Twenty-Five
Hale
“Don’t get attached,” I told Slash as we were on our way back to the house from our six-mile run around my property as well as both my sons’ properties.
The closer we got to the house, the faster Slash was getting, and I knew why.
He was normally slowing by this point. “She’s leaving soon! ” I shouted so he could hear me.
He ignored me. I tried to warn him. If he started sulking when she was gone, I was going to be pissed.
It was her fault too. He headed off around to the east corner of the house, and I figured Ellen must have the sunroom open.
He wasn’t going to wait for me to let him inside.
He was on a mission. Ellen had said Slash stayed in the library with Bay most of the day.
She probably rubbed his head and did that baby-talking shit. She was making my dog a damn sissy.
And why had she chosen Frankenstein of all books to read? I had shit women liked in there too. I’d had a wife once and a daughter. Their books were still on the shelves. As were all of the ones my daughter-in-law had written, and that shit was romance. The explicit kind.
Probably didn’t need to start thinking about Bay reading the dirty shit that Ransom’s wife wrote. I’d never read it personally, but seeing as it was inspired by my son, that didn’t appeal to me much.
Slash sped up once we entered the gates and was ahead of me by half a mile. It was as if he knew she was eating dinner with us. Damn dog had always understood what I was saying, even when he chose to act as if he didn’t when it suited him.
My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I slowed to pull it out.
The alert that the main gate to the property had opened wasn’t expected.
I tapped the screen to see Bane’s truck pulling up the drive.
I wasn’t sure if this was good or not. It could be that he was here to take Bay.
I should be happy about that. I’d have my privacy and dog back.
But I wasn’t, and I didn’t want to think too hard about why.
As I came to the front of the house, I waited, taking the collapsible water bottle attached to my waist and downing what I had left in there.
Bane’s truck came into view just as I finished.
If this was about Bay, wouldn’t he or Linc have just called and told me what to do with her?
I wanted it to be something else. Fuck, anything else.
At least for tonight. Then I’d have my head on straight in the morning.
Bane’s truck door closed, and I shaded my eyes with a hand from the late afternoon sun as he walked toward me.
“Got an issue,” he said as he reached me.
“Yeah?”
He tilted the front of his brown cowboy hat back on his head, and I could see the scowl on his face. It wasn’t his typical unfriendly expression. This was his pissed-off one. Now I really hoped this shit wasn’t about Bay.
“How important is Rich to you?”
Rich?
“Rich Dupe?” I asked for clarification.
Bane nodded his head once. “Ransom said this was your call to make, seeing as he’s been working for you for over twenty years.”
“What the fuck has he done?”
Bane’s expression made it seem real serious, but I couldn’t figure out what in the hell Rich could have done that involved Bane—or rather, the family.
“He’s in deep with the Trahans. Owes them five mil, and they’ve got him tied up on one of their boats down at the docks in Gulfport. Seems they know he works for one of us, so they called Linc, who handed it over to me since he is in Ocala right now.”
I shook my head. “Where did he get that kind of money? Is he gambling in their ring? Did he not know who they were? Jesus, they will skin him alive like they do their damn fish.” I sighed heavily, trying to work this out.
If he had gambled that kind of money with Trahans, fucking coke runners who used their shrimp boats as their cover, then he deserved this shit.
But then there was his wife and kids. He’d had a son graduate this year.
He was so damn proud. Kid got a full ride to State.
And his daughter was getting married in the fall. Fuck!
“I don’t know,” I said. “I need to think this through. I don’t want to give those fuckers that kind of money. But I don’t like the idea of what they’re gonna do to Rich either. He’s got a family.”
I glanced up at the house. I’d been looking forward to dinner. Not so much now.
“How much time did they give us?” I asked.
“They’re gonna start slicing a finger an hour at midnight.
You pay well, but not that well. I’m guessing their interest is more than fifty percent, but even with that, it’s a damn chunk for someone like Rich to have on hand to gamble with.
You don’t think he was running coke for them, do you?
I’ve never seen him fucked up, so I doubt he was using. ”
I shook my head. “He’s not using. He likes his whiskey, but he isn’t on anything. I’d have known. But maybe…he might have been dealing. I don’t know. If he did, he kept it off my property. And no one there knew about it, or I’d have been told.”
Dammit, Rich. What have you done?
“All right, let me get a shower, eat something, think on it. I’ll let you know what I want to do after.”
Bane nodded. “All right. I like the guy. Always showing off pics of his kids. But he made a stupid mistake, and it ain’t yours to clean up.”
He was right about that, but I still kept thinking about those kids. His wife. Wished I didn’t care. I should have looked into why he hadn’t shown up for work today. I’d been too preoccupied.
When Bane turned and headed back to his truck, I made my way inside. I hadn’t wanted that to be about Bay, but I sure as shit hadn’t wanted this either.