucking brain right now.”
The slayers on either side of Mr. D stepped back. Way back.
“Because I done found out he was gone,” Mr. D said in his Texas twang. “That’s why. These two had no hide nor hair where he was at.”
“You were in charge. You lost him.”
Mr. D’s pale eyes were steady. “I was counting y’all’s money. You want anyone else doing that? Don’t believe so.”
Shit, good point. Lash lowered his gun and looked at the other two. Unlike Mr. D, who was stick-steady, they were in full fidget. Which told him precisely who had lost the asset.
“How much money came in,” Lash asked, still glaring at the men.
“Lot. It’s right there in the Escort.”
“Well, what do you know, my mood’s improving,” Lash murmured, putting his gun away. “As for why I called you off, Grady’s about to go to jail with my fucking compliments. I want him to be someone’s girlfriend a couple of times and enjoy life behind bars before I kill him.”
“But what about-”
“We have the contacts for the other two dealers and we can sell the product ourselves. We don’t need him.”
The sound of a car approaching the iron gates from inside the cemetery brought all of their heads to the right. It was the unmarked that had been parked around the corner by that new grave and the POS came to a halt, steam rising from its tail pipe in puffs like the engine was farting. And a schlub with dark hair got out. After he unlocked the chain, he threw his back into wrenching aside one half of the Do Not Enters; then he drove through, got out again and closed the place back up.
There was no one in the car with him.
He went to the left, red lights fading as he took off.
Lash glanced back at the Civic, which was the only other way Grady was getting anywhere.
What the fuck had happened? The cop must have seen Grady, because he’d been walking right for the unmarked-
Lash stiffened and then pivoted on his boot, the salt that had been sprinkled on the road grinding under his thick sole.
Something else was in the cemetery. Something that had just chosen to reveal itself.
Something that registered exactly as that symphath had up north.
Which was why the cop had driven off. The guy had been willed to.
“Go back to the ranch with the money,” he said to Mr. D. “I’ll meet you there.”
“Y’sir. Right away.”
Lash didn’t register the guy’s response much. He was too captivated by what the fuck was going on around that dead girl’s early grave.
FORTY-EIGHT
Xhex was glad the human mind was clay: It didn’t take long for Jose de la Cruz ’s brain to register the command she gave, and as soon as it did, he put his cold coffee into a cup holder and started the unmarked car.
Over among the trees, Grady stopped his zombie march, looking like he was shocked as shit that the sedan had even been there. She wasn’t worried the guy would lose his nerve, though. Aching loss and desperation and regret filled out the airspace around him and that grid would soon call him forward to the fresh gravestone with greater resolve than any thoughts she could plant into the fucker’s frontal lobe.
Xhex waited as he waited…and sure enough, as soon as de la Cruz was gone, those boots that were meant for walking got back in the game, carrying Grady right where she wanted him.
As he came up to the granite marker, a choked sound left his mouth and it was the first sob of many. Like a pussy, he started to weep, his breath frothing in white clouds as he crouched down over where the woman he’d killed was going to spend the next century decomposing.
If he liked Chrissy so much, why didn’t he think of that before he snuffed her.
Xhex stepped out from behind an oak and let her masking go, revealing herself to the landscape. As she approached Chrissy’s murderer, she reached around to the small of her back and unsheathed the stainless-steel blade that she nicely holstered along her spine. The weapon was as long as her forearm.
“Hi, Grady,” she said.
Grady flipped himself around like he’d taken a stick of dynamite up the ass and was hoping to extinguish the wick in the snow.
Xhex kept the knife behind her thigh. “How you doing?”
“What…” He looked for both of her hands. When he saw only one, he crabbed away from her on his hands and feet, butt dragging over the ground.
Xhex followed, keeping a good yard between them. Going by the way Grady kept glancing over his shoulder, he was getting ready to do a roll and bolt, and she was going to stay in idle until he-
Bingo.
Grady lunged to the left, but she fell upon him, catching his wrist at the top of its arc and letting his momentum carry him against her hold. He ended up facedown with his arm cranked behind his back, completely at her mercy. Which of course she’d been born without. In a quick slash, she knifed across one of his triceps, slicing through thick, fluffy parka and thin, soft skin.
It was just to get him distracted, and it worked. He howled and went to cover the wound.
Which gave her plenty of time to grab his left boot and wrench it until he didn’t care so much about what the hell was up with his arm. Grady cried out and tried to relieve the pressure by shifting around, but she planted a knee on the small of his back and kept him in place as she broke his ankle by twisting it until it snapped. Quick dismount and another slash and she incapacitated his other side by slicing the tendons of his thigh.
Cut the whining in half.
As Grady was tackled by pain, he lost his breath and quieted down-until she started pulling him over to the grave. He struggled the way he cried, though, with more noise than effect. Once he was where she wanted him, she slit the tendons in his other arm so that as much as he would have loved to bat away her hands, he couldn’t. Then she flipped him over so he had a good view of heaven and hauled up his parka.
