Chapter 157

Menace

"What's that thing on the side of your neck?" Renegade asks as I duck into the squad car he and I are riding in today.

"What?" I pull the sun visor down and push back the plastic piece to look in the mirror. Son of a bitch, I got a hickey last night when Karina attacked my neck. "Must have cut myself shaving," I lie, knowing damn good and well I have a beard right now.

"Riiiigghhhtttt." He starts the car. As we pull out of the parking lot, I can feel his eyes on me.

"What, kid?"

"Don't give me that kid bullshit." He laughs as we drive up Main Street. "I have a wife, I have plenty of sex, and I know exactly what a hickey looks like. I've just never seen you with one before, so it's kind of weirding me out."

"Weirding you out?"

Renegade sighs. "I've always kind of seen you as a dad, but I also always thought of you as way older than the rest of us. Even though you and Whitney are close to the same age. I don't know, you've just been the one who had his shit together,