Page 40 of Static

Lockout shook his head.

"Appreciate the support, dickhead," I called after my best friend as he walked away. "But I'm going, too," I told Lock.

"See you later tonight."

I left the room and rolled my eyes when I saw Toxic waiting by the stairs. He had his arms crossed over his chest and was swaying a little until he leaned on the wall.

"Need something?" I asked as I walked up.

He glanced up at me with a toothy grin. "Just waiting for you to say thank you."

My brows shot up. "For what? Selling me out to Ricochet?"

Toxic shook his head and chuckled. "How are you a lawyer when you're such a dense motherfucker?"

"I'm really not in the mood for your shit, Toxic," I sighed. This was our thing. We went back and forth with one another. Normally, I didn't mind. Hell, I even enjoyed it. But not today. Not right now. And not when it had to do with Gwen.

"If you don't think that Ricochet knows you're fucking fucked over his sister… Well, I don't know what to tell you. We all know it," he added when I opened my mouth to deny it. I shut my mouth with an audible click because the denial had been automatic and I wasn't doing that anymore.

"Okay, so you telling Ricochet was supposed to help me somehow?"

"Got it out in the open. Now you don't have to pussyfoot around the subject anymore." He shrugged. "You're welcome."

I watched as he walked away. Damn. He may be right. Now Ricochet and I understood one another and he knew I was going to be pursuing his sister. Fuck if I was going to thank Toxic, though. That wasn't happening.

I made my way upstairs. Pausing by my door, I looked down the hallway. Everything was still quiet since it was early. As much as I wanted to go back into Gwen's place and crawl back into bed with her, I forced myself to go into my room and shut the door.

"You sure we have the right place?" Toxic asked, giving me a doubtful look.

I glared over at him. "Pretty sure, Toxic."

"Pretty sure isn't sure-sure," he replied.

"Would you shut the fuck up?" Hush muttered. "The lawyer knows where his clients go to sell drugs."

"Allegedly sell drugs," I added. It was an automatic reply at this point. I said it so many damn times a day I wasn't sure I couldn't not say it.

We were sitting in a dark alley, waiting for Jerry Kline to show up. I hoped like hell this wasn't the one night he decided to clean up his act. We really needed him to be out dealing tonight.

"Movement, two o'clock," Butcher said in a low voice.

We all looked over and a slow grin spread over my face as I watched the little shithead I'd defended in court three years ago saunter through the streetlights toward his corner. "Let's go."

The four of us climbed off our bikes and walked toward Jerry. He was whistling a jaunty tune as he leaned back against the wall. He stopped long enough to light up a cigarette. Jerry was small fish. He wasn't going to have enough shit on him for what we needed. No. We wanted Jerry to tell us where his bosses kept the good shit.

"Jerry."

He froze, the cigarette halfway to his lips. His eyes narrowed as he tried to make us out in the darkness. "Mr. Henderson?" he asked. "Is that you?"

"Yeah, Jerry, it's me." I looked around as we approached. No one was out on the street. A few cars were passing by, but it was late enough that the decent people of this city were at home in bed. "I need to talk to you about something."

"Does it have to do with my case?" he asked, sounding perplexed.

"Yeah," I smiled at him. "It does. Come with me."

Jerry eyed Butcher and shook his head. Even his pot addled brain knew when he saw a fucking killer. "Don't think that's such a good idea, Mr. Henderson. I-" He broke off with a strangled yelp as I grabbed him by the throat and forcibly shoved him toward Butcher. It didn't take long to walk him back to our alley. The darkness swallowed us up so no one would see what was about to happen.

CHAPTER 16