Page 271 of Remiss

“Right. Well, he sounds like a fucking asshole.”

He was so much worse. If he was Pillar of Earth, he would be worse than Willard. “He is.”

“Have you started walking yet?”

Obligingly, Harley started walking. She never really paid attention to the route to get to Nardo’s house, especially lately. She just wanted it to be over with and normally kept her head buried in her phone, reading a book.

After crossing two streets, she wasn’t sure if she went in the right direction or not. “I’m lost, Aunt Zoann.”

“Fuck. Stay wherever you are. Stretch will track you. I’ll call you back as soon as I can and stay on the phone with you until someone arrives.”

Dad and Diesel left the hospital an hour after they arrived with Molly and Easton DeLuca, one as bad as the other. Molly was feverish and delirious, suffering from, among other things, gunshots, both old and new. DeLuca had been shot in the bicep, side, and thigh.

Uncle Mortician left a little while ago, though Uncle Val, Uncle Stretch, and some of the other guys were in the cafeteria, leaving only CJ, Ryan, Rory, and Grant to wait on any news about Molly. He supposed DeLuca, too.

Dad might’ve brought him to the hospital to kill the motherfucker if he recovered, though Rory had seemed particularly upset at seeing DeLuca so close to death.

“Mom will save DeLuca’s life,” CJ said.

“She agreed?” Rory asked with hope.

“I haven’t talked to her about it, but once she finds out the full story, she’ll talk to Dad.”

“Don’t be so sure about that,” Rory said sadly. “If I was sure Aunt Meggie would’ve saved my dad’s life, I would’ve talked to her in the first place. But we pushed her too far. She’s fed up. We didn’t appreciate her when she talked Uncle Christopher out of killing motherfuckers. Now, she doesn’t care.”

CJ had no response. Rory told the truth.

In the distance, the elevator dinged.

“I hope Pops brought us something to eat. I’m starving,” Ryan complained.

“You’ve eaten a sandwich, three bags of chips, and cookies. You’re fucking greedy,” Grant retorted.

Ryan flipped Grant off, and they all laughed. The light moment eased CJ.

Until a clearing throat captured their attention. Bishop stood next to Harley. She looked small and fragile, without the sparkle that always drew CJ to her.

She looked…broken.

As if she didn’t know what to say, she glanced at Bishop. He sighed.

“She and Nardo had an argument and he threw her out of the house,” Bishop explained. “She was stranded. Zoann couldn’t reach Mort, so she called me.”

Looking at Harley, CJ understood why Mattie was so concerned. He also suspected she purposely evaded his calls to hide Nardo’s fuckery.

“Wait,” Rory said. “Nardo just put you out?”

Harley’s chin wobbled, but the tears threatening didn’t fall. “Yes,” she whispered.

The past two days had been hard to have fucking patience while Uncle Mort gave CJ, Rory, and Ryan meatshack lessons. They’d spent all yesterday in there together.

When Uncle Mort described the blood and gore, Ryan threw up, but he hadn’t fainted. That might change when they got Nardo on that fucking table.

“How the fuck did that motherfucker expect you to get home, Harley?” CJ demanded, barely able to wait until tomorrow evening.

“He didn’t care, I guess,” she said, sad and weary.

Ryan opened his mouth to speak, studied her, then went silent.