Page 55 of Hard Luck (Blackstone House)

“They have poor hygiene standards?”

“One of Marcel’s friends used to work in the kitchen there, and…” Cole glanced to the side in time to see the face she pulled. “I guess the coffee’s okay. Not much will survive being boiled alive, and the filter will catch anything with legs.”

“Take a left, you said?”

“Right.”

The turning came up fast, so Cole stomped on the brakes and swung onto the side street, ignoring the honk from the car behind.

“No, I meant right, take a left.”

“Next left?”

“No, the left back there.”

“I’m confused.”

“Okay, sorry, I should have said ‘correct’ instead of ‘right.’ Just take the next right, then the next one, and the one after that, and then we’ll end up back where we started.Thentake a left.”

“Should I turn on the satnav?”

“No, we’re good.” Bella settled back into the seat. “We’re good.”

CHAPTER 19

JEZEBEL

Finally.

I’d started to think that the hit squad and hotel incidents had been cases of mistaken identity, but there was no doubt that a car was following us now. A silver Ford Escape. Hmm. Echo had responded to my Code Shark—urgent, but not life or death—and run the plates while Cole drove our impromptu surveillance detection route, and this time, they belonged to a yellow Nissan. The driver was male, white with dark hair, but I couldn’t see more than that thanks to the glare on the windshield and the awkwardness of using the side mirror. Cole had nearly blown the op when he reached for the rear-view—way to spook a tail.

Me

He turned with us. 3 mins to Sunrise.

Sin

Calling Deana now.

Deana was the forty-seven-year-old mom who ran the morning shift now that her two boys were in high school,and she’d been there forever, since before Sin bought the place. Deana used to work the night shift, while the diner’s previous owners, a husband and wife who’d come to Vegas for a vacation in the eighties and never left, worked days. When retirement beckoned, the place had nearly gone to developers, but nowhere served home fries as good as the Sunrise Diner’s and Sin’s favourite food was potatoes. In the weeks after she bought it, we’d all piled on the pounds.

These days, I had more self-control.

Me

Get her to keep our usual booth?

Sin

I’ll tell her.

The circular booth at the back would give me a good view of the restaurant, and if shit went down, the walls would protect Cole when I shoved him under the table. Not that I wanted a shootout. The place had just been redecorated.

Dice

10 mins.

Tulsa

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