Page 20 of Breakdown
“For the record, I think this is a terrible idea,” Nina said with no preamble. Clearly, she and Nik were continuing a conversation Peter hadn’t been privy too.
“I cannot say that you are wrong. But thank you.” Nik rubbed his huge hand across the back of his neck, leaving a dark path of grease in its wake. “Thank you for coming.”
Joey tapped his heel against the doorframe, dislodging a clump of mud from his boots. “No sweat, big man. Hey, Petey.” He grinned and tossed a holstered .45 revolver onto the workbench towards them. Nik flinched as it landed with a clatter.
“Honestly, have you learned nothing about firearm safety from me?” Nina snipped exasperatedly.
Peter would put good money down that Joey had not, in fact, learned anything, but he at least had the good grace to grimace sheepishly. “Sorry, Neen.” He pulled what appeared to be a small black tumbleweed from his pocket. “Arame?” he offered to the group by way of apology.
Nik shook his head weakly, vaguely ill. Peter didn’t blame him; the smell of tree moss and dead fish emanating off it was overwhelming. But he had a feeling it had more to do with the gun on their worktop than Joey’s latest foray into Goopy nonsense. It was only after Peter stashed it under the cash drawer that Nik marginally relaxed.
Guo shrugged, unbothered. “Your loss; this little baby is an antioxidant powerhouse. Better than ten cups of coffee.” He shot Nina a thousand-watt smile, ruined slightly by the fact the seaweed had turned his teeth gray. She was barely aware of it, her gaze still on Nik. “Though I probably could’ve used the caffeine for this drive tonight, huh?”
“You guys headed somewhere?” Peter asked.
“Arcata.” He ruminated on several of the wormlike strands before he elaborated. “Don’t know if you noticed, Petey, but LA’s getting a little too hot to handle right now. Ma’s setting up shop in Humboldt Bay before Volkov pushes us out entirely with the Port Authority guys. You gotta adapt, you know?” Joey gave him a clap on the shoulder with a little too much force. “You might wanna tell your sister that.”
Peter rolled his eyes. As if he could tell her anything these days.
Joey didn’t seem to notice. “Listen, Ma’s got the whole crew set up in these cabins while we get started up there. They’re safe. Nice. Real crisp mountain air shit. You guys need somewhere to hide out for a bit ‘til Volkov and Matty G back off, you’re welcome, okay? Liv too. You tell her that for me.”
“Why don’t you tell her yourself?” Peter couldn’t help but give in to the flare of irritation he felt. At Joey, for leaving LA, but mostly at himself for staying. God, what did it say that Joey fucking Guo clearly had more sense than he did?
Joey’s face darkened for a moment, too fleetingly for Peter to get a read on whether it was annoyance or worry or something else entirely. “I tried. She won’t return my calls after I told her she was being stupid about this.”
That explained why Guo always wore all-black; the man clearly had a death wish and was dressing for his own, imminent funeral. Nobody called Liv Bauer stupid.
“I’m trying not to take it personally; from what I hear, she’s not talking much to anybody.” His shrug seemed forced. “If you take any stock into what the local fleabags and lowlifes are saying—and you know that I do, Petey, they’re my people. Metaphorically, I mean. Obviously, I have better dress-sense and more money—there seems to be two trains of thought on it. Most of them are saying that this is the end of the Bauers as players in this city. Liv isn’t your old man, and she just can’t hack it now that you and your dad left and The Wolf moved into her territory. So, she’s throwing in the towel.”
Peter couldn’t help but snort.
“Yeah, doesn’t seem much like the Liv I know, either. Personally, I prescribe to the other theory that’s been going around: that your sister’s planning something big to piss Volkov off. Which you and I both know isn’t the right move.”
“If you’re fishing for gossip, Guo, I don’t know any more than you do.” He agreed with Joey on principal, but part of him still felt oddly defensive of Liv. “But if sheisplanning something, Volkov deserves every bit of it. Sometimes you gotta fight fire with fire.”
“You don’t fight fire with fire, Pete, you fight it with water.” Joey scraped at his incisor with his tongue, dislodging a stuck piece of the seaweed. “I just don’t want to see her get burned.” He glanced meaningfully at Nik. “Any of you.”
Nina shifted Teddy higher on her hip and the toddler groused gently, still asleep, burying his face into her collarbone. “You sure you don’t want to come with us?” She directed the question at Nik, a ripcord Peter hoped Nik still might pull.
“Yeah, the more the merrier, bro,” added Joey.
But Nik shook his head no. “Mia is with the Kritikoses. If something happens to us—”
“Hey, none of that,” Nina snapped.
Nik continued on like he hadn’t been interrupted. “You know how she likes to be tucked in. You tell her how I loved her.”
“Don’t.” She raised her gaze to the ceiling, her eyes going shiny. Nik pulled her and Teddy into a tight, fierce hug, and Peter felt the tears prick at his own eyes.
“You better not leave me alone in this, Petrakis,” she mumbled into Nik’s shoulder.
Eventually, Joey softly cleared his throat. “We better get going, Neen. We’ve got a ten hour drive ahead of us, and I’d like to get most of it out of the way before the little dude wakes up,” he said.
“Sure,” Nik agreed. “Thank you for coming tonight.” He shifted uncomfortably, his eyes darting to the cash register, the handle of the holstered revolver barely visible. “And for the...uh—”
“Peter knows how to use it.” Nina fixed Peter with a grim smile as she followed Joey out the door. “Don’t do anything fucking stupid.”
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