Which is stupid since he just blurted that out while he was creeping, but whatever. Norm had to interrupt our argument before it started, so I can’t really fault him.
Mark and I set down our beers before we slowly make our way over, tiptoeing like fucking cartoon characters as if whoever is out there is going to hear us and still break in.
I gently push Norman out of the way and take his place, and sure as shit, when I lean toward the heavy, old as fuck wooden door, I can hear someone in the hall.
Looking between the two of them, I pause briefly to think about what I’m going to do.
The three of us are felons for what happened three years ago. We did different amounts of time and our charges varied, but we have that stain on our permanent records because of how we handled shit. And even though I know we’d do the exact same thing all over in order to protect our family, I don’t want Norman or Mark to have to deal with the justice system again.
Too bad the shit we found in Leo’s junk drawer has us spooked enough to consider we might have to.
I look at them a little longer, Mark staring past me at the door like he’s going to magically develop X-ray vision, Normnervously rolling his lip over his teeth enough times to peel the skin off.Guess it’s gonna have to be me.
Which is fine.
I’ll go down in flames for any one of these fuckers, and you better believe there won’t be an ounce of hesitation in my bones if I have to kill for my princess again.
With a smirk—because Leohates itwhen I call her that, but it’s been my nickname for her since we met—I lift my finger to my lips to keep these asshats quiet then do a three count before I whip the front door open and basically roar.
Right in the face of a prepubescent teenage boy.
“I’m sorry!” he yelps as he jumps backwards. “I-I didn’t know anyone was home, I was just delivering this!”
The kid throws a rolled-up newspaper at me before he takes off running, his skinny legs carrying him toward the stairs so fast he almost falls down the first two.
“Sorry,” Norm says with a sigh as I close the door. “I thought?—"
“You’re good, man. I get it.” I pat him on the back as I walk into the living room, staring down at the physical newspaper I didn’t thinkanyonegot anymore, let alone Leo.Weird.“You think paperboys make decent money?”
Mark chuckles as he smooths out his beard. “I didn’t think being a paperboy was still a possibility in the days of online everything.”
Nodding my agreement, I unfold it with a shake to see what’s happening, but when I do, a bunch of the inserts and ads fall out of the middle. And because I know Lucky will have a coronary if he comes downstairs to what he considers amess, I bend to start picking up, only to freeze.
There’s a photo mixed in with all that shit.
An 8 x 10 glossy in black and white, and it’s a picture of the five of us.
It’s not just any picture, though.
This one happens to be of the five of us fromyesterday, standing in the goddamn parking structure right after Norm almost burned his pants off.
And all five pairs of eyes are blacked out in sharpie.
11
LEONOR
Iwas quick this time.
Wasting one more second away from the boys isn’t on the agenda, not anymore, and if it were possible to do all the daily shit like showering as a unit without it being an issue for anyone, I’d ask if they were cool with it.
Which would be a really stupid question.
The only reason group showers weren't a thing before was because… I tilt my head as I look at myself in the mirror. I don’t actually know why we never took group showers. We did literally everything else together. Hell, one time I peed in a bathtub while Mark took a shower because Norm was taking a shit, and Lucky and Pete were monopolizing the sink. It’s kind of strange we never showered together, now that I’m thinking about it.
And Ireallyshouldn’t be thinking about it.
But I kissed Lucky, and my boys are all total babes, so I guess it’s pretty much to be expected that my mind would jump right back into the gutter where it always was.Right next to the four of theirs.
