Page 23 of Grave Stone

“God damn it, Stone!”

“I know how this looks, Prez.”

“Really? Because it looks like you found the woman who might have enough information to take us down and literally gave her the gun to do it with while making her your Old Lady!”

“Yes, but I don’t think we have anything to worry about. For one thing, she didn’t scream and try to call the cops when I showed up. She met me on the back balcony with a shotgun aimed at my face. Oh, and she knew my name. The one my momma gave me.”

Sin stared at me in disbelief. “Let me see if I have this straight. She knew your name and was waiting for you with a shotgun, as if she were expecting you. Then, she provided a surveillance video of her own attempted murder. Is that right?”

“Yes.”

He slammed his hands on his desk. “Who the fuck have you gotten us involved with?”

“I don’t … what?”

“Glitch has been trying to find something for days, yet this girl was just sitting on the exact video evidence we needed. And she knew your name. That doesn’t seem suspicious to you?”

“Not really. She said the video was acquired through illegal means. I assume there are other hackers besides Glitch,” I said. “As for my name, she could’ve figured that out by looking up my funeral director’s license with the state board.” There were only a few licensed funeral directors in Cross Creek, and all of them were Grave Prowlers.

“So she’s a hacker?”

“No, I don’t think so. Well, she didn’t say she was, but I guess she could be.”

He nodded. “We need to get the brothers in for church.”

Thirty minutes later, Sin updated the other officers and showed them the video.

“How the fuck did you get that?” Glitch asked in a tone I’d rarely heard from him. “That looks like it’s from the gas station across the street. I’ve been trying to get into their system all weekend.”

“I don’t know how it was originally acquired,” I said.

“Damn. I’d like to know how they did it.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Juice said. “You boys better never disappoint me like that. Killing people in plain view of a damn camera.” He shook his head. “That’s embarrassing.”

“No worries, Pop,” Danger said. “You taught us well. Assault in public; kill at home.”

“Don’t let your mother hear you say that.”

Ignoring them, Sin continued. “I’m not interested in giving them another chance to make things right. They chose to fuck us over the first time they did business with us, and they put our business at risk by doing so. I suggest we pick them up tomorrow night after their shop closes.”

“Why wait until tomorrow night?” Halo asked. “We should scoop them up in the morning before they open the shop when there’s less traffic.”

“Good point. We’ll go in the morning. Any objections?”

No one objected, and surprisingly, Juice didn’t have anything to add.

“All right. In the morning, Danger, Stone, and Tomb, you three are with me. We’ll leave at six. The rest of you be here by eight.”

* * *

10

STONE

Ilaughed when my alarm went off at five. I’d been awake since three. Well, I’d been awake most of the night. Every time I fell asleep, Kim’s unwelcome face appeared in my dreams. After the last one, I gave up and got out of bed. If I was going to be dead ass tired, I’d rather do it without the help of Kim’s ghost.

“How long you been up?” Juice asked, startling me while I was making a cup of coffee in the kitchen.