Page 66 of All Wrong
“Is that why you move around so much? You’relooking for the right job, the right place, the right woman?”
“Maybe.”
“What will you do when you find them?”
He offered a smile. “Stop moving.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
NICK
Nick finished rebuilding the transmission, his hands working on autopilot. His mind was preoccupied with other things. AJ, for one. Candace had been keeping him up-to-date, and Nick had been stopping by the hospital every evening. The kid was slowly but surely improving. After almost a week in the ICU, he was moved to a step-down unit.
Unfortunately, AJ didn’t remember much about the attack. He and Jackie had been hanging out at the park, Jackie had gone to take a piss, and the next thing AJ knew, he was waking up in the hospital.Video captured by nearby homes and businesses revealed nothing more than shadows in dark clothes and hoodies, too far away to get any kind of detail. The closest they could narrow it down was a quartet of males, five-ten to six feet tall, which didn’t provide any more information than what they’d already known.
They—meaning Sean and Nicki and Candace—agreed that the beat down had been a warning. Somehow, someone had either found out or guessed that AJ had been the one who’d gone to Nick. It wasn’t hard to see how they’d drawn that conclusion. It was no secret that Nick had been taken into custody the night of the fair, or that he’d been asking a lot of questions ever since. If the dealers were organized enough to know who they’d approached and when, the pool of possible narcs was limited.
Their biggest worry now was what was going to happen when AJ was well enough to be discharged. His mother had only been around once, and the nurse had been forced to call security when she got unruly and demanded a prescription for opiate pain meds, so she’d “have everything on hand when AJ comes home.”
Nick wasn’t going to let that happen even if that meant helping Candace and AJ disappear.
Then, there was the disappointing lack of progress on tracking the source of thephi, as they were calling it. Every other day, the shit was popping up somewhere else, spreading like wildfire. Several of Scythe’s prospects had been able to procure some of the stuff, but whoever was pulling the strings was smart enough not to leave a trail.
They’d been able to confirm that it was mostly high school and college-aged kids handing the stuff out, but they weren’t using the same ones every time. No personal contact, just word of mouth through acquaintances of acquaintances. Cash-only transactions. Minimal information, limited to pickup times and locations, ensuring that no one knew more than what they needed to complete their single task.
It was frustrating as fuck.
If that wasn’t enough, his last conversation with Nicki played on a constant background loop in his mind. Not the part about using Corinne for inside info. As much as he detested the idea, it made sense. It wasn’t as if the Callaghans would allow anything to happen to her.
No, the part that bothered him most was also the most surprising—the idea that there was acroieout there for Corinne. Why did the thought feel like a spear shooting through his chest?
Other than that brief glimpse through the café window, he hadn’t seen or spoken to her since that night. The more time passed, the more restless he became. He told himself it was simply because they’d left things with loose ends, though he supposed him slipping away in the middle of the night and not contacting her had sent a pretty clear message.
Nicki hadn’t said any more about reaching out to her either, probably because, one, he’d expressed disapproval of the idea, and two, he’d done a spectacular job of convincing everyone he didn’t give a shit.
It irked him that he did.
To counter the irrational urge to seek out Corinne, Nick took his bike across the river to Birch Falls. Talking bikes with Kyle always cheered him up.
Kyle’s wife, Lina, greeted him with a big smile. Judging by her sparkling eyes and just-fucked glow, he was glad he hadn’t come earlier.
Shortly after his arrival, Lina said she was going to her sister-in-law’s. It was odd, seeing the big, tough biker being so tender with his wife. Kyle’s gaze, hidden behind the dark shades he alwayswore, didn’t move away from Lina’s retreating form until the door closed behind her, blocking the view.
Nick looked at the multitude of pictures hanging on the walls and propped on the mantel. Kyle, Lina, their kids, their family. That emptiness in his chest felt even larger than normal. “You are well and truly shackled, aren’t you?”
Kyle grinned smugly. “You should try it sometime.”
Nick shook his head. “Not in the cards, man.”
Kyle laughed. “Like you have a choice. Trust me, you don’t.”
“You sound like my sister.”
“Yeah, well, she’d know.”
Kyle grabbed two cold beers out of the fridge and gave one to Nick. He’d come to talk custom mods, but something else bubbled up to the forefront.
“Can I ask you something?”
