Page 68 of Crew
"Are we going or what?" Jordan asked. Zellman waited with him.
Cross waved them on. "We'll be behind you. Go."
With a wave out the window, Jordan peeled out. Cross and I moved toward my Jeep.
Scratch had opened the door to the bar, but he turned again. "Be safe, little Monroe," he hollered. "Got that?"
I held up an arm in an absentminded wave, getting inside the car. "See you later, Scratch. Give my brother hell for me."
He grinned at us again. "I don't have to. You do that enough!"
I had the keys in the ignition when a familiar Taurus pulled up behind us.
"What the fuck?" Cross leaned forward, peering ahead.
It was Taz. We watched as she got out, opened the back door, and pulled out a pink tote filled with papers and other items.
"What is she doing?" I groaned.
"Are those stuffed animals?"
Cross was asking me. I had no clue. I shrugged, and as if we had rehearsed our move, we both reached for our door handle at the same time. We got out on opposite sides of my Jeep just as she walked past. Seeing us, Taz jumped and shrieked, and half of the tote's contents fell to the ground.
"AGH!" She glared at us for a heartbeat before bending down to scoop up the things. "What are you doing here?! I almost had a heart attack. Announce yourself. Let me know when you're in..." Her hand thrust out, but then she looked, and her voice faded. "When you're in your Jeep."
A paper rolled past Cross, and he stepped on it to stop it. Before he grabbed it, he glared back at his sister. "Unlike you, we have reason to be here. What are you doing?"
She sent us a scathing look before she finished grabbing the rest of her stuff. There were books, two stuffed animals, lots of papers. I saw a yearbook and a pom-pom. She grabbed a fistful of the papers and gestured to Tuesday Tits' back door.
"I was going in there to get a sponsor--one that's never been gotten before."
Cross glowered, thrusting one of his hands toward the sign on the door. Tuesday Tits' Back Entrance. A black hole had been scribbled underneath, with arrows scratched in the wood, pointing to it.
"The name alone should tell you you're not allowed here!" He was half-shouting.
"This is for the thing you asked me to help with? That charity thing? Did Jordan not take Race Ryerson over to you? He should've given you enough money. That's what he said."
She paused. Her mouth fell open, then snapped shut. She raised a hand, smoothing down some of her hair. "Yes. I mean, yes he did, and that's more than enough money. Yeah." She left the tote on the ground and stood upright again, smoothing out her clothes. "Have you--I mean, I might've thought maybe I could get more, you know?"
I could only lift my eyebrows at that.
She was here, at my brother's bar--his very rough and very dangerous bar--to get more.
Cross groaned, his head falling back, and I could see him rolling his eyes. "Are you fucking kidding me?" He grasped his hair, holding on a second. "Oh my God, Taz. This is so fucking dangerous for you to come here--"
"And alone," I added.
His voice raised. "And alone! You CAME ALONE!"
I gestured to the back door. "Look, whatever you're doing, it'll have to be handled later. You can't go in there."
"What?" Her mouth fell open. "Why not?"
Because it was dangerous, like Cross had just yelled at her, but at the moment it really was. Channing would be yelling at me the same way if he came out and saw we were still here.
"We have to go, Taz. I mean it."
"But." She looked at all her stuff, at the animals (why the hell she had animals was beyond me), the yearbooks, and groaned. "I had a plan. It was a whole big thing. There was a presentation. I had props. I was going to play a song on the radio. I had it all worked out."
