CHAPTER TWENTY
-:- Paisley -:-
Getting back to work has been a great sense of relief. Having the shop doing so well is also a credit to Sentry. He’s taken to the Swap Shop like a duck to water. Everything is better organized than I had it and it was good then. The staff he has put in place are all first class and every one of them has said that it’s a pleasure to work with him.
I need to speak with TwoCents and see what sort of salary I could offer Sentry to be a full-time manager here. I never wanted the shop to make huge profits, that’s not what it was about. If it can make enough to support itself and Sentry as a manager, I think it could become a big bonus to the town.
Speaking of Sentry, I haven’t seen him for a while. He was doing something near the front of the store the last time I saw him. Redressing a mannequin, I think. He won’t be far away, he never is.
Seeing Alyssa finishing with a customer, I walk over and ask if she’s seen Sentry lately.
“He was here a moment ago, he was by the shelving near the door. He’s been hanging around the front of the store for the last twenty minutes or so. Not like him not to be busy with one task or another. He seems distracted or something. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was checking out some woman on the street. Oh God, I don’t mean a hooker. I mean a good-looking woman walking by.” Alyssa’s cheeks are reddening with embarrassment.
Seeing me laughing at the look on her face has her blushing even more. She fans her face with her hands and that makes her look like one of those bimbos from a movie and that has me laughing even harder.
Sensing Sentry by the door, I call over to him. Slowly he turns his head and gives me a chin lift, so I start to walk over to him.
“NO! Stay there. I’ll come to you. I need the exercise.”
Stopping in my tracks, I give him the look and wait for him to walk to me because his request is very odd.
“I’d like you to take the job as manager here at the shop. I’m going to speak to TwoCents and see what we can come up with in terms of a salary. How does that sound to you?” He’s still gawking at the front window, and I don’t think he heard a word of what I just said.
“Yeah, great. I think that’s a great idea.”
“It will probably be a million bucks for the first year. After that we could see about a cow to jump over the moon and perhaps a beanstalk to get to the new store I’m thinking of buying to sell pigs with wings. Do you think you could manage that on your salary?” I tip my head to one side and wait for his reply.
“You’re kidding right?” Oh well, at least he was paying attention.
“Of course, I can manage that. Like taking candy from a baby. Just needs a bit of organizing and it’ll be done in no time.”
“SENTRY! Get with the program, man.” Punching him on the shoulder has him coming back to earth. “What’s the matter with you? Your head’s all over the place.”
“What? Oh hi, Pais. Wassup?”
“What’s going on, Sentry? And don’t say nothing.”
“I thought I saw someone that I knew out front. I was waiting to see if they came past again. What were you saying about a cow and some pigs?”
“Nothing. Would you like to be the manager of the Swap Shop? Full-time basis with a wage that we can agree on when I talk to TwoCents?”
“Hell yeah. I’d like that. We’ll need to run it by Pres in church, though. Especially with it not being a club business.”
“Oh okay. I didn’t know about all that, but sure thing. I hope he’ll…”
A sudden scream from the back of the shop has me jumping. Sentry is off like a shot and runs through to the rear. By the time I catch up, I just see Sentry disappearing into the yard. Alyssa is standing near the door, as white as a ghost.
“Alyssa, are you okay? What happened?” Putting my arm around her shoulders, I lead her back into the storefront. She’s shaking and a few tears roll down her cheeks.
“I was just going to take some trash out and when I reached for the door handle, it swung open before I touched it and there was a man about to come in. I screamed, he looked right at me and he looked surprised, as though I wasn’t what he expected. He shoved something back in his pocket and ran off. When Sentry ran in, I just pointed at the door and he went straight out.”
As she reaches the end of her explanation, Sentry appears. He has his cell in his hand and is talking to someone. I gather quickly that it’s Axel he’s talking to.
“Yeah, Pres. I’m sure he was after Pais. He dropped a taser as he ran to a waiting van. I think it was an attempt to snatch her.”
Hearing this has my nerves on edge. If someone’s trying to kidnap me, this suddenly becomes very real. Not that it wasn’t before, but talking about something isn’t the same as an attempted kidnapping.
Sentry ends the call and looks at me, pulling me away from Alyssa so she can’t overhear what he has to say. “Things just got serious, Pais. If you’d been in that backroom, you’d be gone by now and we wouldn’t know where to start looking. Like it or not, you’re going to have at least two brothers with you every time you leave the clubhouse. Even in the compound. It’s no use arguing, it’s set in stone. You need to be protected from here on.”
“Hell, you won’t get an argument from me. What about the staff here? Do they need protection? What if they come back for a second attempt? They may take someone to try to get information or as a hostage. I couldn’t live with that.” I look over at Alyssa, who has regained some composure.
