He could never go there.
Even to scratch a quick, but foolish, itch.
He had to remember that he was the fly, and she was the spider who’d built a sticky web. He was not getting caught up in that shit.
“I want to work with you.”
He lifted his head. “You wanna do what?”
“I’ve been given orders by my chief not to go up that mountain.”
“No shit. You actually listened to a man?”
She ignored that. “I want to know what’s going on up there.”
“You ain’t gettin’ that from me.” He’d eat a dick cheese sandwich first.
She took a step closer to him. “You’ve been up there. I don’t know why and I don’t know how many times, but you’ve most likely seen what the Shirleys are up to.”
“No good.” That was a simple answer to a very complex situation. One that Jet didn’t need to get her ass involved in.
She nodded. “Exactly. If they’re involved in illegal activities, I want to know why the PD isn’t involved.”
“’Cause your cousin’s smart, Jet. Most of his family’s on the force. He don’t want any of you dead. If you go up there, that’s what you’ll be.”
She shrugged. “You aren’t.”
He pinned his lips together.
“Why are you going up there?”
He sucked on his teeth, keeping his expression blank.
“I’ll make you a deal.”
Oh fuck no. “Don’t like dealin’ with the devil.”
The corners of her lips twitched. “You have that backwards.”
“Maybe.” He spat a couple of feet to the right of her. “It ain’t safe dealin’ with the devil, Jet.”
“Dealt with him before.”
Rook should find that comment surprising, but he didn’t. Everyone he knew had dealt with the devil at some point in their life, or still was. Some survived, some didn’t. It was the risk one took.
“You know who was in that van the other week. You tell me what you know, you tell me what you see when you do your little hikes up there, and—”
“And you’ll leave us the fuck alone as long as we give you intel.”
She tipped her head to the side in answer.
He shook his. “Fuck you.”
“Then if I catch you up there again, I won’t let you walk away like last time.”
He took his time tipping his head from one side to the other, cracking his neck, then cracking his knuckles. “Gotta catch us first.”
“You’re something else, Rook.”
He smirked. “You noticed.”
“That wasn’t a compliment.”
“No?” He pushed himself off the car and when he did so, she automatically took a step back and her hand instinctively landed on the butt of her holstered gun. Her thumb didn’t unsnap the strap but it rested there. Ready.
He ignored her wide stance and leaned toward her, tipping his face down to hers since she was about a half foot shorter than him. “Here’s the thing, darlin’. You ain’t gonna like the reason we go up there. And we do have a reason. While I actually don’t give a flyin’ fuck about whether a Shirley lives or dies, they’re more dangerous than you think and shouldn’t be allowed to do some of the shit they do.”
“Like the moonshine?”
“Moonshine ain’t nothin’.”
Her eyes lit up. “What else are they doing?”
“Pretty fuckin’ sure I didn’t agree to work with you.”
“Then I’ll go up there myself.”
“No, you won’t.”
Her spine snapped straight and those blue eyes turned to ice.
But he wasn’t done telling her how it was and how it would be. “I find you up there, I’m goin’ right to Max.”
“No, you won’t.”
“Try me. If you don’t know it yet, you made a fuckin’ mistake by tellin’ me your chief don’t want your ass up there. Already figured that, but you just confirmed it. I see you take one step up that mountain, gonna be givin’ Max a call. Doubt you wanna be fired.”
Her delicate nostrils flared and her icy eyes turned into blue diamonds, hard and sharp. “Why are you such a dick?”
One side of his mouth pulled up. “’Cause I can be.”
“Let me get this straight, you’ll work with my cousin by snitching on me, but you won’t work with me.”
“That’s right. Because you’re a problem and Max will solve that problem for me. I won’t have to get my hands dirty to get you out of my fuckin’ business.” He followed that with a smart-ass grin.
“Why are the Shirleys your business?”
That flattened his grin out. “If I give you that, Jet, you gonna take me back to work and stop with this bullshit?”
“Sure.”
That was a lie if he ever heard one. But he’d give her a crumb to see if she’d hold herself to a bargain. Because if she broke this deal, she’d break them all. He was not going back inside, especially for the shit he was doing up on Hillbilly Hill. If he did, he’d never see the light of day again unless it was through a razor-wire topped fence.