CHAPTER TWELVE
-:- CORK -:-
Dragging myself off the ground, I walk around the truck and slide into the driver's seat. Fumbling the keys, I drop them from the ignition onto the truck floor. Glancing towards the house as I bend to pick them up, I see the man shake his head, and then turn to go into the house.
Grabbing the keys, I start the truck and head for the clubhouse, taking the scenic route as instructed by Target as he’d held me for Chaos to hit me at the roadside.
I know why Chaos hit me so hard, and I understand.
I also know that if he wanted serious payback, I’d still be on the ground throwing my guts up.
He gave me a love-tap by his standards. Without them turning up and acting out their little play, I don’t know how Dallas and I would have got out of that mess we’d created.
Arriving at the clubhouse, I’m greeted by the sight of Dallas waiting at the door.
I have to admit to a serious case of butterflies in my stomach seeing her there.
I don’t know how else to describe it, but I know I like the feeling.
Something else that I’ve been thinking about is what will happen when she stops babysitting me, and goes back to her own place.
I’ll be back to being alone, but worse than that, I won’t have Dallas in my life.
Opening my door, she is suddenly there, in front of me, and I can see the concern in her eyes. Taking her face in my hands, I’m about to tell her I’m okay when I see her eyes close, and feel her rise on the balls of her feet. Bending to meet her, I give her the kiss she is expecting.
As our lips meet, I realize that she isn’t the only one who wants this kiss.
Taking my hands from her face, I put them around her waist and pull her to me.
Her arms snake around my neck, and she pulls my head down to make the kiss more forceful and urgent.
We hold the kiss until we have to break away to take a breath.
It’s only then I realize I am supporting her full weight as her legs are bent at the knee and her feet are nowhere near the ground.
“Wow. That’s a first kiss I’ll never forget,” I say as I gaze at her glassy eyes.
“That’s not our first kiss. That was on the couch at the apartment.” Watching her smile, I remember the kiss when she was asleep. Oh. OH! She wasn’t asleep!
“You weren’t asleep! I thought you were asleep. I felt like a sick pervert kissing you asleep, although I wanted so much more. I wish I’d known you were faking it,” I tell her all this and watch for her reaction. Grinning, she pulls me in for another kiss, and I gladly oblige.
Walking into the clubhouse hand in hand, the silence surrounds us as everyone stares at us. Raven and Cora rush to Dallas and drag her to their table, squealing and giggling as they utter congratulations.
Brothers grin, cheer, foot stomp, and those that are close enough, slap my back or bump shoulders as I pass on my way to Pres’s office. Shouts of ‘about time,’ ‘well done,’ and some cruder remarks follow me.
Knocking on the door, Axel calls for me to enter. Walking in, I see Target already sitting in one of the chairs by the desk, Lincoln in another.
“Cork...what the hell were you and Dallas thinking? You could have both got into shit well out of your depth.” Pres is calmer than I expected, and I’m thankful for that.
“It all happened so fast, Pres. I saw the guy earlier in the men's restroom, but it wasn’t until I saw the red flag that Winter had used for a target that I made the connection to Meat’s Barons Bordeaux.
Red piss being a side effect of the color used in the Bordeaux.
He was just leaving as we got into the reception area, and so we took after him. ”
“How much of Meat’s Bordeaux do you think you sell a week, Cork? Ballpark figure nothing too precise.” Pres sits back and waits.
“On average, maybe twelve bottles a week.”
“So, there could be a dozen males out there at any given time pissing red? The guy you followed, did you recognize him from the break-in?” Pres steeples his fingers.
“No, Pres.”
“Did he show any sign of recognizing you?”
“No, Pres.” Damn. I know where this is going.
“If he was one of those that you faced down that day, wouldn’t he have recognized you?”
“Yes, Pres.”
“So, is it possible that you just went from zero to hero over an innocent guy?”
“Yes, Pres. Sorry, Pres.”
“Don’t be sorry, but next time just take a breath and try to weigh up all your options before going roaring off into the sunset. Give as much information as you can to Lincoln, and he’ll get on it right away.”
I spend the next few minutes giving Lincoln every detail I can think of, describing the man, his SUV and the address we followed him to.
Talking about the outbuildings, it occurs to me that maybe the new doors on one of them could be hiding the truck they used.
The doors and building would certainly lend themselves to being a hideout for a truck that size.
Lincoln grins at my excitement, and says that it could just as easily be keeping the weather off a couple of milk cows or an old tractor.
When Axel asks Lincoln how long he needs to check out everything and to recon the property, I’m not happy when he comes back with ‘up to forty-eight hours.’
“If the guy recognized me or remembers me later, he could be long gone by then and any evidence with him.” My voice rises as I get angry that once again, it seems that this is not important enough to get actioned sooner than in forty-eight hours.
“I’ll talk to Chaos and see what we can do to get eyes on the property.” Target’s attempt at reassurance falls on deaf ears.
