12. Dallas
DALLAS
A sharp whistle pierced my ears. “Hey! Dallas!”
I turned at the sound of Deac’s voice. “What?”
He thumbed over his shoulder. “Head back to the clubhouse with Gauge. You guys need to get a move on calling those contractors.”
I walked over to him. “Any specific place you want us to start first with the renovations?”
His eyes scanned the bar around us. He drew in a curt breath as his stare landed on the bar top, to which I braced myself for the wonderful news that we’d be ripping that nasty, sticky old thing out with our bare hands.
After all, our clientele wasn’t going to enjoy walking into a rundown dive bar when we were known for providing top quality service along with our top quality merchandise.
But, before he spat anything out at me, his thigh started vibrating.
“Someone having a bit of fun on the clock?” I asked with a smirk.
He glared at me as he shoved his hand into his pocket and ripped out his cell. “It’s Plug.”
I nodded at his phone. “Well, go on. Answer it and see what he has to say.”
But, instead of picking up the call, he unhinged his jaw. “Gauge!”
I stuck my finger in my ear and wiggled it around. “Thanks for the warning.”
“Anytime,” he said as he patted my shoulder. “Gauge!”
He popped up from behind the bar. “What?”
“Come with us.”
And as Deac turned on a dime, we found ourselves back in that cramped little office that I still wasn’t sure how Miss Lilly could stand. The three of us barely fit in there without knocking shoulders, and part of me wanted to blow out the fucking wall just to make the damned thing bigger.
“Maybe it’s just me,” Gauge said as he stared up at the ceiling, “but this really should just be a storage room.”
“Preach,” I muttered.
And when Deac’s phone rang again with Plug’s name flashing across his screen, he picked up the call and put it on speaker.
“You’ve got all three of us,” he said.
“Perfect, one phone call. Great,” Plug said.
“Whatcha got for us?” I asked.
“It’s been less than an hour since we last talked,” Deac said, “what the hell have you already found?”
Plug snickered. “Hey, it’s not my fault her father’s trial was national news.”
“What death?” Gauge asked.
“I swear, do you guys not watch the news at all? I would’ve recognized her the second I laid eyes on her,” Plug said.
“Quit being a cheeky ass and answer us,” Deac said.
I folded my arms across my chest as Plug dicked around on his keyboard on the other end of the line.
“I didn’t have to do a lot of digging on her,” Plug said.
“Obviously,” I said flatly.
Plug groaned. “Shut up and let me finish. Okay, so, it didn’t take long for me to find everything on her because she doesn’t put much out there about herself. She’s got no social media, no picture-sharing accounts anywhere.”
“Vacation pictures?” I asked.
“Nope,” Plug said.
“Investment accounts?” Gauge asked.
“Nothing outside of a regular checking account,” Plug said.
I furrowed my brow deeply. “What about?—”
But, Deac hopped to the forefront again. “What about her father, Plug? Stay on track.”
That’s when both Gauge’s and my phones dinged in our pockets. Deac’s, too. Well, it didn’t ding, but it sure as hell lit up in our faces before a notification for an email popped up.
“I just sent you guys everything I found on her father and what happened,” Plug said.
And when Deac opened that fucking email?
“Holy fuck,” I said as I snatched his phone from him. “I know that face. That was her fucking father?”
Gauge loomed over me with that damned shadow of his. “I remember that.”
Deac snatched his phone back before clearing his throat. “Why don’t you sum it up for us, Plug.”
A command, not a question.
Deac wasn’t happy.
“There was a lot of in-fighting, I can tell you that,” Plug said as he typed away on his keyboard. “Everyone fought to keep it a closed court session because of her testimony. You know, underage and all that.”
The three of us stayed silent as his typing stopped.
“You guys there?” he asked.
“Just keep going,” the three of us said in unison.
“All right, all right, geez,” he muttered before he cleared his throat. “Okay, so. The gist of it is this: her father had an insane heroin addiction, and he was incredibly abusive because of it. It looks like Charlotte?—”
“Char,” I said.
Gauge and Deac slowly turned their stares to me, and I shrugged.
“What? It’s what she prefers.”
“Keep going,” Deac said flatly.
“Anyway,” Plug said flippantly, “it came out in court that her mother threw herself in front of many of those beatings that weren’t meant for Char. And her testimony is damning for both of them.”
“What does it say?” I asked.
“Anything. Everything. It talks about how her father used to come in hot from work sometimes and go straight to smacking her around. There’s a recount of how he almost raped her one time because he was so high he thought she was her mother.”
“Jesus Christ,” Gauge whispered.
“She was made to do a lot of things at the beginning of his addiction when he was still functioning, apparently,” Plug said. “Everything from packing weed bags for her mother to sell when she was only seven to?—”
He paused, and my stomach tied itself into knots.
“To what, Plug?” Gauge asked curtly.
Plug cleared his throat. “Everything from packing weed bags to cleaning up blood off surfaces after her father was done?—”
“That’s enough,” I said.
Fucking hell, the ringer this woman had been put through.
And by her own father, no less. I knew what it was like to lose a family member over some shit like that.
Watching them succumb to an addiction they can’t control.
Watching them destroy everything they once held dear for a monster growing within them.
The idea that she had born witness to it—that she had suffered the unintended consequences of it—made my fucking blood boil.
I wanted to slaughter her father.
“Her testimony single-handedly put her father away for the rest of his life,” Plug said as his voice pierced the silence.
Deac drew in a deep breath. “And we have to take that seriously.”
Gauge simply shook his head, though. I watched his shadow move as I cracked my neck and shifted my weight on my feet.
“I’m with Gauge,” I said.
Deac groaned. “Of course, you are.”
I shrugged. “I still think we shouldn’t kick her out unless absolutely necessary.”
“Wait,” Plug said breathlessly, “you—you guys haven’t already fired her? She’s an insane risk.”
“I know,” Deac said.
Gauge clicked his tongue. “We aren’t kicking her out of her home.”
“I’m with Biggie over here,” I said.
Deac turned to face us. “The hell’s going on with you guys? This is standard for us. She’s a threat, we kick her to the curb, give her some money to get herself set up somewhere else, problem solved.”
“No,” I said plainly.
Deac looked over at Gauge, only for the mountain man himself to shake his head again.
To which our President scoffed. “Good to know that a nice set of tits makes you guys pussy the fuck out.”
Plug barked with laughter, but we didn’t join him.
Mostly, because he was right.
She had a nice fucking rack.
“Keep digging,” Deac said as his voice interrupted Plug’s goddamn howling, “I want to know everything there is to know on her, her father, and her mother.”
“On it,” he said.
“And as for you two, we’ll talk later about this little problem you guys seem to have,” Deac said as he hung up the phone and turned his head toward the ceiling.
I watched him exit the office before I found my voice. “Where are you going?”
He rounded the corner and continued walking. “Upstairs.”
“What?” I asked as Gauge and I darted out into the hallway.
“You want someone to come with you?” Gauge asked.
“No,” Deac said as he craned his stare over his shoulder, “you two stay put and do as you’re told. Me and the tenant above us need to have a little chat. So, don’t wait up.”