Chapter 30
CHARLIE
When leaving the bathroom for a middle-of-the-night pee, I never expected to run into my wife. Literally.
“Oof.”
Luna’s puff of surprised breath presses against my bare chest, and I shiver at the intimacy of the heat. She shifts back, her movements controlled now despite the unplanned collision.
“Sorry,” I whisper, shifting out of the way to clear a path to the bathroom.
But Luna doesn’t step through the doorway, and in the soft glow of the night-light illuminating the hallway, I realize that she’s dressed as if to go out. Boots, jeans, long-sleeved shirt.
All black.
“Are you going somewhere?”
“Go back to bed, Charlie.”
From Luna’s stern tone, I know that’s exactly what I won’t be doing.
If I’m remembering my bleary glance at the clock correctly, it’s just about three a.m. Not the time to be going out and doing anything, even in a lively city like New Orleans.
Especially because we plan to leave first thing in the morning.
“Where are you going?” I shift my body to the side just as she tries to slide past me.
“I have an errand to run.”
“What errand happens at three in the morning?”
My sneaky wife huffs out a sigh. “An unsavory one. Now let me by. I’ll see you in a few hours. At breakfast.”
“Ah. No. Nope.” I place my fists on my hips, taking up even more room in the narrow space.
“Are you trying to stop me?”
From the low, threatening octave her voice sits in, I realize I have no chance of holding her back. And Luna knows it.
“Three a.m. errands require backup.” Unless this is a booty call and she’s about to head over to someone’s house for a quick bang. Then my backup would be all kinds of awkward.
We agreed. Single for a year.
And Luna is nothing if not loyal.
It’s time that I display the same amount of loyalty to my new wife. If she’ll let me.
Luna keeps her voice a low growl. “No way.”
“Yes way.” I deliver the very mature retort with a confident grin. “Say hello to your new sidekick. Every superhero needs someone to carry their tool belt.”
Luna snorts. “I’m not a hero, and by definition, a tool belt is wearable. Therefore, no need to have a second body to carry it.”
“Then I’ll keep an eye on your invisible jet for you.” I lean down, doing my best to give her some puppy-dog eyes my mom always crumples for. “Let me come. For my sake.”
Luna glares up at me, grinding her teeth. After a second, she offers a curt nod.
“Great.” I grin and step back toward my room. “I need to change.” And put in my contacts so I can see more than a few feet in front of me. “I’ll be two minutes.”
“Fine,” she mutters, moving toward the front door.
“Oh, and, Luna?” When I have her attention, I affect my most innocent smile. “If you forget to wait for me, I’ll just wake up Dash and see if he can help me find you.”
My lovely wife flips me off. Somehow, from her, the gesture seems like an exasperated form of affection.
I hope the threat of me getting her brother involved will be enough to keep Luna from leaving without me, but just in case, I hurry through getting dressed, pulling on black sweatpants and a black T-shirt.
It’s not the type of outfit I’d normally wear out after dark.
As a Black man over six foot, people are always looking for more reasons to label me as dangerous, and dark clothing apparently fits the bill.
Still, I get the sense that Luna is going for incognito. For her, I’ll deal with the risk.
Luna sits in her car, engine running. I slide into the passenger seat, and she waits for me to buckle in before slowly driving away from her brother’s house, only picking up speed when we’re out of hearing distance.
“You going to tell me what this errand is all about?” I ask after five minutes of silent driving.
Luna taps her thumb against the steering wheel, lips twisted. I don’t push. My wife is a push-back kind of woman. I wait.
“I don’t trust my uncle,” Luna says long enough later that I figured she wasn’t going to answer.
“Your uncle Mike? The one Leo works for?”
The guy who runs an chop shop. Color me surprised that he’s not the most genuine person in the world.
She nods. “He talks big about honor among thieves and always keeping his word. And I think he mostly sticks to that.”
“But?”
“But his business is everything to him. Business is good right now. But I don’t know how much I can count on his word if he’s suddenly hit. He might decide to close ranks. Go back to just family. He might threaten Leo and Dash to get them to come work for him again.”
Asshole. The situation seems inescapable. A low, ominous tone that never fades away.
“That’s fucked up. Even after you pay him everything?”
Luna’s mouth tightens. “I can’t risk it.”
Unease whispers up my spine as we drive down a street with a lot of industrial buildings.
“What are we doing tonight?”
Luna pulls up to a curb next to an old, abandoned building and throws the car in park.
“You’re watching the car. I’m getting some insurance.”