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I plant a firm hand on his chest. “I’m okay. I said what I needed to say, and he left.”

“Sure?”

“Yes,” I tell him. “It’s just a lot. We’ve known Noah for a long time. All of this feels—” I pause and grope for the right word, “wrong.”

“He played us. I almost killed him the other day.”

I nod. As Jasmin tells it, if she hadn’t begged Jule to stop, he would’ve beaten the life out of Noah. I’m surprised he even came back at all. But then again, Noah has never been a coward. No, apparently he was just stupid.

I heave a shaky breath and swat away at my grief. “How was school?”

22

Redemption

Ipull up Jason’s gated driveway and park in the roundabout directly in front of his door. To my right are two massive pickup trucks, two rovers, and three motorcycles. I roll my eyes. He has a six-car garage, which I’m sure is stocked with more.

Of course, Jason wouldn’t give up his dreams just because an accident had paralyzed him, but did he have to be such a fucking show off?

I reach for the bottle of wine that Olivia asked me to bring as a token of apology since I canceled lunch and invited myself to dinner. Max rushes out. He knows where we are, and he’s eager to be let out in their yard. I barely graze my knuckles on the door when Olivia opens it and smiles wide.

Olivia is a dirt bike riding, rock climbing, beer drinking, vulgar tongued sort of woman. I’m sure she was a viking in another life. A sleeve of tattoos cover her left arm. She’s tall, slender, and has delicately charming features. The left half of her head is shaved, and the tattoos from her arm continue to collect on her neck, behind her ear, and up to her scalp. She’s wearing a black t-shirt and white shorts, the gray material of the prosthetic liner inches above her right knee shimmers slightly. Her straight brown hair falls over the right side of her face and she pushes her glasses up her slim nose and smiles.

“The king of Rome has arrived,” she shouts in Spanish over her shoulder. She winks at me and takes the bottle from my hands. “His favorite, you remembered!”

“Hi, Liv.” I step through the massive entryway.

“My aunt wants to know when you’ll visit.”

I roll my eyes and close the door behind me. “Tell my mother to stop sending messages through you.”

“I can’t help that I’m her favorite niece.”

Max saunters in as if he’s home and wags his tail-less ass at Jason, who halts his mechanical chair in its tracks to greet him properly. “Hey, Maximus. How’s the boss treating you?”

“I imagine he’s treating him better than most,” Olivia chimes in. “Come on, Max, the boys are outside.”

Olivia hands Jason the bottle and he pulls her gently down and kisses her. She and Max disappear to the back where their three dogs wait. I follow Jason into their kitchen, and while he opens the bottle of red, I wash my hands.

“Someonepaid Justice a visit today,” he says.

I grind my teeth. I had to make an appearance at the police station, submit some hours of labor and paperwork. I also had to write up a report for Mike, the middleman for the agency that hired me to get the job done. No one had spoken about a deadline, but the completion of a job is always a debatable, tentative, and delicate topic that they always want executed as quickly and cleanly as possible.

But of course, I had to check up on Niki. I was honest when I told her that I wouldn’t track the cell phone I’d given her. I wanted her to have the privacy she deserved while being able to communicate with her whenever I wanted. But I checked the cameras honed in on the trailer lot and almost climbed out of my skin when I saw a jittery and pain stricken Noah losing his shit like a crackhead going through withdrawals, while he yelled at my woman. I don’t know what he said, or what she responded, but from the looks of it, she took care of it.

“I noticed.”

I grab two wine glasses and Jason fills them up. Then he spins and grabs a Guinness for Olivia and hands it to her as soon as she reappears.

“Dinner is set. Let’s head to the table before it goes cold.”

I nod and give Jason his glass of red and we make our way to their dining room. A rectangular, handmade mahogany table is set, complete with bread, pastries, and the main dishes in the center. Like a buffet.

I take my seat. Olivia smiles warmly at Jason while they fill their plates, and I push back the need to text Niki.Fuck, I miss her.

“So, who’s this great,mysteriouscoder that helped Niki with the block?”

Jason glares at me, and Olivia chuckles. “Wow, you can’t even wait for dessert, can you?”

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