“Haze, Jury, and Scythe are going to deal with Danes,” Judge said. The three of them hadn’t been on the run from Maine to North Carolina, so it was smart to send them. Unlike me, they wouldn’t fall asleep

“I am, too,” Glitch shot back, not asking.

If I thought I could stay awake long enough, I’d have joined them. But I couldn’t even stay awake long enough for Glitch to do his thing.

“Go take one of the spare rooms,” Judge ordered after my fifth head bob when I dozed off.

I was tempted.

I should’ve.

But then I pictured Mac’s wince as she rubbed her stomach.

“Need my own bed.” I stood, passing off my empty mug to Swedes. “Let me know what you find on the footage. And let me know how tonight goes.”

I wasn’t leaving my brothers exposed. We didn’t all need to work every job. Glitch would review everything to make sure they weren’t going in blind. And I’d be no use to them if I fell asleep on my bike and drove over a cliff on the way there.

I was just pissed as fuck to be missing out on the fun part.

5. All You Can Smell at the Olfactory Barbecue

CHAPTER 5

ALL YOU CAN SMELL AT THE OLFACTORY BARBECUE

MAC

“How’re you feeling?”

If I never hear that question or tone again, it’ll be too soon.

I didn’t say that, of course. Alice—my boss and hero—meant well.

And to be fair, it was a good question considering… everything.

“I’m good,” I told her honestly.

For the most part, at least.

“How’s the house?”

Holding a bottle of cleaner in one gloved hand and a rag in the other, I used my shoulder to keep my cell against my ear as I scanned the kitchen around me. After moving in the day before, it felt like I’d been cleaning nonstop, but there was hardly any difference. Not in the dust.

And certainly not in the smell.

I wasn’t about to tell her that. It wouldn’t matter how much she’d already done for me, Alice would send in a cleaning crew and insist I sit on a throne of pillows like a delicate princess.

Or a cracked vase on the verge of shattering completely.

The last thing I wanted was to have strangers traipsing through the house already filled with a stranger’s things.

The last thing I needed was to have idle time to let my thoughts wander. Staying busy was the best thing for me. Therapeutic. Cathartic.

When Alice had inherited the house by default from a childless aunt she’d never even met, she’d planned to sell it. But as her coffee mug declared, she was, indeed, the Best Boss Ever. She’d insisted I move in and get what I desperately needed.