Page 2 of Pay the Price

A platinum-haired waitress with bright red lipstick appeared at the edge of the table. “Can I get you some menus?”

“No,” Jace and Otis said in unison.

I looked up at her and forced a smile. “Just coffee for now.”

“You got it.” She looked more than happy to beat a hasty exit.

“I heard you were looking for her,” Crash said when the waitress was out of earshot.

“You just said you don’t know where she is,” I said.

“I don’t, but I have… information,” Crash said.

“What do you want?” Otis demanded.

Leave it to Otis to cut right to the chase, because Crash obviously hadn’t invited us out here for breakfast.

Crash shifted in the booth. “I fucked up, skimmed a little extra from our last shipment.”

No wonder he’d wanted to meet us all the way out here, and no wonder he wasn’t wearing his Barbarians cut. What a fucking moron. Ax, the president of the Barbarians, was probably looking for Crash’s head on a pike.

“What does that have to do with us?” Otis asked.

“He wants a favor,” Jace said.

“I just need someone to put in a good word.” Crash’s voice had turned to a whine that was already getting on my nerves. “Smooth things over with Ax.”

I resisted the urge to laugh. Ax shot first and asked questions later. There was nosmoothing things overwith him.

“What makes you think we can do that?” I asked, because I’d have promised anything if this piece of shit had information on Daisy.

He shrugged. “You seem connected, especially after your time in the joint.”

He wasn’t wrong. We’d basically been kids when we’d gone to prison, but we’d already been running our own illegal side hustles, amassing money for expensive toys and a future that had still seemed like a dream. Those side hustles had put us in contact with all kinds of what Daisy’s dad probably would have calledundesirables —hell, he probably would have called Jace, Otis, and me that too—and prison had only expanded our circle of contacts in that department.

“That doesn’t mean we’re willing to use those connections to make excuses for your sorry ass,” Jace said.

“I thought you wanted to find the girl?”

The words had barely left his mouth when Otis popped him hard and fast in the face.

“What thefuck?!” Blood dripped onto his upper lip and he lifted a hand to his nose, which was definitely broken.

“That was stupid,” Otis said.

I knew what he meant: it was stupid to stand between us and anything that would lead to finding Daisy. Because after nine days without her — nine days of fear — we would have murdered the fucking Pope to find her.

“I’m sorry! Fuck!” Crash said. He grabbed a napkin off the table and held it to his nose. “I’m just saying, it’s a small favor to ask in exchange for the information.”

I looked around, but if anyone had been paying attention when Otis’ fist slammed into Crash’s face, they’d gone back to their breakfast.

“How about this,” Jace said. “You tell us what you know and we might not put you in the hospital when we leave this place.”

Crash scowled. “You guys are assholes.”

“Tell us something we don’t know,” Jace said. “And I mean that literally, because if you don’t start talking we’re going to drag you out of this place and that broken nose is going to be the least of your problems.”

“You know the old logging road?” Crash asked. “The one by the trailhead to Mossy Glen?”

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