Page 55 of Lord Have Mercy Part Four: Big Son

So, yeah, that tracked, too.

You know what’s really wrong, a traitorous voice whispered in the back of his mind.You know it’s aboutyourlies, don’t you?

“Hey,” Fox said, “can you have your existential crisis later?”

Ghost blinked, and found that Fox had navigated them through choked evening traffic so that they were now directlybehind Hames. In the glare of headlights, it became apparent that there were two silhouettes in the front seat: Hames had picked up a passenger.

“Wait. When did that happen?”

“I lost sight of him about a half-mile back. He pulled over at a bus stop, which is how we caught up to him so fast, but now he’s got someone with him.”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah. If I could get up beside him…” He checked his mirror and over his shoulder, but the left lane was too congested to merge.

“So now what’s your plan?” Ghost could hear the snap of impatience in his voice, and saw Fox lift his brows in response.

“We keep following. And wait for an opening.”

Ghost didn’t answer, because he was letting his stress get the best of him; the moment, the task, at hand, wasimportant, and he couldn’t lose sight of that, no matter how painful his heart palpitations became.

Wouldn’t that be ironic? Faking a heart attack death only to actually keel over from one while he fucked around playing pretend cop in Virginia.

The light changed, the Benz accelerated lurchingly away from it, and Fox followed at a smoother speed. “Look,” he said, “if you can’t get it together, I’ll let you out somewhere and handle this myself.”

“I’m together. I’m fine,” Ghost said, sounding not-fine, and decidedly not-together.

Fox sighed. “Look, they’re probably fine. They’ve got Mercy, and Colin, and Ten and Reese, and the old man, and Toly, and Gray. Plus, Alex can’t be completely useless. Stop worrying.”

“Says the man whose wife and kid are all the way in London, safe and sound.”

Fox shook his head. “Nah. She’s not my wife.”

Of all the day’s conversations,thatcomment was what finally punched through Ghost’s fog of worry and provided a little clarity. “Oh, fuck you.”

Fox spared him a fast glance, face carved with blue shadows from the dash lights. “Fuck me because…” he drawled, brows lifted, patient in a condescending way, like Ghost was a child pitching a tantrum, like he’d lost a ball game, or misplaced his favorite toy, and not like he was his goddamnpresident.

“She’snot your wife?” Ghost asked. He coughed a humorless laugh that hurt his throat. He felt near-hysterical, and channeled into his best defense: good old reliable anger.

“She– ” Fox started, and Ghost cut across him.

“Lemme get this straight: you live with this woman. You don’t fuck anyone but her – I’m assuming.”

Fox gave a fractional shake of his head, and Ghost continued.

“You have akidwith her. You lie down and go to sleep beside her every night. But you think awedding ring’swhat would make you worry. That’s the big difference between you and me, right? The joint bank account?” He was sneering by the end, and didn’t know if he was more disgusted with Fox’s play at indifference, or his own oversight in assuming that Maggie and Ava would actually get on the plane and leave town.

Ahead, the Mercedes hung a right, and Fox had to accelerate through the intersection to make the light. “It’s not like that with Eden and me.”

“No? Which part was a lie?”

“We’re not as…attached,” he finally settled on, and the word left his lips as though foreign. The careful pronunciation of someone learning a new language. “Not like you and Mags, or Ava and Mercy.”

“No one’s like Ava and Mercy, that’s some unhealthy shit,” Ghost said. “But are you really sitting there trying to tell me you don’t love her? That you don’t worry about her? That you wouldn’t worry if she was in New Orleans right now hunting Boyle?”

Fox didn’t answer, and that was answer in itself.

Before Ghost could needle him more – it felt good, really, to take pot shots at someone else in his current state – his cell rang. The screen flashed Mike Chambers’s name.

---