Page 34 of Bad Habit
“Sandwiches?” He nodded to the platter as he carried to the table. “What’s your guess?”
He had a point. When food was involved, Nick showed, but if the girl he was seeing could feed him, we might never see our little brother again. I’d barely met our little bro’s new girl, but I liked her so far. It did worry me how hard Nick had fallen so fast. Especially since Jade seemed to have a pretty strong mean streak, and of all of us Nick was the softie, despite his massive size and tough reputation.
“We’ve got to keep these plans under wraps,” Shane said. “I heard undercover cops are living in Shady Oaks now. They’re spying on us. Don’t trust anyone.”
The door opened, and Nick entered the room.
“Are you in?” Shane plowed toward him, but Nick shot Shane a look that stopped him in his tracks.
“How’s it going?” I asked Nick. “This girl… is it serious?” I had an urge to talk to my brothers about Faith, even though all we’d done was go on one date and there was little chance of a repeat.
In the light of day and without booze in her bloodstream, there was no chance she’d want any more of me beyond help with basketball. At least I hoped she’d still let me do that. I needed to keep seeing her, even if not in the way I wanted.
“It’s good.” Nick made a beeline for the sandwich table.
“Keagan.” Shane headed for the kitchen where Keagan was grabbing some paper towels to put out as napkins. “Tell Nick. Tell him how much we need him. How he’ll be letting us down, ruining it all if he doesn’t do this job.”
Nick shook his head, then took a huge bite of his sandwich, which contained about half the meat Keag had set out. Chewing, he plopped down onto the sofa beside me.
“Pig,” I said.
He shrugged as he took another bite. Keagan grabbed a beer from the fridge, then took his usual spot in front of the fireplace, almost identical to the one in the apartment I shared with Dill. None of them worked.
“I checked out Shane’s lead,” Keagan said. “Sounds legit.” He turned to my twin, who’d had his head buried in some half-dissected gadget since we’d arrived. “Dill, did you check out the security situation?”
Without looking up, Dill shook his head.
“What the fuck, Dillon?” Shane yelled. “This won’t work if we’re caught on camera. The guys I’m working with are idiots. Their big plan for a disguise is hoodies.”
“I’ll get to it,” Dill said.
“When?” Shane yelled.
I stood and blocked Shane, then wrapped my arm over his shoulders. “Patience.” He was obviously high. “You know Dill will come through.”
“Not likesome people.” Shane glared at Nick.
“I’ve been working a few contacts,” I told everyone, but mostly Shane. “If this haul of electronics is as big as Shane says—”
“It is!” Shane shouted.
“Then I can’t unload it all with our usual buyers. Not without suspicion—might as well take out a billboard across from police headquarters saying we took the container.”
“Then what?” Shane’s voice was full of panic.
“I’m working some contacts in Vegas.”
“Great.” Keagan said. “Sounds like we’re in decent shape. As soon as Dill checks out the security and confirms what’s in that container, we’re set.”
“And everyone’s in, right?” Shane sounded desperate now. “Nick?”
“Nope.” Nick headed to the fridge to get a beer. “You guys are gonna end up behind bars.”
“Shane.” Keagan drew Shane’s attention away from Nick. “We’re good either way. Leave little Nicky alone. If he wants to desert his family, so be it.”
Nick frowned as he opened his beer.
Loyalty was ingrained in our family tree, in our entire identity, in our freaking DNA. Having Nick bail on this job was like discovering that one of us was adopted—or an alien.
And Dill had hinted he wanted out of the business, too. Who were the Downey brothers if we weren’t working together?
It seemed like the end of an era. When he found out, Da was going to freak.
