Page 55 of Baker

“I’m…I don’t…how the fuck did she find us?” he stammered.

“Who is she?”

He took another drink and then wiped his mouth on his bicep. “The girl from the bank.”

The two shots of tequila burned the back of my throat as my stomach rejected them. I fought to keep them down, hoping I could maintain a believable poker face, but doubted my attempt was a success.

Somehow, he’d found Andy. My mind raced to figure everything out, but all my thoughts ended up jumbled into an indiscernible wad of nothingness. The only thing I knew for certain was that I wanted her to remain safe.

I gestured toward the tequila. “What bank?”

He handed it to me. “The mouthy bitch from the job in Indio.”

I took a long pull from the bottle. I needed to figure out a way out of the mess I was in, and somehow save Andy in the process. I considered speaking, but took another drink instead.

“She’s staying next door.” He reached for the bottle. “I saw that bitch clear as day. Never forget that mouthy bitch’s face. Never.”

“Next door, huh?”

He took a drink and then nodded. “Been hiding shit above the kitchen cabinets in the clubhouse. Made a little cubby up there in the kickboard of Preston’s cabinets. It looks like she’s living up there now. Saw her a minute ago.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “You what? In the kitchen? What the fuck are you talking about?”

“There’s a pipe chase that goes from the first floor to the fucking roof. Instead of hiding shit in it in our clubhouse, I shimmy up to where Preston lived, and hide it in the kickboard of his old cabinets. I was putting some cash up there tonight, and she opened her cabinets. I saw the bitch through a slit in the fucking kickboard.”

Dumbfounded, and at a complete loss for words, I simply stared at him.

“She’s spying on us, I’m sure of it,” he said, his words thick with equal parts frustration and anger. “I’ll get that silencer out of the safe, and put one in between her eyes while she’s eating breakfast in the morning. We’ll just need to get her out of there before someone comes looking for her.”

“You’re not going to kill her,” I said flatly.

His eyes narrowed. “Why not?”

“Because you’re not.”

“We voted on it,” he snarled. “She’s a threat. Bitch said she’d make sure I fried for that robbery, and now her crazy ass is posted up next door. I know it’s her. I’ll never forget that bitch’s face.”

I may not have known my way out of the predicament I was in, but I knew one thing. I couldn’t let anything happen to her. I took a step in his direction and locked eyes with him. “You’re not killing her.”

“She’s going to turn us in, Bake.” He looked me up and down. “I’m gonna thump the bitch.”

“You’re not thumping her,” I growled.

He eyes thinned to slits. “Why not?”

“Because.” I drew a long breath and then exhaled slowly. “She’s the girl I’ve been fucking.”

TWENTY-THREE - Andy

“Tip the right side up a little bit,” Holly said. “It’s still crooked.”

I released the corner of the picture frame and took a step back. It looked perfect. I dragged my finger along the mortar joint. “It’s even with the bricks. That’s what matters.”

“It’s crooked. Come back here and look at it.”

I stepped to her side and studied the three picture frames. The one in the center wasn’t crooked. The one on each side was. “Compare them to the bricks,” I complained. “The bricks are straight. Now they’re all screwed up.”

“Okay,” she said. “Start on the left.”