Read ALL THINGS PRETTY PART TWO for Free Online

send someone to
check it out because I have no choice except to own up to who I really am. That
means that I have one option that’ll do both.   A bluff.   A big one.
    I cross my arms over my chest, letting a smile play across
my face. “So that’s your answer then?   To get rid of us?   To kill a woman, a kid
and a cop?   And you think
that’ll make things better for you?”   I laugh, as boisterously as I can.   “What you don’t know , ass monkey, is that this
shit’s coming down.   Your whole crew
is busted.   It’s just a matter of
time.   Of course, a better, more
orderly take-down was in the works, but it ain’t no thing.   A few minutes won’t matter.   The
end result is the same.   You dicklovers .   In jail.   For a
long, long time.   Of course, you can
make it even worse if you really wanna .   By, oh I don’t know, say, adding murder
to your list of charges.   If that’s
your master plan, then hell!   Be my
guest.”
    Barber’s grin worries me. He doesn’t look the least bit
concerned.   “And what, exactly, will
these charges be?   There are no
drugs here.   You have no proof, no
evidence that we’ve done anything wrong.   Travis here could point a finger at Chaps, but he’ll be dead before his
sister’s body hits the ground. So what’s your play then?   You must know something I don’t know,
because we’re clean, five-oh.”   He
takes a step toward me, his eyes flashing.   At last I see some emotion other than smug satisfaction–anger.   “We’re clean.”
    All I can do is bluff some more, buy time until I can figure
out how the hell to get us out of here.   I smile, big enough and long enough for him to take notice and narrow
his eyes on me.   “If that’s what you
think, maybe I overestimated you. We’ll see.   But I can tell you what won’t be happening. I sure as hell ain’t gonna stand here and show my hand.   If
that’s what you’re getting at, then you’re a dumbass.   No matter what happens to me or them , you’re goin ’ down, cocksucker.”
    Barber watches me silently, debating whether to off us and take his chances or try to find out what I really know,
what we reallyknow.
    “You’d risk their lives for a bust?”
    “Look, man, I don’t give a shit what you do with me, but I won’t
lie. I’m in deep with those two.   It’s gonna be sweet to watch you
get what’s coming to you.   But so
help me God, if you are stupid enough
to lay a hand on either of them, you’ll wish I’d killed you instead.   I promise you that.”   I let my words, the weight and the
sincerity of them sink in before I continue.   “You’re going down either way.   How far down you go is entirely up to you.”
    “How important is she to you?” Barber asks, nodding faintly
toward Tommi.
    I narrow my eyes on him.   “Very.   But I think I’ve made that pretty
clear.”
    “You have.   But I
think you’ve forgotten that we can make her suffer without ever laying a hand
on her.”
    “Is that right?” I ask, crossing my arms over my chest.   “Do tell.”
    “Lance has a certain dead brother’s body on deep freeze.   Even if she were allowed to live, she’d
spend her life in prison, mourning not one brother but two . She’ll never be free unless he allows her to be free.   Stupid bitch didn’t know who she was fuc –”
    I interrupt with a scoff.   “Aw hell!   You think she’s worried about that? I
know the whole story.   She won’t go
down for that.   And believe me, I
would know.   Cop, remember? If
anybody knows the law, it’s me.   In
fact, if she’d told me sooner, I could’ve helped her get away long before now.   She just had to trust me.” I turn my
eyes to Tommi at the last, meeting her heartbroken eyes with the strength and
steadiness of my own. She looks away.   But not before I see the betrayal, the hurt, the distrust she’s still holding.   Ties my stomach into a damn knot.
    This isn’t how it was