Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Having a beer with friends was the perfect way to unwind after the three days I’d had hunting down a target in New Mexico.
Hart Laramie’s intel had been right, that’s where the guy had run to, but after he landed in the middle of nowhere, he went off the grid, and it was nothing but old-fashioned detective work and determination to hunt him down.
We’d been hired by a scared businessman who’d had multiple death threats aimed at his daughter.
It was Hart who’d figured out who was behind the threats, they were an extremist organization operating in the southwest. The first break in the case was when one of Roan’s old sources supplied a name.
Hart verified the man was a member of the group, and it was my job to get some info and hand him over to the authorities.
He'd been paying in cash to the crappiest motels I’d ever seen.
They made the Lee-Hy motel in Jasper Creek look like the Ritz Carlton.
He ran out of cash and ended up dumping his piece-of-shit truck by the side of the road five miles from the junkyard where I found him.
He was sleeping in the backseat of an old Cadillac, and he didn’t hear me coming.
He didn’t wake up until I reached through the window and grabbed the gun out of the waistband of his jeans.
It took me twenty minutes of strong persuasion to get him to give me other names of men in his organization.
The first time he gave me names after five minutes, I called Hart and had him run them.
They were bogus. After fifteen more minutes of tender loving care and twirling around a thick chain that I’d found lying around, I finally had him spilling three names that Hart said were viable.
I zip-tied him, threw him back into the Cadillac, and got the hell out of there.
I was nice, I didn’t wait the four hours it took for me to drive to Albuquerque to call in his whereabouts.
I called him in after two hours on the road.
When I finally made it to Jasper Creek, Simon and Roan told me to meet them and some of the other guys over at Maverick’s Bar and Grill, and I was happy to oblige.
I’d come to love the atmosphere here. It wasn’t like some of the rough and tumble places I’d visited during my year and a half of wandering, but not too stuck up either.
It had that feel of welcome. Hell, all of Jasper Creek did.
“You really left him in the backseat of the car?” Roan asked.
“Of course he did,” Jase answered for me.
“I was in such a good mood after he gave me three good leads that when he said he needed to take a piss, I let him try before hog-tying him.”
“What do you mean, try?” Simon finally joined the conversation. I heard real curiosity in his voice.
I chuckled. “Said with me giving him a time limit, he couldn’t whizz.”
“For real?” Jase’s eyes were wide.
“For real,” I nodded.
“As soon as I hogtied him and got him in the backseat, he started begging me to untie him so he could try again.
“Did you?” Roan asked.
“It was a moot point. He started peeing all over himself before I could do anything. It was part of the reason I called the authorities sooner than I was planning.”
Everyone laughed.
“I like it,” Jase chuckled.
I looked around. “The pool table is empty, let’s go play.”
“I’ll take you on,” Roan volunteered.
“You up for another smackdown?” Jase asked in disbelief.
“What are you talking about? That last time was a fluke. I’m putting down twenty that says I beat Graham by two balls.”
“I’ll take that bet,” I said as I reached into my wallet and set down the twenty on the side of the pool table. This would be like shooting fish in a barrel. “You go ahead and rack and break,” I offered.
Roan grinned. “Don’t mind if I do.”
He sank a solid. Then he lined up what should have been an easy shot for another solid, but he hit the ball off-center.
“My turn.” I kept my tone even. No need to gloat. At least not yet.
I sank three stripes in a row by the time Hart Laramie sauntered over to watch. “Who’s winning?”
“Graham,” Jase answered. “He’s stripes.”
I got my next shot lined up. It was a bank shot, but I thought I should still be able to make it.
“Hmm,” Hart muttered. “He’s probably riding high since he finally got a date with Joy.”
I missed the striped ball by a mile, then I shot Hart a dark look.
Hart chuckled, and Jase clapped me on the shoulder. “So, tell us more about Joy,” Jase coaxed. “I didn’t get to see much that day at Miss Laverne’s.”
“There’s not a lot to tell,” I answered.
“He’s lying,” Hart told the group.
I watched as Roan lined up the only shot he had available and missed. “You’re up,” he groused.
I had an easy one, and I purposely blocked everybody out so I could sink my shot. Then I looked over the table and saw that my next shot was ugly.
