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"Yup, and you can bring us another round when you have a sec, doll," Boone answers before I can, a slass and sucks back his drink

I follow suit, gritting ht burn of hard liquor It slides downit’s not the four-bucks-a-shot bar-well vodka Still, I’d rather just have a beer

"How can you afford co this" Booneabout Sure, our cost of living is low, renting in southeast Portland, but living like Boone isn’t cheap I don’t even want to think about the bill this assle’s going to stick"I buy one, two drinks max Rust always picks up the tab I’m his favorite nephew"

"Aren’t you his only nephew?"

Anothertingles coursing through my limbs Boone slaps the table and slides out of his chair "Coht?"

I roll rowing crowd, toward the back of the club The crowd thins the farther we go, until we’ve reached a section with five alcoves and one roped-off area Very VIP Boone stops at the last one, a large, round leather booth with di from above and heavy black curtains around the sides to add to the secluded feeling Four men are seated within

"There he is!" Rust slides off the end to throw an arht" I’ve met the tall blond man exactly twice before, for two e but he leaves the actual garage operations to his , scruffy beard and abysmal people skills

Boone jerks his head back the e ca up front with Jesse for a bit"

Rust’s sharp blue eyes land on me--the same blue as his nephew’s He reaches out to offer ht froe, Jesse?

"So far, so good"

He gestures at the two empty chairs pulled up to the outside of the booth "Top-ups?" He reaches for the bottle of vodka--the label in soe with a weird alphabet--that sits in the middle of the table I can’t say I’ve ever seen an entire bottle of hard liquor sitting on a table at a bar before, but I guess that’s how the rich roll

And these guys stink of money

As we take our seats and Rust pours, I scan the three other guys sitting around the table Two are talking quietly on cell phones The third, a lean, blond guy with angular features, dressed all in black, in his late thirties by lare while he rolls what looks to be a wedding band around his ring finger

Now I knohy Boone likes hanging around with these guys He loves the stink of money

"From what Miller tells me, my nephew’s not full of shit Miller’s never seen anyone work so fast before" Rust pushes ht have et that le"

I’ with engines since I got my first wrench and a dirt bike at nine years old I used to sit on the bench in the garage and watchbefore he sold it It was just a hobby to hih school shop used to call ; it doesn’t ardless, I try not to act like a douchebag about it, so I play it off with a shrug "I like classics"

"Luke was telling et a"

"’Sixty-nine Barracuda Black" No hesitation with that answer It’s what I’ve wanted since I was seven years old and saw one race through Main Street back ho after a car wash It’s what I’ve been saving for It’s the reason I’ a piece of shit now Another year and it’ll be ly iestures to the man in black across the table "Well, my business partner here, Viktor, may have some extra work for you"

I turn to find steely blue eyes already fixed on me from across the table, in a hard face that doesn’t appear accusto now

"Yes" This guy, Viktor, pulls out a single cigarette and lighter froht it up "Perhaps first you could tell me about yourself Rust has not shared h I can’t identify where it’s from Either way, he doesn’t sound particularly friendly He must not be froht up in a public establish And then I hearCris "Not ines is all" There’s not uy because there’s not ether and going to school together, we stay out of each other’s personal lives He’s too self-involved to ask and I’m too private to offer He knows I’m from mid-state but he doesn’t know I’m from a small town northwest of Bend, called Sisters He knows uments over the phone to know that our relationship is rocky, but he has no idea that eon He knows I have a twin sister named A hilance at Boone, not sure what else this Viktor guy expects ht and curious as he watches thehis style If Boone starts s to kill him

When I turn er focused on h a puff of se "You’re late"

The guy to Viktor’s left slides out of the booth just as a waft of perfuh smell and somehow familiar, but it’s way too heavy I like a hint of perfuht it the first time, and you have to lean in closer, ain

A young woman in a flashy dress and too much makeup slides into the booth Her side profile al Maybe a head-on look would change that assuuy for one second "My hair stylist took longer than expected," she explains evenly