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“Rory?”
“He’s waiting outside for you.”
“Are you fucking with me?” I ask, because I don’t believe it. “Is it really Royce out there and this was the plan all along?”
“I’m not fucking with you,” he says.
But still.
It doesn’t make any sense.
Why would Rory come for me after what I did to him?
“I told him the truth,” Booker admits. “Since I figured you would have trouble doing that yourself.”
“And he’s… not mad?”
Booker shrugs. “I don’t know. That’s for you two to figure out.”
I give him an awkward pat on the shoulder.
“You know, you aren’t so bad, Booker. For a fed.”
He smiles.
“You aren’t so bad either. For a hooker.”
I flip him off and my hand is on the door already when he asks the thing I knew he would.
“If you see her…”
“Sell her out?” I turn back and shake my head. “Let’s not get carried away.”
“I’m not looking to hurt her. I just want to help.”
“My god,” I groan. “There are two of you. What is it with you guys trying to save women? Maybe Storm doesn’t want to be saved.”
He’s quiet. And sad like a puppy, so I give him a bone.
“I’ll talk to her about it,” I say. “But I’m not playing any tricks. And for the record, I’m not a rat. The people who end up on the streets have had a rough enough go of it already without me screwing them over.”
“I know that,” he says. “And thank you. All I’m asking is for you to talk to her.”
He scrambles to give me a card before I leave, and I take it.
“See ya around,” he says.
“Yeah,” I agree.
But we both know it isn’t true.
Rory’s car is parked outside, just like Booker said. He rolls down the window and doesn’t even look at me. He just gives me a command.
“Get in.”
I’d tell him to fuck off for taking that tone with me if I didn’t think I deserved it. So I get in. And he speeds off.
I wait until we hit the interstate.
