Page 74 of Knight
I twisted in the seat to look at him. “Then why did you come?”
He shrugged. “You never know what he’s into. You might need backup.”
Joyride’s eyes narrowed. “Into? Like…trouble? Nobody said anything about trouble.”
“Relax. He went to his sister’s place. How much trouble could that be?”
Joyride muttered something under his breath. I turned on the radio, surfing stations until I found some classic rock.
“Ew. No.” Joy switched us to Bluetooth and called up his Spotify. Rap instantly blared out of the speakers. “Driver chooses the music.”
I turned down the volume. “Fine, but I refuse to get an ear bleed from you blasting it.”
Joy laughed. “Okay, old man. Whatever you say.”
I flipped him the bird as trees and fields flashed past the window.
Hayworth was only a little over an hour away, and we made good time. We entered the town on the northwest end. Joyride let me turn off Lil Wayne to enter the address Hollywood had given us into GPS. He might not be on speaking terms with Tex, but he knew him better than the rest of us.
I didn’t blame him for not coming. Tex had hurt him by running. But I hoped he could put that grudge aside, because I intended to bring Tex back into the fold if he let me.
“Take a right in six hundred feet,” a computerized female voice stated.
Joy flipped on the blinker, slowing to take the turn when we reached the intersection.
We passed through a little downtown made up of cute shops and restaurants, including a bar called Tracks that I’d visited once or twice. They got a lot of regional bands in to perform.
“I’m hungry,” Joy said as we passed Marcello’s Pizza Parlor. “Maybe we could stop for a slice?”
“No time. We have to track down Tex and get him to his meeting. We’ll grab something on the road.”
He grumbled. “I’m driving. The least you should do is feed me.”
I dug into my jeans pocket and came out with one of the butterscotch candies Aiden ate. “Here. Don’t say I never gave you anything.”
Joy eyed the candy. “Damn. You really are an old man. You know I was kidding about that, right? You don’t have to actually carry fuckin’ butterscotch candies.”
Ghost nearly busted a gut laughing in the back seat.
“Aiden keeps them around the house,” I muttered. “He’s younger than me! It’s just nice to have something to suck on when?—”
“That’s what he said,” Joyride crowed.
“Jesus,” I muttered. I’d walked right into that one. But dick-sucking jokes were better than old-man ones.
Ghost patted my shoulder. “Welcome to fatherhood.”
“I knew I never wanted kids.”
Joyride grinned, looking happier than I’d ever seen him, though, so I wasn’t too upset about him giving me shit. Now, if we could just get our other wayward ex-con in line, I’d call it a good day’s work.
Hayworth was built around the university—and as such, there were a lot of nice, older neighborhoods full of two-story Colonial Revivals. But as we got closer to Tex’s address, the housing shifted to smaller ranches and bungalows, some of them wearing their age like a faded gown that hadn’t been replaced in decades. Naturally, there were a lot of upper-middle-class professors in this town, but to support a university, you also needed the groundskeepers, maintenance workers,and custodians. Not to mention people to serve all the college kids hitting restaurants and bars.
We pulled up outside a pale blue—verging on gray—bungalow with a sagging porch. The yard was well-kept, and there were kids’ toys strewn across the porch: a scooter, a small bicycle, and a discarded jump rope among a few other toys.
“I’ll go to the door alone. I don’t want to overwhelm him with the whole welcome wagon.”
“I’m just the getaway driver,” Joyride said.
