Page 82 of To Have and to Stalk
The game ended, and a group of parents and their kids turned to stare at us.
I rubbed the back of my neck.
“They’re fine,” Fig said.
A pepperoni pizza lay untouched on the table, the yellow cheese shiny like plastic.
“How’s the job?” I asked.
“People get murdered.” She shrugged. “I stay employed.”
Another silence fell. Stone opened his mouth. Then, as if thinking better of what he was going to say, he closed it. Fig shifted on her seat.
My phone vibrated with a message.
Come outside.
Butcher.
I looked up and around, to the front of the restaurant. Butcher waved frantically behind the glass.
Fuck.
“I’ll be right back.”
Stone shot me a look as I got to my feet, appearing more terrified than when he learned he was going to jail.
“What?” I clipped the moment I got outside, then paused. His neck was peppered in red marks. “Do you have fucking chickenpox.”
He grinned, rubbing his neck. “Actually, it was a leopard-print thong.”
I sighed.
My fucking fault for engaging in this.
“Did I interrupt family time?” he asked. “That your sister?” He looked over my shoulder to where I knew Fig and Stone sat, sounding a little too fucking interested.
“Go near her, I will gut you.”
“Kinky,” he said, eyes landing back on me. He crossed his arms behind his neck, leaning against the restaurant window. “I assume you’ve noticed the discrepancy I told you about.”
“Maybe,” I said. “You want to report it to the boss? Go ahead.”
“I want to use this tobethe boss.” He smiled, vicious. “You know what happens when guns stop getting paid? They turn on the wallet. I don’t need everyone. I need the people who move the money and the ones who panic when it stops.”
He looked at me.
The one who moves the money.
“Well, sorry to waste your fucking time,” I said. “I can’t move that money. Andrew can’t move it. He fucked up and doesn’t know how to fix it.”
“You don’t busy yourself with the minutia,” he said. “Just give me the books and Andrew, and call me your fairy fucking god-daddy.”
My eyes narrowed on his. “I don’t murder.”
“Yeah, I get it, Robin Hood,” he said. “You just clean the blood money?—”
“You don’t get to fuck off if I can’t.” Fig pushed open the door, coming to a halt when she saw Butcher. A moment later, Stone trailed behind her.
