Page 9 of Burn Bag

“I doubt it,” I sighed, already thinking of all the horrible things that would happen after this. “She’s going to kill him, you know.”

“Well, then he shouldn’t have been the dumb fucker who taught her how to use throwing knives,” Dash argued.

“Or…” Thumper chuckled humorlessly. “He shouldn’t have fucking killed her husband!”

“Right, well, I was getting to that,” Dash muttered.

Eli and Red sauntered up with grins on their faces. They had no fucking clue about the disaster they were walking into. But the moment they saw Fox in the van, their faces fell. I glanced over my shoulder, shaking my head as Fox made silly faces against the window.

“What the fuck is he doing here?” Eli yelled.

The door slid open and Fox frowned. “You know, it’s like no one is happy to see me. I have feelings, you know.”

“Keep your fucking mouth shut,” I snapped. “Fuck, you had to go and make everything all fucked up.”

“That’s my specialty,” he grinned. “I find it best to keep people on their toes.”

“Like Cash? Was he not on his toes enough for you?” I advanced,but Dash pulled me back, his hands wrapped around my arms to restrain me.

“What are you talking about?” Red asked. “What did he do?”

My jaw twitched in rage for every moment I looked at Fox. Despite the blowout I’d had with Cash, it shouldn’t have ended this way. He was a prick to all of us in the end, but there was still a chance for redemption. Knight was alive, and he could have tried to make things right.

“I unalived Cash,” Fox grinned, popping another Funyun in his mouth. “It was beautiful. When that bomb went off…” He sighed, shaking his head in amazement. “I mean, you know it’s not my preferred way of killing, but some things just have to play out a certain way.”

“I’m sorry, did you just say you killed Cash?” Red snapped. “Our boss? Your friend?”

“Well, friend is debatable after what he did to Knight.”

“You son of a bitch!” Red shouted, leaping at Fox. His hands wrapped around Fox’s neck, and like the psychotic fucker he was, he actually started laughing. “What the fuck were you thinking?”

Eli and Dash were holding him back as I stepped in front, struggling to keep Red from killing Fox.

“This is not the way to handle this!” I shouted, panting hard as I struggled to keep the behemoth of a man from murdering one of us.

“Tell him that!” Red shouted.

Fox chuckled, continuing to munch on his snack. Fuck, he was not helping himself here. When we finally got Red to settle down enough, and his cheek was twitching out of control, he jerked out of my grasp and fixed his shirt.

“Fuck, I can’t believe this shit,” he muttered. “We have to tell Eva.”

“Yes!” Fox laughed, bouncing up and down giddily. “Tell Eva. Man, this is gonna be so good.”

I spun on him, ready to tear off his head. “What the fuck is wrong with you? How can you be so happy about rippingyour friend’s heart out?”

He jumped out of the van and started rubbing my shoulders. “Hey, it’s okay, man. This is the way it has to be.”

“It shouldn’t have been,” I snapped. “None of this should have fucking happened.”

“Well, that’s debatable, but in order for this to play out, I’m afraid we’re going to have to crush the little lady’s heart.”

I stilled at his words, slowly facing him again. “What do you meanin order for this to play out?

Fox scoffed, grabbing a can of tuna from his pocket. With his knife, he started prying the lid open. “Well, we have to make it believable, and in order for that to happen, Eva needs to look thoroughly distressed.”

Not a single one of us moved as we all took in his words.

“What do you mean? Why do we have to make it believable?” Dash questioned.

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