Page 31 of Demitri

Joker nods, clicking away on his laptop.

“Well, I guess everyone’s helping me clean this place up for closing. Chairs being put on tables and stools on the bar and glasses clinking. That’s pretty inconsequential sounding, right?” Mia looks at Joker.

“Sure is.” He stands and glares at everyone. “You heard the lady. Let’s clean. We can talk movies. Musicals. How hot my wife is.”

“But I don’t know your wife.” Grace gives him a once over. “Or you.”

“Well, you should. She’s amazing. Her name is Ginny, and she plays cello.”

Everyone moves, following the order to clean, but Aunt Linda grabs me and pulls me to the back hallway, away from the recording device.

“We need to play this carefully, son. I agree with Mia’s friend, I don’t think she was in here for you.”

“Then why? I know you don’t believe in coincidences, Aunt Linda.”

“I don’t. I think she was absolutely here for something, I just don’t think it was for you.”

“What could she want with Mia?”

“Location. Access.”

“You think she’s what? Going to try to move her drugs through here?”

“It follows her pattern. She moves into a town, finds a place to move product, and then gets out before the heat can get to her, leaving someone else to take the fall. She’s done it in Briar Mountain, where there’s a connection between your girl’s past, in Diamond Cove with the rich kids, in Rock Hill at the high school, and in other schools up and down the range. If she’s looking at getting power, she needs money and capital. If she can’t find you, the easiest way to do that is with drugs.”

“And a bar is an easy place to move that kind of product.”

“Bingo.”

“You think she wants to use me to help her move drugs?” Mia interrupts us, her face ashen and her lip curled into a snarl. “Not a fucking chance.”

“She doesn’t know that yet. That’s why she left her present. This woman isn’t stupid. She’s been operating with someone for years and has never gotten caught. Hell, we weren’t even sureof her name a year ago. You need to play this carefully. At least until we know what she’s playing at,” Aunt Linda smiles at Mia. “I have faith in you.”

“I don’t like this one fucking bit,” I growl, turning and walking away.

Aiden, Grady, and Joker all notice and leave their chores to corner me on the other side of the room.

“You need to calm down,” Joker says quietly.

“Fuck you.”

“Not my type, buddy, and you know I’m right. You won’t do anything but push her away if you go all alpha macho on her.”

“You have no idea. You don’t know what I’ve seen, what I know.”

“You’re right, I don’t. But each of us has our own burdens, have seen some shit, and we’re still here,” Joker says, a faraway look in his eyes. “And I’m telling you, from experience, that the best thing you can do right now is let her know you are here, you aren’t going anywhere, and that you want to keep her safe. You can’t demand shit. Trust me, that will backfire faster than you can fucking say you’re an asshole.”

“So what do we do?”

“We keep her safe. It’s what we’re trained to do.” Grady smiles. “Kind of our fucking jobs. We take turns, we act normal, we keep an eye on things.”

“I can’t be seen in public right now, remember?”

“Which is why you have us.”

“Enough penis plotting,” Mia whispers from behind us, making us all jump. “Time to go.” She nods her head to the disk, and Joker goes over to retrieve it off the bar and put it back in the booth where Aunt Linda told him it needed to go.

“She’s going to be trouble, you know that, right?” Aiden quietly tells me as we walk toward the bar.

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