Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“All I’m saying is they should call it Golden Throne instead of Golden Palace, because I ended up on the toilet all night, shitting my brains out.”
Cody wrinkled his nose.
“And Aggie had no issues at all, of course.” Jugs lifted another trap into the back of the truck.
The squirrel inside darted back and forth, chittering and shrieking.
Each shriek drilled into Cody’s temples as Jugs kept talking.
“She even suggested I might be faking it to get out of work. How do you fake something like that?”
“Really can’t,” Cody said as he moved the trap to the back of the cab. He stood in the bed of the truck, sweaty skin itchy from having been up in another attic. The sun felt like lava across the back of his neck, and his briefs were drenched.
“Are you listening to me?”
Cody frowned at him. “Yeah, of course.”
“Doesn’t seem like it.”
“I just answered you, didn’t I?”
That made Jugs think. “Huh. That’s true.”
“There you go.”
“You’ve been acting weird all morning. What happened over the weekend?”
Cody turned away to adjust the row of cages, even though all of them were secure. Eight squirrels running around in their client’s attic. His brain could relate.
How the hell could he explain everything that had happened the last few days?
“It’s so hot in that attic. Do you boys want some iced tea to go?”
Cheryl Gibson, their client, was a sweet senior lady with white hair in a neat bun on the back of her head. Seeing her in a cardigan sweater almost made Cody pass out from heatstroke. Cheryl held two clear plastic cups filled with tea, complete with lids and straws.
“You are an angel from above, Mrs. Gibson,” Jugs said, accepting the drinks. “Where did you get these cups? It’s like you run your own drive-thru or something.”
She laughed and touched Jugs’s arm as Cody climbed down from the truck.
“I worked for a while at that Chick-fil-A over in Thorndale.” She crossed her arms and shook her head. “The manager was a snotty twenty-something named Preston.”
Jugs shook his head. “Never met a Preston I liked.”
“Have you ever met a Preston?” Cody asked, taking a long drink of tea through his straw. It was sweet, and the sugar hit him like a sledge hammer, making him squint.
“I was working to supplement my retirement, not start a new career at eighty years old.” She huffed and crossed her arms. “He demanded I work late one night and organize the stock room. So, I helped myself to four of those big garbage bags full of cups with lids and straws and left him a note telling him just what I thought of him.” She lightly touched her bun.
“Now when I’m invited to potlucks, I always sign up to bring cups. ”
Cody snorted a laugh and almost shot tea out his nose.
Cheryl and Jugs talked a little longer, then Cody handed her the invoice. She pulled a credit card from the back pocket of her embroidered jeans, and he applied a fifteen percent discount because he kind of loved her.
“You boys take care and stay cool,” she said as she stood by the truck in her cardigan sweater, chafing her arms. “And thank you!”
Cody pulled away from the curb, the squirrels chittering and rattling their cages in the bed.
“She’s pretty great,” Jugs said, sipping his tea. “And she makes some awesome tea.”
“Yeah.”
Jugs smacked him on the arm.
“Ow!” Cody gave him an annoyed side-eye. “What the hell was that for?”
“You’re being a dick today.”
“Why? Because I called you out for never having met someone named Preston?”
“I wasn’t even thinking about that, but yes, now that you bring it up. What’s going on?”
Cody rubbed a hand across his chest, feeling the raised lines beneath his damp Critter Catchers polo. “A lot happened over the weekend.”
“Like what?”
“Let’s release the squirrels, and I’ll fill you in.”
Jugs squinted as he sipped his tea. “I’m not going to like it, am I?”
“Do you ever like anything I tell you?”
“I like when you tell me you’re leaving for the day.”
Cody let him have that one. He’d kind of walked into it.
It was a bit cooler under the trees around Parson’s Pond, but still humid.
Cody pulled the truck off the sandy trail, and he and Jugs got out.
They carried the cages a short distance into the woods to release the squirrels, standing back to watch them scurry up trees.
Once they’d returned the cages to the truck and Cody lifted the tailgate, Jugs leaned against the back.
“Okay, Bonker, talk.”
He told him all of it, including his and Demmy’s argument. Jugs swore through most of it, and by the time Cody had finished, he was pacing and waving his hands overhead.
“Vampires? Again?”
“Yep.”
“And now there’s a vampire bar just sitting out there in the middle of some cornfields?”
“Yep.”
“And, what? We’re just supposed to be okay with all this?” Jugs stopped to stare at him.
“Marlowe protected us when her patrons started to get worked up.”
“Worked up?” Jugs started pacing again. “Worked up? That’s how you’re going to describe the way they want to tear out your throat and guzzle your blood?”
“Look, I knew this would upset you—”
“Upset me?” He stopped again, eyes wide enough to show the whites all around. “I’m beyond upset. I’ve reached really fucking alarmed.”
“Maybe that sweet tea wasn’t such a good idea. You really need to calm down.”
“Calm down?” Jugs’s register had gone way up. “How am I supposed to calm down when there are vampires all around us?”
“Because you’re getting into high-pitched whiny mode, and I already have a headache.”
Jugs took a step closer and pointed at him.
“You and I both almost died at that wedding back in June. Same thing happened when that fucking witch released that demon, not to mention the previous vampire invasion, and the werewolves before that, and all the other terrifying things that have happened here. How is anyone who lives in this town or this fucking county supposed to be calm?”
It went on that way for a little longer until Jugs had released enough steam for his voice to return to its normal pitch. When he finally collapsed against the tailgate, arms draped over the top and chin resting on them, Cody spoke.
