“Come back with a fucking badge if you want answers. I’m done with this shit.” He turned and started back up the steps, but I didn’t feel like we were finished with this. It was the complete opposite. We were on the cusp of finding another puzzle piece; we just had to get it out of Franky first.

“It’d be a shame if your wife was brought into the investigation,” I said, knowing my words might be lighting a fuse and unsure of just how big the blast would be. “Having to hear about the relationship her husband kept secret from her.”

Noah looked at me with wide eyes. I couldn’t back down now, though. I had to keep pressing, and judging by the way Franky was now frozen midstep, I seemed to have found the right button to push.

“Help us so that it doesn’t get that far.”

Franky spun around, fast. Too fast for me to react. He practically leaped down the last three steps and was in my face in seconds, fists holding bundles of my shirt. “Don’t you dare fucking threaten me.” His breath smelled like a mixture of rotten eggs and beer. Maybe his cleaning service needed to be hired out for his inflamed gums before they cleaned any more houses.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, everyone, calm down.” Noah had his hands out like a lion tamer, trying to get the situation under control without having his face bitten off.

“Who the fuck do you think you are?” Franky asked me, ignoring Noah’s plea to keep the peace. There was an unchecked rage inside of Franky’s beady eyes, his grip tightening on my shirt, so tight that the neckline started to choke me. I realized then that I hadn’t thrown a punch in about ten years, going back to a fight I had in college over a roommate’s constant loud music. It had been dumb, and no one was hurt, but I had come out as the loser in that fight, with a black eye and a swollen lip that hurt for almost an entire week.

Hmmm… maybe this wasn’t a good idea after all.

15. Noah Barnes

15

NOAH BARNES

Oh no. This was bad. Worst-case scenario. The nuclear reactor was melting down, and total annihilation was only moments away. I reached for Franky’s hands, grabbing his forearms and telling him to stop again, but he ignored me, pushing me to the side instead with a force that nearly made me fall on my ass.

Jake didn’t seem to like that. He swiped up, hard, hitting his forearm against Franky’s arms, causing him to break his grip.