Page 65 of Cheater Slicks

“You don’t have to tell me.” He cupped my face, tipping my head back. “I won’t force you to lie.”

Turning my face into his hand, I kissed his palm. “Okay.”

“I’ll help you however I can.” He made it a promise. “Don’t give up on me.”

Don’t give up on me.

The courage it took for him to ask me that threatened to break my heart. “I won’t.”

“Can y’all scoot aside?” Rollo shouldered past. “I have paperwork and virtual meetings I can’t miss.”

The longer Vi remained unconscious, the more her business would suffer. I knew the feeling. Intimately. I hated that finances were a consideration where health was concerned, but those were the realities of our lives. Bills didn’t stop piling up just because we couldn’t pay them.

Pedro waited until Rollo left to glide forward, a question in his eyes I could only answer with a nod.

I had done what I set out to do, but I hadn’t quite achieved my goal.

“Are Josie and Pascal still upstairs?” I gave myself a cheer injection. “What are they planning tonight?”

“They’re staying in.” Kierce tipped his chin. “They’re going to watch movies from a VHS stash Josie found in her guest room.”

That was the safest thing for the Suarezes to do, and her too, but I had other plans for them.

“What about Harrow?” I hated that, once again, he was an afterthought. “How is he?”

“He was heaving in the bathroom,” Kierce said, “when I went to check on him.”

“Still?” A bolt of guilt struck me. “Anunit really did a number on him. Even after she’s rode out the worst of it, he’ll still be sick and sore when we kick her out of him.”

“You should order in some broth,” Pedro suggested. “He needs to eat light the next day or two.”

“Good idea.” I could walk Kierce through the preferred local food app as an exercise. “Jean-Claude could swing it with enough notice, but good broth takes from twelve up to seventy-two hours. Harrow should get something in his stomach before then. Plus, Jean-Claude has his hands full caring for Vi and monitoring Rollo’s condition. I don’t want to heap more work on him.”

Except that was exactly what I did when I bumped into him upstairs and palmed Kierce off on him. I told myself it was better to let Jean-Claude walk Kierce through ordering. He knew the best restaurants, and he was familiar with technology. But Kierce knew I was buying a moment alone with the others away from him.

Away from Dis Pater, more like.

With the two of them set up in the kitchen, I summoned Josie and Pascal to her guest room at the back of the house.

“This is weird.” Josie clung to Pascal’s arm. “Why are we the only ones in here?”

“What did we do wrong?” He worried his bottom lip with his teeth, and I smacked his arm so that Matty wouldn’t come back to a sore mouth. “Are we in trouble?”

“No.” I poured a salt circle and then raised it to give us privacy. “Why would you think that?”

“You ditched Kierce. Youneverditch Kierce. He’s always part of the Marys’ inner circle.” Josie patted Pascal’s hand. “Suarezes are honorary Marys, so you don’t count.” She frowned. “Or youdocount.” She flipped her wrist. “You know what I mean.”

“Imighthave sneaked into Dis Pater’s house tonight. Astrally speaking, I mean.” I cringed as Josie’s left eye started twitching. I definitely had that effect on people. “If I can find his home address, I can pop in physically. Then I can steal the saint bone, pop out, destroy it, and free everyone caught in the parade.” I flopped onto her bed. “Probably.”

“Let’s put a pin in how you’re not sure thispopidea will work. I assume you couldn’t find his address?”

As one of two people present for my one and only time successfully teleporting, Josie had earned the right to doubt I could pull off this heist alone with that power as the linchpin in my plan.

“I didn’t have much time.” I omitted the precious moments I lost being a fraidy cat. “He was talking to someone outside, so I couldn’t see who. I think about Kierce and me. None of what he said made sense, though.”

“Tell us.” Foot tapping, Josie anchored her hands on her hips. “All of it.”

Happy to unburden myself to someone who wasn’t Rollo, I spilled every single detail I could recall.

---