“There’s no willy-nilly-ness.” That was the John Carmondy she was most familiar with, his faux offense ruined by the amusement clear in his voice. “I just go with the flow.”

“Go with the flow,” she repeated flatly. “I don’t like that plan. That’s how you end up in the dumpster behind Dutch’s, possibly missing some fingers or your tongue.”

He winced, looking a little horrified as he pulled up to the curb and parked in the lot across the street from the bar. “Why would I be missing my tongue? How would a plan protect my tongue?”

“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail, and failing at Dutch’s would be very bad.”

“I still don’t see how my fingers or tongue would be in danger.”

She waved dismissively, remembered her vow to stop doing that, and sat on her hand. She wondered how many times she’d made that gesture without noticing and grimaced. Although she caught John’s curious look as she tucked her fingers beneath her butt, she ignored it. “Arguing about it isn’t going to get us anywhere. I have a plan. Let’s go.”

As she got out of the SUV, she pretended not to hear John’s sputtering noises and bit back a smile. Once she closed the door, she didn’t wait, but strode down the sidewalk toward Dutch’s. Langston didn’t really have an official bad part of town, but the area they were in was probably the least pleasant. Dutch’s was in the industrial east end of Langston, surrounded by warehouses and gated yards enclosed by chain link and razor wire. The streets were dimly lit, the sodium lights spread thin, leaving deeply shadowed sections between the occasional pools of pale illumination.

The boxy buildings and narrow streets, as well as the way the rectangular shadows crept well past the curb into the lane, gave Molly a claustrophobic feel, and she quickened her pace. She didn’t want to say it, but she was glad to have John with her. Although she would’ve hated to pull any of her sisters away from their work finding Jane, Molly would never have ventured into this neighborhood—and definitely not into Dutch’s—alone. She was brave, but she wasn’t stupid.

Before she’d gotten halfway down the block, John caught up with her. “So?” he asked.

“What?”

He huffed impatiently, and she had to hold back another grin. John’s dramatic noises and gestures were unexpectedly endearing, not that she’d ever admit that to him. “What’s the plan?”

“I thought you wanted to willy-nilly it.”

“Not if you have a plan. If there’s a plan, then I want to be part of the plan, and not just find out later that I was an unknowing part of someone else’s machinations. I want to be part of the inner circle.” He sketched a curved line in the air that encompassed both of them.

“Fine.” She sighed, long and audibly, pretending as if she were horribly put-upon. “If Sonny’s there, I’m going to text a couple of deputies to head this way. Then I’m going to get in his face and distract him while you come up behind and cuff him. We’ll take him outside, put our backs to a wall, and wait for the cops to arrive and take him off our hands.”