Chapter 21
TWENTY-ONE
HUNTER
“Ferncreek Road? You’re taking me to the old Kingston place. Why the hell are we going to visit that ancient ruin?” I asked.
Colt grinned. “You’ll see. While you've been moping around the house, crying about all your bad luck, your little brother has been planning and hustling and thinking.”
“I know that’s supposed to sound promising but it’s doesn’t. Hey, Rincon left me a message to call him today. I hear he wants us to come back. He couldn’t find anyone else to work his water route.”
“Not interested,” Colt said sharply.
“Really, cuz I was sort of thinking that I’d like to be able to at least eat this next month. Especially because I don’t have too much else going on in my life. At least I can shovel burritos and pizza in my face and give myself a fucking heart attack.”
“Don’t give me that bullshit. You’ve got a chunk of change saved up just like me, and it’s time to start putting that money to work. What did the insurance company say about the bike?”
A disgusted laugh spurted from my mouth.
“Can’t get enough to replace the damn tires let alone the bike.
But I already figured that. I wasn’t paying enough premium to get it replaced.
I figured if I totaled the thing, I’d be dead too so it wouldn’t matter.
Never expected some jackasses to run it down with their car. ”
“What about those guys?”
“It’s done. I broke the guy’s face and took plenty of their money. I told Fletch I’d be avoiding his poker games from now on.”
He turned up the long driveway to the property.
The Kingston place was a decaying fossil of a house.
Admittedly, it had character and looked like an old Victorian home you’d see in a gothic horror flick, but it had been boarded up for so long it was a wonder that it hadn’t just turned to dust and disappeared.
The Kingston family had owned a successful fleet of fishing boats and they’d had big money back when our dad was a kid.
But health problems, divorce and one of the sons landing in jail for murder had destroyed the family fortune.
The place had landed in the care of a distant cousin.
But he had no money or time to keep the place up.
For awhile he’d tried to sell it at an extra high price, but the economy in the area had been bad and there had been no takers.
“Don’t tell me you’re thinking of buying this shit hole to fix up.”
Colt nodded. “Actually, I’m thinking that both of us, and Slade if he’s interested, should buy this shit hole. We could fix it up and sell it.”
“You’ve lost your fucking mind.”
“Probably.” He parked the car and we got out.
Weeds had choked off the brick path leading to the front doors. Colt tramped over them and I followed.
“I’m half expecting some ghost to float out of one of those dormer windows,” I said.
“I think that just adds to the character of the place.”
“Yeah, it also makes it a realtor’s nightmare.”
He swept his arm around. “Million dollar view, buddy. We fix this place up to its former glory, and it could turn a solid profit. I’ve already talked to the cousin who owns it. He’s ready to do a cash deal to avoid realtor fees and shit.”
“It’ll cost a fortune to fix.”
“Probably, but we could do a lot of the work ourselves. What do you say, bro? Now that I’m with Jade, I need to turn myself around.
And you and Amy—” he stopped. “Anyhow, I think this could be good. I’m done with going out on the water never knowing if we’re going to come back.
I don’t want to do jail time either. I’ve got someone I need to take care of now.
I’m done trying to trash my life by doing illegal shit.
Even our asshole dad worked for a living. ”
I looked his direction. “Have you been talking to Amy or something? She was handing me that same line.”
“Because it’s true.”
I looked at the house. Wood was rotted, glass was broken and the facade seemed to be screaming for a merciful death.
I glanced at Colt. He was excited about this.
For more than two years, I’d been dragging him out on drug runs.
I’d been in charge of my brothers since I was eighteen.
I was thrown unwillingly into the role of father when I’d never had a model of what a good dad should look like.
The only thing I had learned was that everything my dad had done, his beatings, his iron fist control, was wrong.
So I’d done the opposite. My brothers and me had basically run fucking wild doing whatever the hell we liked.
We’d been freed from a horrible prison once the old man had kicked.
The chains had come off, and we could do whatever we wanted.
Only the lines between right and wrong had always been blurred.
So many times, our dad had tried to beat what he’d called ‘sense’ into us, but he never told us what that ‘sense’ was.
I took hold of the porch railing and gave it a shake. It wobbled. “Feels like the whole house might come down with it.” I glanced back at Colt. “It’s going to take a lot of fucking work.”
“Yep. I’m looking forward to it.”
I took a deep breath. “I’m in.”