Chapter 4 #2
“ That boy won’t understand,” I warned.
“ Right .” Hickey nodded and tapped away on his laptop some more.
“ Understand what?” Sprout asked.
Skinner stood up, determined to make a point. “ Your ma?”
Sprout matched him, expecting Skinner to lay down fighting words. I moved my chair back in case this came to blows. “ What about her?” Sprout challenged in his lowest register.
“ She put in half of you. That means there’s at least a fifty percent chance you’ll get someone like her.” He stated the obvious much more kindly than I ever could have.
“ Damn straight, and it would be an honor to raise another biker babe like Ma . But it’s a boy. I got the picture of his dick to prove it.”
“ Oh Gods , spare us.” The last thing I needed was him passing around that grainy ultrasound picture again. I swear he mistook the umbilical cord for the kid’s penis.
Wolf finally showed up—just in time to debrief and divert us from Sprout’s insanity. I ran through what I had so far, including seeing her get into Carl’s car.
“ Bear’s got a crush on her,” Sprout added.
“ Do not,” I fired back.
“ When you saw her, what was she doing before she got into Carl’s car?” Wolf asked.
I smiled. I’d saved this part, the best part, for my president. “ Standing naked in the rain.”
He blinked.
The rest of the room laughed, thinking I’d made a joke. It died down because Wolf didn’t laugh. Instead , he let everyone get uncomfortable, then said, “ No shit?” He’d read through my poker face.
I nodded. “ She was probably casting a spell or a curse.”
He tensed. His eyes fell to the hammer pendant hanging from the chain around my neck. “ On who?”
Sprout interrupted, “ Wait a minute, Bear , you didn’t say you saw her naked.”
“ I saved that for the man who matters. So , fuck off.” Then I addressed Wolf’s question so he wouldn’t have to dig it out of me like I had to in order to get answers from these knuckleheads. “ I’m guessing… Carl .”
“ Interesting . He’s due for his second payment soon.”
There was a reason Jackson picked Wolf as his number two guy then passed the mantle of presidency off without looking back.
And it wasn’t the same reasons he’d had for VPs previously.
Apparently , Jackson had seen the writing on the wall and knew it was time to reach for a higher rank.
For that to happen, he needed someone just as smart and just as ruthless in his spot.
Wolf’s sharp mind was already weaving my information into a plan.
I added my two cents in before he got too far off track.
“ With the cop in the mix, I think it’s time I go pay him a visit and remind him what happens to snitches. ”
Wolf nodded. “ I’d say take Griz , but he’s with Jackson . Who do you want with you?”
“ I can handle Carl .”
He scrutinized me. “ Yeah ?”
“ I can.” I wasn’t that slow, I wasn’t weak, and I wasn’t stupid. I’d have my Glock as backup.
And if the gun needed a backup, I had my buck knife and my fists. “ I’m there to talk and remind him about the payment, not make him piss his pants.”
That argument Wolf could get behind. He nodded. “ Make sure someone is close, just in case.”
For that, I tapped Skinner . Not only was he good at surveillance, but also a damn good shot.
In addition, he blended in well. He slipped his nondescript utility van into an empty spot in the alley.
He stuck an electronic tag on me. It monitored two things.
My heart rate and body temperature. Nothing else.
The signal it emitted should get lost in the clutter of smart devices and cell signals nearby.
But with those two metrics, he would know instantly if I’d been shot between the eyes.
Behind Carl’s house there were floodlights, monitors, cameras, and Hela -knows what else back there giving him fair warning if anyone approached. They ‘worked better than a dog,’ according to that lunatic.
Funny thing about him saying that, there was a dog kennel in the neighbor’s yard. It had been empty for a while now.
Which gave me insight I really didn’t want to know about the man.
I stood at the back door, staring at the camera facing the stoop.
He’d open the door, or I’d hear the front door open if he rabbited. I didn’t need to knock, did I ?
One full minute later, he opened the door.
