Page 154 of Scatter the Bones

Wrath sniffs the air with exaggerated disgust. “Smells like he took a shit, too.”

“Jesus Christ,” Rock groans, pinching the bridge of his nose.

““S…sh—Shade?” the guy stammers. “I think it was Shade. Or maybe Shadow—something like that. Shadow, yeah.”

“So,wayback in the day.” I laugh.

“We’re not gettin’ anything useful here.” Rock stands and dusts off his gloves. “Let’s take him to our friend’s house.” He slants a pointed look my way.

Cedarwood’s.

My internalfuck noalarm clangs.

I don’t want to involve Margot in our business more than she already has been. Not to dispose of some low life scumfucker.

“Shouldn’t we leave him somewhere he can be found? Send a message to whoever sent him,” I suggest.

Rock tilts his head and studies me, then turns to Wrath and Murphy, like a judge waiting for arguments to be made.

Wrath shakes his head. “Guy’s gotta have a record. Alongone. But if anyone knows he was in our territory, and he just disappears, they might question us.” He pauses, lips twisting into a cold grin. “But I also kinda like Jiggy’s thinking. If it’s NewJersey Vipers testing the waters—we need to send a stronger message than just makin’ their guy vanish.”

He lifts his hand, fingers wiggling in the air like a magician—poof.

“You wanna hang him from a bridge like we’re in fuckin’ Juárez?” Murphy says with a dry laugh. “I thought that was the whole point of having the Death Palace on speed dial.”

He cuts a glance at me, grinning like the smartass he is.

When I don’t respond to the dark humor, his smile fades. “What’s wrong? You don’t want us asking your girlfriend for favors?”

I could fuckin’ punch Murphy right now.“I didn’t say that.”

Rock’s steely glare swings my way.

Great.

When I don’t elaborate, he finally asks, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” I force a smirk that tastes like ash. “Margot will be more than happy to fire up the oven for us.” I glance at Wrath. “It’s like I said, we haven’t had any issues in our territory for a while. Maybe we should make an example of this guy.”

“He’s a low-level tweaker,” Murphy points out. “No one’s gonna give a fuck what happens to him.”

We all glance over at the guy, who’s suddenly silent.

He’s unconscious.

Wrath slides his gaze to the door Remy and Griff exited through. “That’s a good point about not having any issues in this area…”

“Don’t even go there, bro.” Murphy takes a step closer to Wrath, voice dropping. “Griff’s mom is the addict. He’s got no control over that. Trust me. You heard him, she’s not even living around here anymore.”

Wrath’s punisher expression dials down a few degrees. “Yeah, okay.”

“All right,” Rock says, his tone final. “While I agree with you to a certain extent, Jigsaw, I think it’s better if we don’t call more attention to this guy than necessary.”

Fair enough. At least Rock considered my suggestion before shooting it down. “I’ll call Margot. Make sure we’ve got privacy. They’ve been slammed this week.”

Rock nods. “Thank you. That’s good to know. We’ll wait until dark.”

I step away from the group and fish out my phone.

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