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Glancing at Pic for confir the phone down in the center of the table It rang twice, then Talia answered, her voice husky

“You there?”

“We’re all here,” I said “You have one minute Talk”

“Give it to round “Is Picnic Hayes there?”

“That would be me,” my president said “What do you want?”

“We want to make amends,” the man replied “We know Marsh Jackson is out of the picture We don’t want to end up like hiht”

“You disrupted our alliances and went behind our backs,” Pic said “Once a snake, always a snake I don’t think we can help you”

“Wait,” he said quickly “Things are changing north of the border You want us on your side, because if we go under, the southern cartels will take over and then you’ll be fighting a war on two fronts That’s bad for all of us All ant is to talk Truce”

Pic and Hunter shared a look, and Hunter nodded slowly

“Okay, we’ll talk, but you’ll be co to us, not the other way around It’ll be coht now?”

There was silence on the other side

“We’re in Crownover,” he finally said, na a small town about thirty miles north of Hallies Falls “There’s really only one place to h Bar called Jay’s Place”

“Okay, stand by We’ll call with instructions,” Pic said, then leaned over and turned off the phone

“Fuckwits,” I muttered “There’s ot least a hundred sets of eyes on the there”

Hunter pulled out his phone, searching for so

“Looks like there’s a county dump station about ten miles north of Hallies Falls We could ride up, position ourselves, then have the back in the woods near the road Too ht, we bail We could send Taz up a tree with a rifle—he was a sniper, you know”

“Fuck you,” Taz replied “Noup a lookout with a rifle h”

“All in favor?” Pic asked We all four raised our hands, then I pulled out my phone and shot Tinker a quick text

ME: Got an errand to run See you later today Stay safe

Seconds later the phone buzzed back

TINKER: You too I’ll be at the house all day Want to keep close to dad Also canceling our appointment in Seattle tomorrow FYI—just because we had crazy monkey sex in the pantry doesn’t mean you’re my boyfriend

I grinned, then looked up to find the others s at me

“You all suck”

“Not ht be pussy-whipped, but I’m not Live free or die”