Page 49 of Rock Bottom

“Hello?”

My hand went to my throat when she picked up.

“Dante?”

I forced myself to swallow and unstick my tongue from the roof of my mouth. “Hi, Mom. It’s me.”

Dante laughed in the other room. I smiled to myself as I lifted my teacup. I’d made the right call, telling him to phone his family. He sounded happy, relieved. If only I’d done it sooner.

My smile turned into a sneer as I thought of Oscar and what he might’ve done if I hadn’t shown up in time. The next time I saw him, I’d twist his head clean off.

“Bad tea?” came Leo’s voice from behind me.

I turned around in time to catch him pushing his too-big glasses up his nose. Leo was the youngest member of the Junkyard Dogs, and our tech expert. He was also the only one of us who’d never seen real combat, unless you counted the drone strike simulations he’d developed for the Army. I’d always wondered if that was why Boone went so easy on him. Boone must’ve felt like he was protecting Leo from the real ugliness of the world, but I didn’t think he was doing him any favors.

“The tea.” He pointed to my teacup with his pen before making a note on his work order form. His glasses slid right back down his nose. “You looked like you swallowed a bug just now and not tea.”

“The tea is fine. I was thinking about Oscar.” I sighed and put the teacup down to cross my arms. “How long do you think it will be before you know where he is?”

“We’ll know who he is by the end of the day, since I have a feeling the background check the band’s manager sent us was a total fake out.”

“What? Why would he do that?”

Leo shrugged. “Lazy? Stupid? The social security number Oscar was using belongs to a guy named Oscar Tinez, but the guy you had here? Unless he’s had a lot of plastic surgery, that wasn’t him. The real Oscar Tinez is fifty-six.”

“Fuck! How did we miss this?” I rubbed my forehead.

“It was a last-minute change. Everybody was more concerned about Dante and getting him here without being seen. And on the surface, Oscar checked out. Sam could’ve missed it, especially if he had a good fake ID. Anyway, finding him is a little more complicated. I can freeze his accounts, but if he’s got cash?” He shrugged again and pushed his glasses back up before holding the work order out for me to sign. “The good news is now that you’ve got CCTV and motion sensors all hooked up, you’ll know if Mr. Deluca tries to go for another unauthorized walk.”

I grunted and scribbled my signature over the appropriate line. “I wouldn’t worry about that. I think he’s learned his lesson.”

Leo hummed and folded the papers up before clicking his pen closed.

“You don’t think so?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I don’t really have an opinion on the matter.”

“How pissed was Boone really?”

“He was cleaning his gun when I left,” he said, tapping the end of the pen on the counter.

“Which gun? The fifty cal or the revolver?”

“Revolver.”

I let out a relieved sigh. “Not that bad then.”

“You probably have Xion to thank for that. I walked in on him taking it out on Xion’s ass. Literally.” He wrinkled his nose. “He was wearing—”

I covered Leo’s mouth before he could finish the sentence. “I really do not want to hear about what my boss and his husband get up to in their free time, and you should forget what you saw.”

“That’s easier said than done when you’ve seen what I saw,” he said and shoved his pen in his pocket.

“So you think you’ll have an update for me by the end of the day?” I asked, taking up my tea again.

“Doubt it. I’m taking the rest of the day off. Xavier and I are going to see a movie. There’s a special screening of Night of the Living Dead at the Athena.”

I arched an eyebrow. “So it’s a date?”

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