Page 125 of Unhinged

He’s drumming his fingers on the dashboard, sipping his fancy little coffee, probably laced with cream and sugar and whatever other bullshit he puts in it.

"How can you drink that shit?" he asks, giving me a side-eye glance at my black coffee.

"I take it like a fucking man," I snap back at him.

He cackles, and I grin.

This is how it always is—the two of us, taking on the fucking world together. And when Rafail finds out what we did, we’ll stand side by side while he absolutely destroys us.

Just like in high school.

Only this time, Rafail will probably just lecture us. We’re both bigger than him now.

We ride at dawn because this motherfucker who's about to meet his maker is a one-hour drive away.

"He's not close," Rodion says. "We have some catching up to do, honey."

"Oh, shut the fuck up." I groan, looking out the window. "You wanna tell me again all about how your wife’s gonna have a fucking baby?"

"You know you’re happy, Uncle Matvei."

"I think, technically, I’m a cousin."

He furrows his brows and tips his head to the side. "How the fuck does that work?"

"Well, I’m not really your brother," I tell him, shaking my head. "I’m your cousin, which means your baby is like—I don’t know—second cousin? Once removed? Or whatever the fuck."

He frowns. "Let’s go with uncle. We don’t have to get caught up in fucking technicalities."

True, true.

"You get any sleep yet?" he asks.

God, they love giving me shit.

I blow out a breath. “What do you think?”

“I think you’re a filthy asshole who had to bang his woman to get fired up for the kill.”

He cackles and slugs his milkshake of a coffee. Then he tells me about his trip with Ember, about the work she’s doing, and he says it with so much pride. He talks on and on about shit he didn’t care about before he met her.

"You really love her."

He shakes his head, and for once in his life, he’s sober. "You have no fucking idea."

He exhales hard. "Did I picture her having my kid? A little piece of the two of us—an actual human? I fuckingcried."

I roll my eyes. “People have babies all the time. It’s the circle of life and all that shit.”

He looks out the window and shrugs. "But I wonder if they appreciate what that means sometimes, you know? You and I… we've seen a lot. We've lost a lot."

We don’t speak for long minutes, just looking ahead. I’ve buried my sister and brother. He’s buried his parents.

We talk about old times. He tells me about the latest fucking indie album he downloaded that Ember got him into, and I give him shit about it.

Who the fuck listens to that shit?

Then he puts it on, and I have to admit—damn, it's good.

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