“ Hey , Bear , is it?”
Fuck answering that. My name was sewn right over my heart. “ Let me in, we need to talk.”
His eyes widened slightly. I couldn’t get a bead on whether he was surprised or scared. I was hoping for both. And I wasn’t asking. I was telling . Maybe that pissed him off?
I pushed past him and strode through the enclosed porch and into his kitchen. There was a pot simmering on the stove. Stew , by the smell of it.
The house felt different since my last visit. Instead of the tension of factions wondering if they could trust each other not to screw the other over, it felt…
Homey ?
What the fuck?
I realized it was because of the smells. Not only was a pot of stew simmering on the stove with the promise of slowly tenderized, savory beef scenting the air, but there were layers to the aromas.
Freshly baked bread and clean surfaces. Those were highly unusual smells for Carl’s house. Sure , he liked things clean, but it was never truly this clean.
I scanned the room, figuring out quickly that the two lumpy towel-covered shapes on the counter were where that fresh bread smell came from.
My dick got hard. Sue me.
Carl might have a cook, but it was the best kind, not the drug-dealer-serial-killer kind.
“ Are we alone?” I eyed the bread. I bet if I held a hand over the fabric, there’d be heat emanating from the covered loaves.
“ Yeah .”
Really now? Lying right out of the gate? Carl , Carl , Carl … shame on you .
I played along. “ Cool . Turn that shit off and sit with me in the living room. This might take a bit.”
Carl sucked on his cheek. Odds were, he was biting the inside to keep from telling me off.
For incentive, I reached inside my vest and casually took out my gun. I walked into the living room and plopped my ass on the couch. Then , set the gun on the armrest where it was inches from my fingers.
Taking a bit of comfort from the fact that I hadn’t just killed him outright, Carl smiled and took the hard-backed chair across from me, rather than the recliner. Smart .
“ I heard a rumor,” I said.
The corner of Carl’s mouth went up. “ Rumors are generally good for business.”
Some were, so I nodded, but added, “ Some are bad. Like hearing you got dropped off at your house by a cop.”
The tense line of his brows relaxed, he leaned back in the chair, losing a bit of the stiff posture he’d held as he sat down. “ That was my guy on the inside. I wrecked my car.”
“ I don’t give a fuck who it was or why. You spooked a few people.”
He laughed. Downright guffawed.
I was exactly three inches away from killing him, and he thought what I stated was funny.
“ Anyone who didn’t understand who dropped me off, deserves to be spooked.”
Was that a threat?
Or was it an insult?
“ Like I said, I heard a rumor. But maybe I need to spell things out.” I leaned forward and placed my hand on the gun.
The smile fell off his face. “ Proceed .”
The command was issued as if he were in charge here.
Fuck that. “ Eight grand and silence.”
“ I’m sorry?”
“ That’s what you owe us for the last drop.
It also is the amount of difference between where you peaked at three months ago, and where your orders are at now.
You’re down to sixteen grand in one month from us.
Not twenty-four. And not a damn word why.
” I got a little more comfortable. “ And I know that the local boys run at least thirty K . Now , that’s just one group.
This area is good for forty-six thousand a month, but last month, our cut went down.
I know consumption isn’t. Before we get to the second part of what you owe, who is pissing in our territory? ”
Carl’s posture stiffened again. “ Everyone .”
His answer was a buzzkill, despite it being a known problem.
Solving the decline in our reputation and our business was a delicate path.
We couldn’t do either of the things we needed to do, which were knock heads and seize control, because honestly?
We were getting out. But we really had to make sure it was on our terms not on someone else’s.
Otherwise , we’d never survive the fall.
“ Everyone’s wrong.”
Carl studied me. “ Perhaps .”
I stared him down. “ Does everyone include you?” I knew damn well it did.
We’d cut back on our deals with him deliberately so he’d cultivate other assets.
Twenty -four K is a lot of product tied up with a volatile asset like Carl .
