Page 138 of Devil and the Deep Blue Fish

“Little asshole,” Jackson agreed, but he was agreeing through a face full of egg, cheese, and sour cream, so he couldn’t be too mad.

“So,” Jackson murmured, wiping the egg off his face (heh), “where’s our victim?”

“Not my victim,” Dex told him, still harboring a grudge. “My car’s so nice it scares him, and apparently I yell.”

“Not my—” Henry started, but Jackson shook his head.

“Oh no. You’re in the back seat, chief. I’m not doing this alone. Besides, Jennifer will get all bent out of shape if we let somebody else drive her and we’re not both there.”

Henry stared at him. “You know that how?” he asked.

“Ernie told me,” Jackson said grimly. “As in, he called me at two in the morning to tell me specifically not to let somebody besides us drive the minivan without both of us inside her.”

“When?” Henry asked, right to be suspicious. “On whatdaydid he call?”

“Thisday,” Jackson said, standing up and taking his plate to the sink. “This morning. Didn’t make any sense to me until you called. But I was up early, double-checking her engine, in case.”

Dex stared at them both. “Have I met—”

“No,” they both said.

“Billy and K-Ski have,” Jackson told him. “Just… just don’t. Don’t question it. Let me go upstairs and tell Randy we’re going to the mall.”

Dex frowned, obviously feeling left out. “What do I do? I blocked out all sorts of time for this!”

Henry shrugged. “Listen, we’re going to be gone for at least two hours. You know, I’ve got an empty house here, an entertainment system… do what you gotta. I swear I won’t tell your husband.”

Dex got a sort of dreamy expression on his face. “I could watch football uninterrupted…,” he almost sang, and Jackson knew he was now fine with it.

At that moment there was a knock on the door. “I’ll get it,” Jackson said, setting his plate in the sink before glancing at Henry. “You go change.”

He opened the door to a giant muscular chest, pale as marble, covered in hearty ginger fur.

“Dear God,” Jackson said, raising his chin a little. “How tall are you now?”

“Six five?” Randy guessed. “Six six? Why are you here?” He paused, his angular jaw working as he remembered his grown-up words. “I’m sorry. Good to see you, Jackson. Are you coming driving with us?” He followed that up with a hopeful smile, and Jackson nodded.

“Yeah, kid. But first go upstairs, put on a T-shirt, and then put on a sweatshirt over that.” Jackson glanced down at the knobby knees poking out from under a pair of cargo shorts that went mid-thigh. “And maybe find your own pants.”

Randy grunted. “To drive?”

“It’s forty degrees outside,” Jackson pointed out, reasonably, he hoped. “Your nipples could cut glass. Go! And hurry—I need to be done in two hours.”

“What’s in two hours?” Randy asked, and Jackson grimaced.

“Well, right now Ellery’s watchingMeet the Pressand throwing toast at the screen whenever the Republicans talk, and as soon as that’s over, he calls his mother for a blow-by-blow breakdown of everything that’s happened in politics in the last week.”

At Randy’s horrified expression, Jackson nodded. “Yeah, it’s terrifying. Butafterthat, I get to spend the day with my fiancé, and Ilikehim, so that’s a good thing. Now scoot!”

Randy turned and went up the stairs with enough alacrity to make him slip. He recovered with a hand on the stair in front of him, and Jackson saw one more thing that needed to be addressed.

“And change your shoes! New drivers don’t get flip-flops!”

He shut the door and turned around with a breath, staring at Henry with a flat expression. “Somebody owes me for this,” he decided. “You, Ernie, Dex—hell, I’ll take it up with Jennifer if I have to, butsomebodyowes me.”

“Understood,” Henry said. “But first, go up and remind him to grab his driver’s permit, because I’d put downmoneyhe doesn’t have that either.”

EVENTUALLY THEYmade it into Jennifer, and as Jackson piloted her down the mostly quiet streets of Sacramento and then Carmichael, he told Henry to be on the lookout for a Starbucks or Dutch Bros. or something, because Jackson had chosen doughnuts over coffee and now he needed coffee.

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