Before I could tune everybody out, Hart started talking. “I met Joy a while back when I was picking up Roxie. She’s cute as a button. She brought in snickerdoodle cookies for the people at the clinic and the customers. There was only one left for me.”
“Hey, wait a minute,” Roan exclaimed. “Is that who’s baking all those cookies and brownies that you bring into Onyx and Thatcher’s?” he asked me.
Shit, I was never going to be able to make my shot with all their talking. “Yeah,” I muttered as I bent over the table.
“She’s a keeper,” Jase grinned. “Just like my Bonnie.”
He was right. Not only was she freakin’ beautiful, but she talked about her charges at the clinic like they were real people.
She loved them. Then there was the way she was with Miss Laverne.
The older lady had definitely gotten a new kind of energy, like she was fifteen years younger. Joy was a miracle worker.
“Are you going to just stand there, or are you going to take your shot?” Roan asked.
“Shut up, all of you,” I ordered.
“She has hair down to her waist. Golden, blonde hair,” Hart rhapsodized.
I missed the cue ball, and everyone laughed.
“Thanks, Graham, you left me with a great shot,” Roan crowed.
I watched as he sank two solids. Shit, when did he start getting good?
“Now I just have to sink the eight ball, and I win twenty dollars.”
I pulled out my wallet. “Here’s another twenty dollars that says you miss, and I win the game.” Roan always cracked under pressure when he was playing pool. However, when it really counted, he never cracked. We could always depend on our man.
“You’re on!” Roan grinned. Then he looked at the table and frowned.
“Everybody quiet,” I called out to the room at large. It was mean to add on the pressure, but at the same time, it was fun.
As Roan leaned over the table, I saw perspiration breaking out on his forehead.
“You’ve got this,” I encouraged.
He pulled back his stick, then let ‘er rip.
Yep, the eight ball missed the pocket by a mile.
“Motherfucker!”
“My turn,” I smiled.
I walked up to the table, bent over, and tapped in the last stripe, then easily sank the eight ball.
“Game over. Forty dollars to Graham. Let’s hope he has as much luck convincing Joy to go out with him a second time,” Hart cackled.
Great.
Now I was the one feeling the pressure.
“Look at him,” Jase started laughing. “I think I see sweat on his forehead.”
“Come on, man, let’s get you a beer.” Hart clapped my back.
I collected my forty dollars and followed my friends back to our booths in the restaurant area.
“And here I was hoping for a little peace and quiet,” Simon said as he stretched his long legs out in front of him. “Especially after the shit that went down with Maddie.”
“Huh?” Jase grunted.
“It’s Graham’s fault,” Nolan said, pointing his beer at me. “Him getting all tangled up with Joy means that there are sure to be problems.”
A tingle ran down my spine. Now that he mentioned it, the thing with Maddie, and then recently, with Ruby, did seem to indicate that romance and trouble did tend to go together.
“You’ve got it wrong, Simon. Joy is just a sweet hometown girl. She’s an open book, there won’t be any problems from her background.”
“The thing with Maddie was because of me, not her,” Simon pointed out.
“Fine, whatever.” I shook my head. “But nothing’s going to happen. Anyway, Joy and I haven’t even gone on a date yet, so nobody has anything to worry about.”
“Graham,” Roan said with a twinkle in his eye, “you’ve been talking about this woman’s baking skills for a month.”
“Three weeks!”
“Whatever.” Hart smirked. “You know her work schedule better than your own. And yesterday you asked me to ask Roxie what kind of ice cream she liked.”
“That doesn’t mean—”
“You’re so far gone, you can’t even see it,” Hart interrupted. “But hey, if you want to keep telling yourself this is all easy and drama-free, be my guest. Just remember, pride goeth before the fall and all that shit.”
I drained my beer and stood up. “Y’all are just jealous that I found a sweet, mild-mannered woman who doesn’t come with a target on her back.”
As I headed to the bar for another round, I heard Hart call out behind me, “We’ll see about that, Romeo.”
I flipped him off without turning around, but I was smiling. Let them tease me all they wanted. I knew what I had with Joy. Simple, sweet, and blissfully uncomplicated.