“I’ll speak to Pres, but we may have to close up shop for a while if we have nobody spare to cover security here.” Sentry watches for my reaction, and I don’t disappoint him.
“No, I’m not closing the shop. People have started to rely on us. I’m not prepared to let the community down. If necessary, I’ll hire a private security company to get some manpower in here during opening hours.” I look defiantly at Sentry, but I don’t feel too confident right at this minute. This has shaken me to the core. Nothing like this has happened before and I don’t understand why it should flare up now, after all this time.
Hearing my name being called, I turn and see TwoCents and Buzz walking into the shop. TwoCents scoops me up and gives me a searching look to see if I’m okay. Buzz takes Sentry into the backroom, for a debrief I’m guessing.
Looking over at Alyssa, she is watching all this with wide eyes. “It’s okay, Alyssa. This is my husband, TwoCents, and that other mountain of muscle was Buzz. They’re just here to check everybody and everything is okay.”
“I’d feel pretty safe with ‘Buzz’ hanging around. He sure looks like he could handle himself in a tough spot,” Alyssa smirks.
Buzz and Sentry are just walking back through as she says this and when Buzz states, “I manage well enough,” her cheeks blush furiously.
“I think we should close the shop for the day. It’s not far off closing time anyway.” Sentry gives me a look that says he wants this to happen and I’m not going to argue with him over a few minutes. Buzz offers to see Alyssa home and Sentry is going to lock up. TwoCents and Buzz came in a club SUV, so we’ll fetch Buzz from Alyssa’s and then head back to the clubhouse.
Waiting outside Alyssa”s for Buzz, my cell pings with a message. Checking it, I see it’s from Winter asking me to stop off at the Shooting Range after work. TwoCents doesn’t want to, but I think it’s my permit that could be ready and after today, it doesn’t take much persuasion to convince him I need to go.
Once Buzz is onboard, we head over to the Range and find Winter and Target waiting at reception. I can see Winter is excited by the way she’s hopping around. Target keeps giving her a look and then shakes his head.
As soon as I get to the reception counter, Winter gives me a big hug. “Guess what? Your permit is sorted and you’re good to go.”
“Thanks, Winter. That’s great news. Especially considering what happened today.” I roll my eyes at my own comment. She stops being all giddy and gives me a serious look. Target”s demeanor changes noticeably and I see him take a step closer. His eyes scan the reception area, ending at the main entrance.
Explaining the kidnap attempt, Winter reaches for a box she had near her on the countertop.
“Good job that Target and me got you this then, eh? It’s a gift from us both.”
Thanking them and then opening the box, I see a beautiful handgun in there, with a holster. Lifting it out, I check it’s not loaded and then pay attention to the detail on it. It’s a gorgeous piece of work. It has rose gold highlights on it and dare I say it? It looks very feminine for a weapon.
“It’s a Sig P365 XL 9mm Rose. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was for you. Mia has the same weapon, but they didn’t have the Rose edition when she got hers. She’s going to be pissed when she sees it, so we’ve got another on order. D’ya like it?” Winter is back to being excited again, rubbing her hands together.
“Oh guys. I love it. Can I try it out right now?”
With Winter pulling me along, we head for the range and leave the men to themselves. It doesn’t take long to fire off two clips of ammunition and I have to say, it feels good in my hand, and at 20 yards, they are all kill shots. Further out and they are all hits, but not all are killers.
Heading back to see what the men are doing. I glance at the weapons that are on display for sale. There is a beautiful rifle, wooden stock, magazine and scope.
“Winter, that is gorgeous. It reminds me of the rifle my dad taught me to shoot with. What is it?”
“It’s a CZ 527, 7.62mm. Five shot magazine, lightweight and comes with a 4-12x scope. It’s a nice rifle, Pais. We’ve had it a while now. It’s not new, but it has been lovingly cared for.”
“TwoCents, my husband. Come and buy my wedding present. We’ll take it with us, Winter.” I grin to myself with this statement.
“Target, grab me a carry case for the CZ, will you? And make it one of the good ones. Oh, and a couple of boxes of ammo, too. We’ve got plenty of that ammo here, so don’t bring any when you come for practice,” Winter positively beams at me. I’m sure that I’ll only ever have one instructor whenever I come.
Target puts the rifle in the case and the ammo on the counter. Next he passes me a t-shirt with the Shooting Range logo on it. Winter hands me a wooden case.
“You’ll need a cleaning kit. That’s my gift to you. Better than a lousy t-shirt.” She sticks her tongue out at Target, who again just shakes his head at her.
Once TwoCents has settled the bill, I take my weapons and other bits and walk to the SUV as if I’m on cloud nine.