“Baby, the second you come home, I’ll tell you.”
“Nae. Tell me now.” I lick my lips. “I could use a surprise.”
“Now, how is that a surprise if I tell you? Hey, I don’t hear other nerds debating wizards and sorcery in the background.”
“Other nerds?” I cock a brow, shoveling more crisp fries into my mouth.
“Leith, there’s something I haven’t told you,” she whispers in a conspiratorial tone.
Feeling the warm smile in her voice, I settle my restless bones. Powering up my laptop, I ask, “Wit’sthat?”
“You’re a computer geek, a nerd. So, are you at the office?”
“Hmmm.” I glance around me. The auld fridge still has some of the vacation magnets from when we backpacked through Europe. I tell a white lie out of the lot of extra devious ones. “I’m home.”
“Home?” she shrieks. “Leith,thisis home, not Mable’s place.”
“Och, hen.” With my fingers hovering over the keyboard, I pause from typing and groan. “That’s not what I meant.”
“I know, baby. Uh . . .I have to take this call.”
“Chevelle—”
“I’m good.”
I settle back on the wooden chair. “Hen, when I come home this weekend, we’ll start the search for a spot for Mia’s Place. How ‘bout that?”
“Sounds great. Thank you, baby. But I honestly need to click over. Love ya. Bye.”
I pick up the phone, but Chevelle’s alluring voice is no longer on the opposite side of the speaker. She’s disconnected the call. For a couple of beats, I contemplate calling herarseback. Nae, Leith,yerjust feeling guilty. She’s not mad.Either way, I let my hen motivate me to find Douglas Yates. I’m closer to him than a fly on a hairy cow.
“Yer deid,” I mutter, getting to work. My fingers move across the keyboard while I run several analytical scripts. Yates’ll be the lastarseholeI murder, and I’m gonna savor every moment of his screaming. His death will purge the clan life I’ve denied myself of for years.
* * *
I’d found Douglas Yates’hideaway a couple of hours ago. All this time, the bastard made like he had other goons on his team. Nae, it’s just as Wendy and I suspected. He weasels others into doing his dirty work for him. The last guy he set in his crosshairs was a rookie cop. The lad died mysteriously, right before the littleshitereached out to me.
A few months before Yates started screwing with me, he moved into a seedy apartment in Panorama City. Hasn’t left since. Uber Eats and grocery runs are all completed under the name Tip Whistler. I dinna know where the hell he came up with the name, but it coincides with his hacker handle Whistletips69.
Fake plates are screwed onto the bumper of my Audi. I’ve parked two blocks away from his place. Crumpled stucco apartment buildings line every direction. It would’ve been less conspicuous to drive my Chevelle SS, but Chevelle’s car finally went in for the nasty scrape on its side. I’m pulling on a ski mask when I get a call. Since Camdyn has relentlessly texted for updates, I press the away button sight unseen. Too late, I notice it was my wife.
“Och, Chevelle.”
My hen will think I’ve blatantly ignored her call. I’m ‘bout as deid as thisarsehole’sgonna be. While placing on gloves, I tell myself, “Soon as I’m done with thisfecker, I’ll head home.”
I further rationalize how I’ll be the good man Chevelle married by surprising her this weekend with a chartered jet to the Valley. We’ll look at a property for her brewery and reach out to a few realtors about a condo.
Nodding my head at how I’ll whisk her off her feet, I call Cam, turning the volume up on the radio to hear him better.
“How’s my wee clan?”
“Good. Chevelle’s asleep. Mia’s nodding off. I think I’ll hit the sack too.”
“I’mwabbit, myself. I plan to have a wee bit of fun with the package. Bring ‘em to my place in Long Beach.”
“Woah, bro, you offering me a therapy sesh?”
I grunt at his choice of analogy for torture. “If that’s whatye call itnow, then aye. I’ve been plagued for three entire months, Cam. So, ye, Brody, and me can bond just like ye lot suggested. Call our bigbrathairand tell ‘em to get some good whiskey.”