Page 105 of So Steady

“Coming.” His voice was rusty with disuse. It made him sound exactly like his old man. He swallowed a couple of times. “Hang on a second.”

“Excellent!” Tabby said. “Everyone look concerned but nottooconcerned.”

“Shhh.”

Noah rolled his eyes. “What do you guys want?”

“Just to talk,” Scott Sanderson said, calm as a police negotiator. “Could you please come to the door?”

Noah bent and picked up a relatively clean t-shirt. “I will if you stop talking like I’ve got C4 strapped to my chest.”

“Fair enough.”

He dressed quickly, a little worried the lethargy would seize and bring him back to bed. He cracked his neck on both sides before heading to the door and turning the lock. Tabby stood before him in puffy green pants and a red crop top. She was flanked by Scott and a mate of Scott’s whose name he couldn’t remember.

Tabby’s jaw dropped. “Whoa. You look…interesting.”

Noah’s mood blackened. He’d gone a day without food or soap, but he wasn’t a fucking leper. “What are you doing here?”

Tabby opened her mouth, but Scott stepped in front of her. “Apologising, first of all.”

Not what he’d been expecting. “Apologise for what?”

“For the accusations that were levelled against you,” Scott said, pure lawyer. “Sam regrets not giving you the time and space to defend yourself.”

“Same,” Tabby called from behind him. “I regret it, too.”

Relief unlocked his chest and he breathed deep for what felt like the first time in days. “Sam’s sorry?”

“Yeah.” Scott gave him a small smile. “She’s still pissed you didn’t tell her about yourself, but she’ll get past that.”

“I…” Noah frowned. “How the fuck do you know where I live?”

Scott tugged at his collar. “Well…”

Tabby popped out from behind him. “Phone tracking. Come on, man, you know I do that.”

Scott closed his eyes. “Timing, Tabby.”

“What? He deserves to know.” She smiled at him. “Want to know how Nix is?”

God, just hearing her name was like swallowing a shot of tabasco. He looked away, actually catching the tall kid’s eye. He cast around for his name and landed onToby.Fucking weird that he was here.

Scott cleared his throat. “So, that’s not the only reason we’re here. Can we please come inside and talk?”

Noah looked over his shoulder and saw, unsurprisingly, his place was exactly as fucked-up as Paula and Shredder had left it. “I’ve got some…maintenance shit happening right now. What’s there to talk about?”

Scott grimaced. “We think Gil is the one stealing from Silver Daughters.”

“Huh?” he said, sounding stupid, feeling stupid. “You think it wasGil?”

“Weknowit was Gil,” Tabby said.

“No, we don’t.” Scott met Noah’s gaze. “Can we come in?”

Noah let them in, his mind spinning a hundred and eighty degrees. Gil? Fuckin’ Gil with his hardboiled eggs and turkey steaks? His dumbass kids clothes? How could it have been him? He’d have noticed. He’d havestopped him.

“Wow, this place is fucked.” Tabby sounded delighted. “What happened? Did the dog-cunt people do this?”

---