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.“Is being an asshole a requirement to work for Lorenzo, or does the boss just get lucky?” he muttered to himself.He scratched his jaw.“Of course, since I worked for him, too, I guess I shouldn’t be talking.But you know what? It’s never too late to change.”Donald’s dark glasses and the way his head was angled gave the impression that he actually listened.“What?” Joey asked.“You don’t think I can change?” Letting out a deep breath, he stared at the road.“Guess we’ll just have to see.”He pulled over, shut the car off and got a map out of the glove box to find Cypress and Newton.After spreading the map out on the seat beside him, he looked back at Donald, all buckled up, looking cool in his shades and his SHIT HAPPENS hat.Joey glanced at his watch.“You know what this means, don’t you? I gotta drop your ass off someplace.”He spotted a couple of buzzards off to the right making dinner out of some roadkill.He thought about Donald’s body being ravaged by the vultures.When he turned around to stare at Donald, he could swear the man looked right at him behind those glasses.“I don’t have time to bury your ass right now,” he told the dead man.Guilt zipped through him as he spotted another buzzard land.“Fine.I tell you what: I’ll come back and bury your ass, okay? But not right now.”Donald’s stillness seemed to question Joey’s honesty.“I promise,” Joey said.He turned and faced forward.A block ahead, he spotted a place to do his dirty work.He thought again about Donald’s hat: SHIT HAPPENS AND THEN YOU DIE.A laugh—a soul-deep belly laugh—fell right out of him, and he started the car.“Perfect.”“I’m serious.The sooner the better,” Kathy said about ten minutes after they left poor Harry on the side of some dirt road.Luke had told her that Lorenzo’s men left the drugs as a way of explaining what went down.Call her crazy, but she believed him.Maybe because she’d seen it happen on all the police shows—or maybe it was because she really trusted him.She’d climbed into the front seat, puppy in tow, tossed his tie and coat into the back, and plopped the puppy back in her lap.“You’ve got to find a McDonald’s or a service station.I’m this close”—she held her fingers a smidgen apart—“to peeing all over the twelve-thousand-dollar car you just bought.”Luke glanced over at her.“I think the best I can offer you is a tree.”“A tree? I’ve never been good at the squatting position.”He grinned.“So which position do you prefer?”She rolled her eyes.“Is it always about sex with you men?”He cocked his head as if thinking.“Pretty much.” A grin tickled his lips, and he reached up and loosened a couple of shirt buttons.“Isn’t it that way with women?”“No.” Then the answer irritated her conscience.When she’d called last week to ask him over, she hadn’t been asking for a serious relationship or marriage.She’d just wanted companionship.Okay…so she’d wanted sex.Tom had cured her of wanting anything long term.And so…Luke looked back at the road.“I’ll be damned.This might be your lucky day.”“What?” She glanced up, thinking he’d spotted a McDonald’s or a service station.All she saw was a construction sign, without the construction men.And then she saw it: an orange and tan porta-potty.She frowned.“Do you have any idea how badly those smell inside?”He pulled the car over.“Well, it’s like this.You got a tree.” He pointed to a pine tree off to the right.“Or you got a porta-potty.And you’ve got about two minutes.”She grabbed the door handle.“It won’t take two minutes.I can’t hold my breath that long.”“What?” he asked, as she started looking around the floorboards.“I’ll need…Well, a job’s never done until the paperwork is finished.”He shook his head.“Your two minutes are ticking.” He reached over her lap and opened the door for her.“You’re going to have to drip dry.”She shuddered.“Men are disgusting.” She crawled out of the car, then looked back and suggested, “Why don’t you walk Goodwill? He probably needs to go, too.”He frowned but reached into the backseat for the leash, and as she got to the porta-potty he was stepping from the car with the puppy in his arms.She saw him give the dog a scratch behind the ears.A flutter filled her chest.Then, taking a deep breath meant to last through the entire emptying of her bladder, she opened the door.She actually had one foot inside before she realized the porta-potty was occupied.Letting out a yelp, she found herself staring at a man wearing shades, his pants pulled down around his ankles, a magazine in his lap, and a hat that read Shit happens and then you die.She yelped again, “I’m so sorry—so sorry!” and slammed the door.Jason and Chase left their wives in the living room to commiserate as they walked outside to the patio.“What do you think?” Jason asked [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]