“You boys droppin’ like flies,” she noted on a shrug he couldn’t tell if it was fake casual or real.

“Explain,” Axl ground out.

She did that. “As in, gettin’ your asses claimed.”

“And?” he pushed.

“Chill, asshole,” she bit off. “Just that hot dick going off the market makes the rounds. Jesus.”

“That’s all?” Auggie kept at her.

She looked offended. “Okay, you gotta know, a sister’s ass is swinging in the wind, that sister doin’ her best to keep it together by strippin’, I’m gonna share they got problems. They don’t. If they did, like I said, I’d share.”

They did not know that. She’d never been outspoken for the sisterhood nor had she ever shared anything without getting paid.

But she looked like she genuinely meant it.

“Now, are we done?” she asked.

“You got more?” Auggie returned.

“Dude,” she snapped.

She had no more.

“Then we’re done,” Axl said.

“And even?” she pushed.

“We’ll see,” Axl muttered, giving Auggie a look and starting to turn to the door.

“Motherfuckers!” she called.

They turned back.

“I am not on your leash to yank whenever you want. You leave, we’re square,” she declared.

“B, you don’t get to make the rules,” Axl informed her.

“And you do?” she asked.

“Well, yeah,” he answered.

“Fuck you,” she spat.

After having hit his limit of “fuck offs,” that officially hit his quota for the day of “fuck yous.”

With another glance at Auggie, they moved out.

They waited until they were in the Hummer to break it down.

“Whoever this is, they’ve been active awhile. And right now, they’re setting up to steal a huge-ass appropriation of coke and arms from evidence, move it, and then buy fishing boats,” Axl stated.

“And if we get in their way, they’re gonna fuck with us. And since they’re faceless cops we don’t know, which means they have resources, they can make that hurt,” Auggie finished.

Axl pulled out of the parking spot and said, “Call it in.”

Auggie called it in.

While Axl listened to him agreeing to be back at the office for a meet about it, Axl’s phone binged.

He pulled it out of the side pocket of his cargos and waited for a stop at a light before he glanced at the text.

Hattie.

Telling him she was up, which was what he’d asked her to do in a note he left on the pillow beside her.

“When’s the meet?” Axl asked after Aug got off the phone.

“Two.”

“Right.” He waited for another light before he said, “Gotta make a call.”

“Go for it,” Auggie muttered.

He hit buttons and put the phone to his ear.

“Hey!” Hattie greeted.

Fuck, but he liked when she was chirpy.

“Sleep good?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she replied.

He did not.