“You know where to find me if you decide on any action.” My voice drips with sarcasm but it’s lost on these guys.
“Sucking face with Dallas from what I hear. It’s about time you saw that woman for what she is.
She’s been your biggest supporter since she laid your head in her lap the night of the break-in.
I don’t know if it was the concussion, or if you're just plain blind when it comes to women, Cork.” Axel laughs at my red face.
“Well, I didn’t realize until today. I’m going to get her patch and cut ordered before I leave the clubhouse, and at the next church meeting I’ll make it official.” Sticking my chest out, I eyeball all three of them.
”You do that, Cork. Now, get out of here.”
Stopping off at PT’s office, I ask him to order the property patch for Dallas. I’m informed that the patch will only take a couple of days as it is already on order.
“It seems that you were the only one who didn’t know how you felt about her, Cork. We all saw it from day one. You two are made for each other. I’m happy for you, man.” PT smirks.
Back in the common room, I find my woman surrounded by the other ol’ ladies. I get a few comments from them as I approach, but they are all good.
We spend the afternoon at the clubhouse and after a filling meal of one of Meat’s smoked beef ribs, we slip into Dallas’s Ford and head home.
“You’ve been thinking about something all afternoon, and whatever it is, it isn’t sitting well with you. Is it something I can help you with?”
Dallas seems to know me as well as I know myself.
“It’s having to sit around for another forty-eight hours.
Nothing seems to be happening with the break-in.
No one is pushing for a result except me.
Every time there seems to be a mention of it, it’s always later, soon, maybe, forty-eight hours.
For heaven’s sake, will somebody make some progress! ”
Pulling the truck over, Dallas looks over at me. “In a perfect world, Cork, what would you like to see happen?”
“Someone could check out that ranch where we went this morning. That would be a start. If he’s just an innocent customer of the wine shop, at least we could tick him off the list.”
“What time would that happen? I mean when would someone sneak around a ranch without getting caught?”
“Two or three in the morning would probably be good. Everyone in a deep sleep. I don’t know what the moon’s like at night right now. If it's full or three-quarters, they wouldn’t need a flashlight, except for checking the buildings.”
“We’d better get some sleep if we’re going to be up at that time then, eh?” Dallas grins and I just love this woman and her attitude. Love already? Like Axel said, zero to hero!
Dressed all in black, Dallas and I look like a couple of thugs.
She spoke to Star when we first got home, and asked what we would need for a hypothetical situation like ours.
Dallas must have been very ‘hypothetical’ because Star turned up on her hog, with Meat close behind, and brought gifts of different camo face paints.
Star offered to do our ‘make-up’ but we thought it best to keep as many people uninvolved as possible.
Meat looked us up and down and if I didn’t know better I’d swear he managed to laugh in grunt.
Arriving back at the stand of trees we’d stopped at only a few hours ago, we left the truck and hiked a few hundred yards from the buildings. Keeping our wits about us, as best we could, being new to this type of thing, we crept closer.
The first of the buildings we came across was old and falling to pieces. Sneaking inside there was a huge pile of stuff covered by old tarpaulins. It was too big in every dimension to be a truck so we carried on.
The second building had stacks of boxes that according to the label contained more labels. They were preprinted with, ‘Country Liqueur, Moonshine Style Cocktail.’
The final outbuilding, the one with the new doors, had a light on inside.
Slipping around the side, we find a window and take a quick look inside.
No truck here either, dammit, but there was an enormous still.
This wasn’t what we were looking for, so we’d been wrong all the time, and Pres had probably been right.
Just some innocent guy drinking Bordeaux while he was mashing his own moonshine, but on an enormous scale by the size of that still.
Walking back down the side of the building, we’re almost to the front when a shadow steps out and tells us to ‘hold it.’ Standing still, I look for an opportunity to take him out when he starts to sag and fall.
“You two are in deep shit. AGAIN! What the fuck are you doing wandering around out here? Get back to your vehicle over in the trees and go straight to the clubhouse. Pres is not going to be pleased when he gets woken up at this hour because you pair wanted to play fuckin’ Rambo,” Target hisses at us and we turn without a word and head for the truck.
Dallas is laughing quietly as we walk and I can’t help letting out a little chortle. When we’re back in the truck and heading for the clubhouse, we both laugh out loud and damn the consequences.
We’ve stopped laughing long before Pres has finished with us. He rips us both a new one and then some. Just when I think he’s done with us, Target tells him they had to knock out a guard to save us, and he’s now in the shed waiting to be interrogated. Here we go again, another round of fucks.
Chaos suggests waking Meat to do the interrogation, and when Pres asks ‘Why Meat?’ Chaos informs him they were trying to copy Meat’s recipe so they could market it under their own name.
“Let’s wait 'til Meat has done breakfast before we tell him, just to be safe, eh!” Axel wisely advises us.