Page 66 of Hey, Daddy

“Y’all ride together. I’ll ride with Haze and Nastya,” Shasha suggested.

Auden sighed and said, “I really hate playing and following the rules.”

We waited until we were all piled into Haze’s cruiser—which luckily did not have a set of steel bars separating the front seat from the back—to start talking.

Shasha showed his impatience by pushing sideways into his seat, his leg hitching up to rest against the middle console and giving Haze his full attention.

Haze waited until he was out of the parking lot before saying, “How much do you know about my relationship with your sister?”

“I know that you ‘slept’ with her in a Whataburger, and you’ve been following her around for weeks,” he responded.

“Part of the job—following her around. As for the other thing, I won’t apologize for that. I’m really interested in your sister.” Haze stunned me.

No one ever stood up to Shasha.

It was refreshing to find someone that would.

“And I know that y’all stayed with each other last night,” he continued.

“How do you know that?” I wondered.

Shasha glanced back at me and snorted. “You’re delusional if you think that I’m just going to let some cop wiretap your phone, follow you around twenty-four-seven, and more, and think that I’m not going to protect you by having my own sources out there watching his every move.”

I sighed, my gaze snapping to Haze to find him completely unsurprised, as if he expected nothing less.

“Wonderful,” I said. “Continue, Haze. I’m dying over here.”

“This morning, I left her alone at her apartment,” Haze said.

“Which I’m not fuckin’ leaving you at by yourself anymore after this.” Shasha leveled me with a glare.

I opened my mouth to immediately deny that when Haze startled me by saying, “I agree.”

He could not have stunned me more.

My gasp of outrage was drowned out by Shasha snorting.

“Let me explain, please,” Haze urged, reading that I was two seconds away from blowing up.

My eyes met his in the rearview mirror.

I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him where he was begging me with pleading eyes to wait for him to explain.

“I went in to work because my partner called and explained that the FBI found links from this case to a case that they’re working on with serial killers,” Haze explained. “I went in because John felt like I was going to want to hear everything from them myself. I got there, and the FBI agent you know asJefferson Evador gave me the entire explanation on four—now five—separate cases.”

“Okay, so spill,” Shasha grumbled, clearly just as impatient as I was.

I punched him in the shoulder, causing him to glare at me.

“I’m getting there.” Haze pulled onto I-75. “Agent Evador explained that there are five stages to each subsequent ‘case.’ The first case, they didn’t make as many connections as they did in the last case.”

“Hurry up, goddamn,” Shasha grumbled.

I punched him in the shoulder again.

“It’s relevant to the story, Semyonov.” Haze didn’t get upset with Shasha’s impatience.

Shasha remained silent, and Haze continued.

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