I whip down a dirt road to the right, do a quick U-turn, and meet the asshole head-on. By the time he skids to a halt, I have a Glock in my hand, and I’m walking toward him. It takes me about thirty seconds to figure out it’s Kasey in hulk formation and charging toward me, no gun in obvious sight. I shove mine in my pants at my back and meet him toe to toe.
“What the hell are you doing, Kasey?”
He pops my jaw with a mighty blow I feel pretty damn well and good. I grimace with the pain—and shake it off and smile. “Now can I get your sister her Diet Sprites? She gets really cranky without her Diet Sprite.”
“I don’t like you,” he pretty much growls at me.
“I would never have guessed.”
“You cocky prick.”
“What’s your real problem here?”
“I don’t trust you.”
“What did you want to happen tonight? What do you want now?”
“I was just keeping an eye on you. You turned it into this.”
My cellphone rings in my pocket. “That’s going to be Ana.”
I grab my phone and answer. “Hey, baby. Sorry, I’m taking so long. I just ran into your brother. We’re chatting. I’ll be there soon.”
“Oh no,” she murmurs. “I know he’s difficult, but I love him. Please try to tolerate him.”
“For you,” I say. “Just for you.”
I disconnect. “Anything else, Kasey?”
He glares at me and rotates on his heel, marching toward his truck.
When I get back to Ana’s place, she greets me at the door in a tank top and shorts, takes one look at the swelling of my face, and freaks. “Oh my God, what happened?” she worries.
I scoop her into my arms. “Nothing you can’t kiss and make better.” Our next stop is her bed.
So, where does this memory lead me, and why is my head in this space?
Why indeed, I think.
The answer comes to me easily, a seed in my mind that has finally formed roots.
Some people keep their enemies at a distance. Some keep them close and easily reached. After that first confrontation with Kasey, I knew I was his enemy, but what if I was Kurt’s as well? And why? It’s a crazy thought. I never had a problem with Kurt, but maybe I knew something I didn’t know I knew?
What the hell would that be, though?
And if so, if I represented some kind of threat, why was he okay with me being in his daughter’s life?
Also, in the end, why did Kurt leave Kasey with expenses he couldn’t pay unless he worked for me? I’m supposed to believe that was to teach Kasey to hustle, at the expense of Kurt’s empire failing if his son failed. That doesn’t add up to me.
I’m not sure the package is where this story started.
Chapter Eleven
LUKE
“Why now?” Parker presses again, drawing me out of my speculation about Kurt’s financial woes.
“They, whoever they are, must have thought the package was in one set of hands, an unattainable set of hands. Until someone tried to unload it, which set off some sort of alert.”
“Trevor,” he assumes. “Now I see where you’re going with this.”
The garage door alert goes off again and I can instantly hear Savage running his mouth. “And then she said, fuck you and your billy goat, but I didn’t laugh. Who has a billy goat?”
Parker arches a brow. “Savage runs his mouth in all kinds of directions,” I explain. “You get used to it and him.”
Savage and Adam appear in the kitchen. “Better running my mouth than running around like a chicken with my head cut off,” Savage says, walking toward the fridge.
Adam stops at the end of the island and sets a couple of bags on top, sliding one of them in front of me. “I thought Ana might need a change of clothes. We did the best two guys and no help can do.”
Savage joins us and sets a six-pack on the island before producing a bottle of whiskey and sliding it in my direction. “I thought Ana might need this after watching her partner get splattered all over her tonight. Unless you’re as cold as me, that shit gets to you.”
He’s not wrong.
Ana is a ball of torment layered on top of more torment, and it’s about to get worse, considering this conversation with Parker has led me down a jagged path I don’t want to travel and one she will not as well. One that leads to her father. I don’t believe he’s alive, but then again, his body never made it home. He’s involved in this, even if it’s from the grave. I can’t prove it, but I also can’t wait until I can talk to Ana, not when we’re on the run and I’m trying to keep her alive.
She knows things she might not even know she knows.