“Sure?” she asked.
He nodded and tore off another chunk of the pretzel.
She went after her own, saying, “You haven’t mentioned anything about the meeting.”
Shit.
This was because he didn’t want to.
But he had to.
He gave her a rundown over the rest of the pretzel, and they had fresh drinks, their sandwiches, rings and the classic plastic tray of goodness that Brother’s always served that included pickles and banana peppers and shit like that by the time he finished.
“Well, uh…it isn’t for me to say, what you all get into, but now it’s not about Brett. At least not only about him. It’s about Corinne. And I’m not feeling super confident those two jackasses are gonna work hard to find out who took her life.”
“We’re gonna do some poking around, Ryn,” he said.
She didn’t hide her relief.
God-fucking-dammit.
“And we need your help with that,” he went on.
She’d taken a big bite of her sandwich, but when she heard his words, her eyes got wide, and with mouth full, she asked, “Me?”
“We need to know how Cisco knew Crowley was investigating dirty cops.”
She chewed, swallowed, and stated, “Oh. Okay.”
Then she put down her sandwich and immediately grabbed her purse to pull out her phone.
For a second, Boone just stared.
Then he reached out and wrapped his fingers around her wrist.
She again gave him her eyes.
“You can’t just call him,” he said.
“Why not?” she asked.
In that moment, he wished he lived in a zone, considering she seemed kinda tight with this fucking guy, that wasn’t a good question.
“He’s not gonna tell you over the phone,” he noted.
“Sure he is,” she replied.
“Ryn, he’s gonna think someone is listening.”
“Boone, he’s probably gonna hope someone is listening so someone will do something about it so he can come out of hiding.”
He slid her phone out of her fingers, put it on the table and took his hand away, doing all of this saying, “When he comes out of hiding, babe, this means he’s gonna go back to dealing drugs, in earnest, since his players are still out on the street, they just don’t have their overlord making his moves to be certain they don’t lose supply.”
She made a scrunchy face he wanted to kiss.
But he didn’t because she had to get this.
So he kept at it.
“He’s got a headquarters, and for a square block around that, he shakes down every business owner for protection money even though they probably wouldn’t need anyone keeping their business secure if he didn’t do his business close to theirs. He’s been known to get his hands on guns and fence them. He runs book out of his shop. He fronts loans, at very high interest rates, and he gets nasty when he doesn’t get paid. What I’m saying is, if he’s back in commission, Ryn, this is not a good thing.”
“I get that, Boone, and all that is bad. I get that too. So the cops can catch him for what he’s doing, not what he didn’t do.”
Boone had heard that recently.
He picked up his burger.
“Do you want me to call him?” she offered.
He looked at her over his bun. “Yeah, I want you to call him, but not when we’re in a bar. And I don’t want you to ask him over the phone. I want you to see if he’ll meet you somewhere. Somewhere safe for him. And I want you to tell him that I’ll be by your side when we meet.”
“Right. Cool. We’ll do that on the way to where we’re going next,” she said casually, and grabbed a ring.
He watched as she coated it deeply with ketchup before she bit into it.
And Christ.
This was getting a little freaky.
Never in his life had he thought this, but he was a condiments guy. Ketchup. Mustard. Mayo. Horseradish sauce. Soy. Relish. He liked it all.
And he didn’t go light.
“What?” she asked. “I like ketchup.”
She noticed him noticing.
So he grabbed a ring, reached to her pile of ketchup and gave it a thick coat before shoving it in his mouth.
She grinned at him.
No.
Not freaky.
Just right.
They didn’t get into anything heavy as they finished their food and drinks.
But they’d eaten in the back room.
And on their way out, he glanced at the bar in the front room.
There, he saw a man having a beer who was also a man who’d been walking to his car in the Cherry Creek mall parking lot when they were heading to Boone’s Charger.
Goddamn shit.
He’d barely gotten them on the road with Ryn giving him instructions to get on Speer before he said, “Cisco on the phone, babe. And tell him I’m here and you’re going speaker.”
She dug her phone out of her bag, called, but left a message, and when she was done, she began to state the obvious, “He’s not picking—”
Her phone rang before she finished.
She took the call with a “Hello.” Then, “Hey, Brett. Listen, Boone’s here…” and the man knew that “…and he wants you on speaker. Is that okay with you?” A pause before, “Okay, cool. Going speaker now.”