Page 49 of Reasons We Break

“I’m not getting involved in your drama,” Nick said when Rajan demanded the truth. “Sort this out yourselves. Tonight, at six.”

Rajan couldn’t concentrate at work after that. He kept thinking about the old accountant who was arrested. The Lions’ money issues lately. He started to piece it together, and it horrified him.

Now, he pushes into the café service hallway only to be caught around the middle by some LS dude, who pats him down for weapons. The second his hands are off, Rajan surges into the kitchen.

The industrial space is the same as he remembers. But now there’s a desk in the corner, piled high with notebooks and paper. Nick’s there, bending over the page Simran’s scrawling on. She sits at a chair there like she owns the place, a pen in her hand, using a brick of brown-papered cocaine as a paperweight.

Rajan’s done shrooms once or twice, and the experience has nothing on what he’s seeing right now.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” he says without preamble.

Both her and Nick look up, but Simran answers. “You should leave, Rajan. You can’t be seen here.”

Of course she’s not even surprised. Simran knows everything—or at least she thinks she does.

Rajan braces his hands on the table. Simran continues writing like he’s not there. “I get what you’re trying to do,” he says to the top of her head. “You’re trying to stop me from getting caught and going to jail, right? And let’s pretend for one second that I’m okay with it. Not that you even asked, but let’s pretend. Have you thought about what’ll happen if they catchyou?”

Her pen pauses briefly.

“Doyouwant to go to prison? Screw up your future? Do you wanna die for them?” He gestures to the room. “Because that’s where this ends. The Lions’ last accountant is locked up. The guy before him got strung up in his own office. This isn’t some fun little math problem for you to solve at school. This shit isreal.”

“I know that.” Simran’s voice is sharp. “I’m not doing it forever. It’s temporary.”

He laughs. “Temporary? Fuckingtemporary? Is that what they told you?” His voice rises. In his peripheral vision, someone casually reaches under their jacket.

“Okay.” Nick grabs Rajan’s arm. “Take a walk.”

Rajan wrenches his arm away. “Youtake a fucking walk, you prick. I’ll deal with you later—”

“Let me rephrase.” Nick shoves him. Hard. “Let’s take a walk, or this isn’t going to be pretty.”

Rajan’s about to shove him back, but he pauses. The circle has tightened around him. Subtly. He ponders his odds, but Simran’s eyes are huge, and he doesn’t want her to see any of that.

So he lets Nick push him into the service hallway. As soon as they’re alone, he wheels on him. He wants to pummel him, but Nick just casually has his gun out right now. Rajan settles for: “You’resickfor taking advantage of her like this.”

“She offered.”

“And you accepted because you thought shehadsomething to offer.”

Nick doesn’t reply for a moment. “I don’t let opportunities pass me by. You know I have a talent for finding talent.”

Rajan sees red. “You piece of—”

“It’s like she said. Until the end of July only. That pays your debts, and we should have another accountant by then.”

He’s being way too casual about this. “Seriously? She’s not an accountant. Why even trust her with these ledgers?” Rajan’s only glimpsed them rarely, passed between the hands of people much more important than him. “You’re handing her all the LS’s info.”

“Nobody hasallour info,” Nick scoffs. “Well, except Manny, maybe. But Simran isn’t even allowed her phone while she works. And you know what? She’sgoodat this.” He nods to the kitchen. “We snagged ledgers from the Aces last night. TheAces. Manny wants one cracked tonight—he thinks the Aces’ don has been sending messages from prison, ordering a hit on an LS member. And Simran was the first person I thought of to do it. I wasn’t wrong. She’s pulling it apart.”

His glee turns Rajan’s stomach. “If something happens to her...”

“She’s doing thebooks, not coming to shoot-outs. Be grateful. She’s giving you an out.”

“I’d rather go to prison.”

Nick looks at him with something like pity. “Go tell your PO you were here, then.” He tucks his gun away. “But Simran’s still in it for the summer, whether you like it or not.”

Rajan breathes deeply through his nose. A shitty, shitty situation, and he’s losing control of it. “I want to talk to her.”