But if in the act of cultivating he’d run afoul of the feds or something worse, we needed to know.
“ Don’t threaten me.”
That was Carl . That holier-than-thou attitude he’d honed seeped through his tone.
“ Why can’t I ? What’s stopping me from drilling a hole through you and that fancy-backed chair?”
A noise sounded behind me. There was barely space for a rat to crawl behind the couch, so it startled me. I stood up, pointing the gun downward as I tossed the heavy sofa into the center of the room.
Carl jumped out of the way of the moving couch, but the chair he had sat on so primly took the brunt of the hit. It clattered to the floor, breaking into a skewed mess.
I barely glanced at it.
The woman I’d seen driving Carl’s green sports car cowered in the space that had been between the sofa and the wall.
“ Who the fuck is this?” I knew damn well who it was, but I also needed to play this to the nines. Scare him. Maybe even make someone piss their pants. I rammed the point of my gun against her head. “ You said we were alone!”
Carl stretched to see the woman without getting too close to me.
“ She’s no one.” His tone dismissed her and tempted me to pull the trigger.
I grabbed her by the frumpy housedress she wore and pulled her to her feet. Her hair was all wrapped up in a braided crown around her head. I could have held her more securely by that, but I didn’t want to hurt her.
She weighed barely more than an SUV tire. And that housedress? Already torn and revealing an odd woolen undershirt. The dress ripped farther as I shook her.
Her hands gathered the fabric around her body and tried to cover what she could. But her legs were bare.
Distractions rarely bothered me. Unless they were shaped and scented like a woman.
Like … this woman.
Her feet were bare, too.
I was staring. Carl would catch on to my weakness quickly. I blurted out, “ She doesn’t look like no one. Name , now!” I shook her again.
“ Roishin ,” she said right as Carl said, “ Mary - Rose .”
I glanced between them. “ Which one of you is lying?” I pointedly glared at Carl because I knew she went by the new name.
His nostrils flared. I tightened my grip and turned the gun from the woman to him, hoping he wouldn’t make me use the weapon.
It was one thing to shoot with distractions.
And a whole different thing to shoot someone with an unpredictable bundle of hissing she-cat barely controlled in the opposite hand.
“ Forgive me, I’m used to her… dead name.”
What interesting phrasing. And he spoke it casually, as if I weren’t holding a gun on him at all.
“ Roishin Black .” She had a lyrical voice. The notes of it were quiet, soft, and utterly feminine in quality and timbre.
“ Did I say you could talk?”
Carl stepped forward with a raised hand.
I stuck the gun out, aiming in a deadline for his nose. “ Did I say you could move?”
He froze. Slowly , he lowered his hand.
Even more slowly, a smile grew on his lips. “ Do you like her?”
This was not going as I expected. When did he gain the upper hand? I had a gun on him. “ Not if she’s a fucking narc. You know what happens to narcs. Is she one?”
Carl was cool, calm, and deliberate as he spoke. “ She’s not. She’s … how to put it?” He pretended to think for a moment. Then , that macabre grin got bigger. “ She’s property.”
“ Of you?”
“ Yes .”
Fuck .
I let go, practically dropping her. “ I see. No harm. No foul.” I even tucked the gun away to prove to Carl that I was going to let this all go.
But I wasn’t. There was a red mark across her arm.
It was ugly bright, with the center of it turning darker by the second.
Something hard and narrow did that. A cane or maybe a crop.
I didn’t know. And nothing nearby gave me any clues.
Notably , she didn’t retreat to Carl for protection.
She remained where she’d landed on the floor, barely moving.
Her dress was ripped all the way down the back.
She’d hunched it up to cover her ass, but that strange undershirt was completely exposed.
So was the reddened skin near the armholes and neckline.
That was either an allergic reaction or chafing. And it had to hurt.
But she barely moved. Not even to breathe. It was as if she was trying to avoid attracting the attention of a predator.
Or two of them.