Corey shuffled to a stop next to Adam, wishing like hell he’d thought to bring a jacket. People always talked about Colorado being a dry cold, like that somehow made a dick’s worth of difference.

He didn’t get what the fuck they were talking about. The cold cut through his shirt, licking the heat from him. They’d been here a year, and he still hated the butt cold of Colorado.

The cold wasn’t slowing down the traffic in the Brewery, a two-block area that had once housed a large brewery for a local beer and was now a retail center and office space. The center of the space was a green park with splash pad and benches. Restaurants and shops drew people here almost every day of the week. It was something they’d counted on when they opened their business here. Unfortunately, it also meant the rent was sky-high and things weren’t panning out the way they’d thought they would.

“It’s fucking cold, Adam. Why the hell are we standing out here?” Corey kicked at the lamppost Adam leaned against. The fucking lampposts lined all the sidewalks around the Brewery, supposedly part of the charm that made the rent in the place so high.

“We should be hitting places like that,” Adam said, jerking his head in the direction of McNair Jewelers. It was one of the shops that had turned them down when they first came to the area, trying to drum up business. They’d thought for sure the retail owners in the area would use their services since they were renting an office in the complex.

The lady who owned the jewelry store had been real nice when they went in and gave her a proposal. Still, she’d said the store didn’t need their services.

He could see her now, through the glass, smiling at the woman who sometimes guarded the place. That was the trouble with stores like this. They had guards and cameras, panic alarms. All kinds of security.

A sickening dread filled his stomach as he pictured Adam slamming her into a glass case the way he had with the old man at their last job. Nausea swamped him. She was a nice lady. She didn’t deserve that.

Neither had the old guy. It wasn’t the first time Corey had thought that. He hadn’t been able to erase the images of that man’s head slamming into the glass and metal frame of the display case. The sound played in his ears again and again when he closed his eyes and tried to sleep. He didn’t think he’d ever forget that sound. The look of shock when Adam grabbed him by the hair and began to beat him.

Corey shot a look around them, but no one seemed to have heard Adam. And if they thought it was odd that Adam was staring at the storefront like he might walk in and hold it up right then, they didn’t say anything. Still, Corey didn’t like the way the conversation was going, and it had only just started.

Lately, that feeling of spiders walking across the back of his neck hit him whenever he talked to Adam. He didn’t know what Adam was on, but whatever it was, it wasn’t good. And the guy showed no signs of stopping anytime soon. He’d gone past the occasional pot they all smoked and was dipping into something hardcore. He was on something more often than not nowadays. It was making him do stupid shit that was going to get them caught.

Corey wanted things to stay the way they were. He liked plans and rules. He liked knowing what was going to happen and when it would happen. They’d set up rules about what stores they would hit when they started this, and a shop like that one, right in their own backyard, sure as hell wasn’t it.

But that didn’t mean he wanted to stand up to Adam or have to choose who to side with if shit hit the fan.

He turned away from the shop, his head near Adam’s so no one would overhear them. “You know why we aren’t going after stores like that one. They have hidden cameras we might not spot right away to take out, alarms that actually work. That shit isn’t smart, Adam, and you know it. We need to be smart about this. Do what we set out to do. If we keep our heads down and stick with the plan, we’ll be done with this soon.”

He felt it when Adam spun on him, knocking into him as he walked away.

Corey followed, wanting to stay close so Adam wouldn’t start shouting God knows what across the crowded green. He hadn’t smelled pot on him or alcohol, but that didn’t mean Adam wasn’t on something.

“Adam, man, come on. Let’s go home.”

Adam turned on him again, this time coming toe-to-toe with Corey. His words were low and quiet, but the edge in them was unmistakable. “With the shit hauls we’re getting from these pissant places, we’ll never make enough money to keep our business going. We need to start thinking smart.”

They walked along the side of the old brewery building that now held a large restaurant and hotel. The sidewalk they were on led to a parking lot, but there wasn’t anyone on it at the moment.

Corey couldn’t help the half nervous laugh, half plea that came out of his mouth. He didn’t want to get into this with Adam. Why did he always laugh at times like this, when there wasn’t a damned thing to be laughing about? “Just, look, just…” he stopped in the middle of the alley and wrapped his right arm across his body, gripping his left shoulder. It was a move he’d made from the time he was a kid, any time his brothers lit into him. He dropped his arm, purposefully shaking off the defensive gesture. “Look, we just can’t do this, Adam. We have a plan. We need to stick with it.”

He looked back to where shoppers wandered as dogs and kids played on the lawn. “We’d be crazy to do something like the McNair place. It’s just crazy.”

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he knew they were wrong. Corey saw Adam’s jaw go tight at the word “crazy.” He raised his hands, trying to calm Adam, but Adam exploded. Spit gathered at the corner of his mouth as he came at Corey.

There were no words coming from Adam. Just guttural anger in the form of sounds that made up half words and sentences.

His fist crashed into Corey’s jaw, sending blinding pain searing up the side of his face, radiating out to his ear. Another blow landed on his shoulder and neck before Adam was gone. It was over in seconds, but it seemed longer as pain and a sickening nausea welled. It wasn’t so much that the punches had hurt—though they had—it was more that Corey knew what was coming. When Adam went off the rails like this, shit devolved quickly.

A few people on the green saw the altercation and shouted, headed for Corey, presumably to help him. He waved them off and took off, cutting through the parking lot in the opposite direction from Adam. He needed to warn Tommy and Josh that Adam was probably headed for them next, wanting to talk them into going after more high-end stores. Talk them into taking the kind of risks they shouldn’t be anywhere near.