Garrett fought back clearing his throat before he asked, “You done?”

Tanner grinned yet again. “Yep.”

“Rocky’s made you soft,” he returned.

“That is one thing your sister has never made me.”

Garrett felt his lip curl. “Christ.”

Tanner burst out laughing.

Not even close to that mood, Garrett muttered, “Later,” and took off.

* * * * *

Cher

After my shift, I left out the back door with Darryl opening it for me to keep an eye on me on the way to my car (like he always did, or Morrie did, or Jack did).

I moved down the alley toward my Equinox.

I heard the door close and it did this earlier than Darryl would normally do it.

I knew why.

“Goddamned shit,” I muttered under my breath, seeing Merry leaning against my driver’s side door, his Excursion pulled in against the wall in front of my Chevy.

He didn’t move as my heels clicked their pissed off staccato on the pavement. He just watched me come to him, ankles crossed, arms folded on his chest.

Shit, it totally, seriously sucked he was so hot.

I was five feet away when I snapped my question, “You lose the ability to read?”

The left side of Merry’s lips curled up, but that was the only movement he made.

Asshole.

I stopped three feet in front of him.

“Move out of my way, Garrett,” I ordered.

“So,” Merry said softly, “considering Tanner set Ryker on your church lady, meaning he had things to do, I’m guessin’ Ryker wasn’t in J&J’s to shoot the shit over a beer at high noon.”

Oh fuck.

He’d figured it out.

How much—in other words, the Carlito business—I didn’t know.

I kept silent.

Merry felt chatty.

“I’m guessin’, in an effort to convince yourself of the bullshit you’re tryin’ to convince me of—that you’re happy spinnin’ your wheels, lettin’ Denny Lowe interrupt your life for good and hunkerin’ down in that fortress of yours until the day you quit breathin’—you made a call to the only man you know who could help you out and collect on his debt in a way you could pay.”

How I got taken in by Denny Lowe telling me that he was a cop, I had no idea. Lowe might have had computer smarts and criminally lunatic genius that kept him free to chop his way through half the United States of America, but he was no cop.

Cops were far more intuitive and it took them no time at all to connect dots.

Then again, back then, I didn’t know any cops.

Now I did.

Which meant I should have known better.

Crap.

“Move out of my way,” I repeated.

“So,” Merry said, “you were good to let him in on what was goin’ down with you. And since you know Ryker’s history and your shit involves shit that might be happenin’ in a church, you knew you’d get him fired up. And since you are far from stupid and know how tight Ryker is with Tanner, firing Ryker up, you’d put it together that he’d throw every resource he had at gettin’ what you need. So he’d fill in Tanner.”