Zip, Zero, Zilch

Logan sits down in a chair in the waiting area and puts his head in his hands.

“Is he okay?” I ask Emily.

She nods. But then she shakes her head. “He should have told them, and now he wishes he did. But he can’t, because now it would hurt their feelings.”

Logan jerks the toboggan off his head and jams it into his backpack. Then he picks up his daughter and sets her on his knee.

The longer Logan waits to tell them, the harder it will be.

Sam

It has been a week and a half since Peck left. We talk every day on the phone, and we use Face Time as much as we can. But I’m going crazy without her. I get my boot off next week, and then I’ll go back to training full time. I’m both excited and apprehensive about it.

I worked at the shop all day today, and I’m cleaning my station. I roll my shoulders, because they’re tense. I know what I’m going to do tonight carries some risk, but it needs to be done, and I’m not going to leave it to Peck to do it. Nor am I going to take any of my brothers into it with me.

Everyone is gone but me and Josh, and I turn the lights off and put the money in the safe. I take out the package with ten thousand dollars in cash in it, which I put in here earlier today, and stuff it into the pocket of my hoodie. Josh follows me to the door and I open it so he can roll through.

“You have plans tonight?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “No.”

“What do you do when you leave here, man?” I ask. I’m a nosy bastard. I can’t help it.

“Nothing much.”

I nod and say, “Good night, then.”

He rolls in the other direction without a word.

I shrug my shoulders and start down the street. Bone’s office is a few streets over, so I can walk there.

But as I get close to the fence that surrounds his building, I see Paul leaning against the fence. He has one boot heel pressed against the fence, his knee bent. I know he looks relaxed to everyone else, but he’s not relaxed at all to me. He’s seething.

“Are you stupid?” he fires off.

“Why are you here?” I ask.

“Did you really think we were going to let you go in there alone?”

Matt walks up beside us.

“Not you too,” I groan, letting my head fall back.

“You get all of us, except for Logan.” He puts a hand on my shoulder and squeezes. “And we promised to call him as soon as this is over.”

“I’m not taking you in there with me.”

“You’re not going alone,” Pete says.

“Fuck all of you.” I say it, but there’s no heat in my voice, and they know it.

“Well, let’s go,” Paul says. “We need to go see the drug-dealing whoremonger now, because we have kids we need to get home to.” He arches a brow at me.

“Exactly why you should stay here.” I march past them all, and they walk right behind me. “Do you listen to anything I say?”

“Where you go, we go,” Paul says.

I blow out a breath and ring the bell outside Bone’s office. I’ve been here before. It was back when Pete and I worked for him, but it has been a while. Someone opens the door and I tell him what I want. The door shuts in my face, and I hear feet move down the hallway. Then the door opens again and the guy motions us forward.

He and two other guys frisk us all. He gets way too close to my balls and I sidestep to get away from his questing fingers. “Hey!” I cry.

He shrugs and motions us into Bone’s office.

The man himself is sitting behind a huge cherry desk. The walls are heavy dark-wood paneling, and he looks supremely satisfied to see me.

“Well, look who’s here,” he sings out.

His guys go to stand on each side of the desk. There are three of them. They’re big and they’re packing.

I stick out my hand and Bone shakes it. “I came to talk to you about my girlfriend’s mother.” I pull the money out of the pocket of my hoodie. “I want to make good on her debt.”

He takes the package and hands it to one of his guys, who proceeds to count it. “Ten thousand, boss,” he says.

Bone shakes his head. “Not enough.”

“How much more do you need?” I’ll get him whatever he wants. But I really need to get my brothers out of here before someone gets hurt.

“Ten more.”

“Okay. I’ll get it.”

Bone nods. He sucks his gold teeth for a minute and says, “You look like him, you know that?”

Beside me, Paul goes even stiffer than he was.

“Like who?” I ask.

“Your dad.” He laughs. But it’s not amusing. Not at all. He picks up a pen and sights down the middle of it like he’s lining up a shot. Then he pretends to fire. “I never saw anyone cry quite as much as your dad did.”

“What?” Paul barks.

“When I killed him. Before I stuffed him into the freezer, at least. He was still alive when I left him. Though I doubt it was for long.”

“Why?” Paul asks.

“Wrong place, wrong time,” Bone says. He shrugs like it’s nothing.

Before I even know what’s happening, Paul jumps.

Everything after that second happens like it’s in slow motion. Paul flies over the top of the desk and grabs Bone by the throat.

Pete knocks one of the guys to the ground, and his gun skitters across the floor.

Matt grabs another and flips him over onto his stomach. I throw a sucker punch at the last one standing.