Page 100 of Alonzo

She stops a few paces off. She’s not exactly short, but we all tower above her. Doesn’t bother her, though. You can just tell by the way she slides her sunglasses down her nose and looks up at us. At Diablo. Specifically. “I’m only gonna say this once, devil man. Your deal was to handle things on the West Coast. So you have ten minutes to pack your shit and get your ass back there. Nothing that happens on this coast is any of your concern.”

“I’m sorry,” Zach says, still in mortal-enemy mode. “Who the fuck are you?”

She directs her gaze at Zach now. And it’s a mean gaze. “Special Agent Madrid, Mr. Boston. And I highly suggest you walk back the way you came, get your cousins, and take your asses back to the city, pronto. Because we’ve had it with all of you. This sword-crossing ends now.”

Quint and I trade another look. But I speak first. “What the hell are you talking about? Sword-crossing?” My dirty mind goes right to Luke and Zach’s sex life. Because… well, I’m a horny, thirty-something, yoked-out, hot-as-fuck-fisherman with sex on the brain pretty much all the time these days.

“I don’t know what you boys are up to,” Madrid says. “But it’s not part of the plan.”

“What… plan?” Quint asks.

She shoots him a look like he’s the dumbest dumbfuck on the planet. “The one you’ve all been a part of for the past two decades. That’s what plan.”

Zach is the only one to say, “Oh. Fuck.”

But the rest of us are sure as hell thinking the same thing.

Because that means… all that dirty shit I was so certain the Boston brothers were up to?

Yeah. We’re in on it.

And just in case we didn’t put that together in the three-second silence that ensues after Zach’s ‘Oh, fuck,’ Special Agent Madrid starts to spell it out.

I blink my eyes at her when she says the name Megan. I turn my back when she says the name Brooke. But I turn back around real quick, my heart beating like a motherfucker inside my chest, when she says the name… Wendy.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX - TARA

I swallow hard and just stare at the tatted-up Boston brother. Finally I clear my throat and try to act brave in the face of this hostile confrontation. “My… future?” I guess the good news is that I have a future.

Johnny points to the couch. “Please. We’re not going anywhere until we sort this mess out.”

“Over here, love.” Jesse pats the couch cushion to his left. “I won’t bite. I’m the nice brother.”

I look at Belinda with wide eyes.

“Just do it, Tare. Because if what just they told me is true, you’re going to need to be sitting to hear it.”

“I don’t understand.”

Johnny points to the couch. “I’m gonna spell it all out for you. But I need you all to sit so I don’t have to worry about one of you trying something stupid.” He eyes Vann when he says this. Like Vann did something stupid right before I walked in. “You too, Sick Boy. Have a seat. And if you try to attack me again, I’ll do more than rough you up.”

Vann huffs and straightens out the twisted collar of his t-shirt. But he walks over to me, places a hand on my back, and urges me to sit with him.

Johnny nods his head at Belinda. “You too, Rosalie. Or whatever you go by now. Sit.”

Belinda pulls her arm out of the other guy’s grip, then looks hesitantly at the little girl in the kitchen.

“Don’t worry about her,” Johnny says. “She’s not gonna touch anyone unless we tell her to.”

I blink and turn around to take another look at the blue-eyed girl. “What does that mean?”

“You’re about to find out,” the other guy says.

Belinda joins Vann and me on the couch. I try to concentrate on Johnny, since he’s clearly the one in charge here. But I can’t shake the feeling that I should not take my eyes off that little girl.

Jesse rubs his hands together like we’re all about to do something very exciting. “OK. We all comfortable?” He stands up, walks over to Johnny, and turns to face us, making it very clear that they are a team. “Good. Let’s start putting all these pieces together. How about some introductions? Just so we’re all on the same page as far as identities go. Hm? I’m Jesse Boston. This is my brother, Johnny. Zach? That guy who lives next door with Luke? He’s our cousin.”

“We’re not stupid,” Vann spits.