Page 123 of Penny For Your Thoughts
“You don’t get to be disappointed, Guns. You brought the puppy home. Now you suffer the consequences.”
Darcy, face pinched in disgust and doing all he could to not look at us, put Baby back in her terrarium. We gathered around the table and enjoyed pizza—boring cheese pizza because the kid hated every topping known to mankind, including pepperoni.
Diem shared about the storage locker fire and his inability to get information.
When I explained what we’d witnessed—Lukyan delivering banker boxes to kids who were possibly living in a building that was supposed to be under construction—Diem put his pizza down and leaned forward, brows knitted together. “You think he cleared important documents out of a storage unit and set fire to whatever remained?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know anything. All I know is everything about this guy is sketch. His money is sketch. His dealings with Darcy are sketch. His properties are sketch. We know he’s behind the Elwood thing. I suspect this is much larger than we realize.”
“Dude.” Darcy interrupted with a mouthful of pizza. “Don’t say sketch. You’re way too old for that.”
I glowered at the kid
Diem, the bastard, chuckled.
I threw my crust at him, which he happily ate.
“So what do we do now?” Darcy acted as though he was part of the team and not an unfortunate side effect.
Diem and I locked gazes. I pulled out my most endearing and mischievous smirk, the one that set him ablaze and usually got me whatever I wanted. “I say, we enjoy our Saturday, rest up, and revisit these locations tonight under the cover of darkness.”
“I was afraid you were going to say that.” Diem popped the tab on a Dr Pepper and drank deeply, eyeing me over the can.
Darcy’s gaze bounced between us. “Can I come?”
“No,” Diem said, an edge of finality in his tone.
Darcy looked like he was about to protest, but I held up a hand, stopping him but not taking my eyes off Diem. “You can come.”
“Yes.” Darcy pumped a fist in the air.
“On one condition,” I added.
Diem’s eyes narrowed.
My smile grew.
“Anything.” Again, Darcy’s gaze bounced between us.
“Give Daddy Diem and me some uninterrupted alone time.”
Diem’s lips quivered as Darcy groaned and shrank in the seat. “Noooo. What am I supposed to do? Your apartment is tiny. I’m gonna hear everything, and I’m too young for that.”
Diem tugged his wallet from the back pocket of his jeans and dropped a twenty on the table. “You’re out of smokes. Go buy some and… walk slowly. Don’t talk to strangers.”
Mood shifting, Darcy reached for the twenty as Diem slapped a hand over the bill. “And no alcohol.”
“Okay. Just cigarettes. How slowly?”
Diem eyed me. “At least forty-five minutes. I hate to be rushed.”
“Got it.” Darcy bounced up, grabbed another slice of pizza, and hightailed it for the door.
“Wait,” Diem yelled before he escaped. “Do you have a license?”
“Yeah. Why?”
Diem tossed him the keys to the Jeep, and Darcy caught them one-handed. “You fuck up my Jeep, I’ll fuck up your face. Be very fucking careful.”