“You done?”
Jugs glared from the corner of his eye.
“I’ll take that as a yes. Look, I don’t know what the next steps are.
Demmy and I need to get everyone together to talk through it all.
What we do know, though, is Bastian is dangerous on multiple levels.
Not only is he an asshole disciple of Xavier’s and has pretty much picked up where his idol left off, but he’s also running this Fang operation. ”
“Fang.” Jugs snorted. “Not even an original name.” He straightened up and turned to face him. “Sounds like Zenona’s neck deep in all of this, pun intended. How do you feel about that?”
Cody gripped the top of the tailgate and his jaw tightened.
“How do you think I feel?” He forced his fingers to loosen.
“But I also get it, in a way. Or I’m trying to.
She lost someone important, someone different from anyone else she’s ever met.
She was trying to get a bit of that back.
” He shook his head and looked up at the deep blue sky visible between the branches.
“But I hate she’s been using that stuff. ”
“Really got her up and going again after being tased?”
Cody snorted. “She looked better than ever, and she was full of energy, laughing and flirting with Hortense.”
Jugs frowned. “Who?”
“The great-great grandfather of the woman who lives next door to the bar. She’s the one who saved Demmy and me from Bastian.”
“The asshole vampire?”
“No, Hortense is a cool guy.”
“No, I meant Bastian.”
“Oh, yeah.”
They were both silent for a bit, then Jugs said, “You really were a dick to Demetrius, you know.”
Cody ground his teeth and didn’t respond.
“You know that, right?”
He glanced at Jugs, and then away. “He started it.”
“Cody Duran Bower.”
“Jesus Christ,” Cody breathed. He ran a hand across the back of his neck, the skin still sticky and hot.
“You know what you did was wrong.”
“I know, okay? I know.”
“Did you apologize?”
“At least a million times.”
“Uh huh. In one of those million times, did you actually say the words ‘I’m sorry’ to him?”
“What are you, a couple’s counselor now?”
“No.”
Cody turned to fully face him, one arm still on the tailgate. “That was a cagey response.”
“No, it wasn’t.” Jugs looked at him again, brows drawn down and eyes hard. “And we’re talking about you, not us.”
“Us? You got a mouse in your pocket…?” Cody’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh, shit. You and Aggie are going to couple’s counseling.”
“Goddammit.” Jugs screwed up his face and looked away. After a brief silence, he said, “It was a mutual decision.”
Cody nodded. “I’m glad you guys are doing that.” He turned to lean back against the tailgate. “Is it helping?”
“Sometimes.” Jugs scoffed quietly. “Most times it turns out everything’s my fault.”
“I feel that.”
They stood in comfortable silence. The wind found its way to them through the trees, cooling Cody’s skin a bit.
Finally, Jugs said, “I need to go to Ike’s and get Enid Helen’s food.”
Cody frowned. “That’s on your way home. Why don’t you stop in then?”
“By then I’ll be too tired. We have two more jobs this afternoon.”
“Oh my God, you’re such a baby.” Cody started for his door. “Let’s go.”
It wasn’t a long drive to Ike’s Market, but going there meant they had to go through the downtown area, out 118 past the Critter Catchers office and the Hollow Leg. The intersection with Hemlock Way, the road where The Rusty Screw sat waiting for sunset, was just a quarter mile farther.
Inside, Cody threw a glance at the register where Annie used to be stationed, putting in the least amount of effort to get her through the day.
A new, younger woman was scanning items for a man talking on his phone as if she didn’t even exist. A cold, tight ache churned inside him, and he forced himself to look away from the checkout lane and grab a hand basket.
As Jugs headed for the pet food, Cody prowled the aisles, grabbing a few canned items and some granola bars.
He heard impatient voices from the far back corner where the deli and meat counter was situated, and, curious, he stepped into the aisle running along the back of the store to check things out.
One of the younger kids was manning the counter alone, eyes wide and face greasy with sweat as he tried to manage a gaggle of older women speaking over each other.
Cody took pity on the kid and approached, saying in his most charming tone, “Looks like the Miss America tour has made a stop in our humble town. Hello, ladies.”
Most of the women laughed and turned to him with smiles. A couple of them, however, were more immune to his charms. They were in front, pressed up close to the case and giving him suspicious looks from behind their glasses.
“We were here first,” one of them snapped. “Get in line.”
The kid behind the counter gave him a grateful look before focusing on the two women determined to ignore Cody.
So he talked with the other four women, asking them about the cuts of meat they liked and what sides they prepared.
One by one the kid waited on the women, and they headed off with butcher-paper wrapped parcels in their carts, smiling and waving goodbye to Cody.
Jugs had found him by then and stood nearby, shaking his head. “You have no shame.”
“I was helping this guy out,” Cody said, waving toward the counter. He saw the guy’s name tag: Alec.
“Dude, thank you,” Alec said. “I thought I was a dead man.”
“They were getting pretty feisty,” Cody said, then lifted his chin toward the double swinging doors that led to the back. “Paul on his break or something?”
“No, man, it’s just me. Paul’s called in sick the last two days.” Alec shook his head then wiped an arm across his forehead.
A chill started at the base of Cody’s spine and extended all the way up and across the top of his head.
He swallowed hard and forced a smile. “Damn, that sucks.” He asked for two chicken breasts and a couple pounds of ground round.
He could put it in the refrigerator in the break room of the office before going out on the other jobs with Jugs.
As Alec packaged up his order, Cody stood staring at the bright red slabs of meat on display behind the glass. He wondered if that was the way Bastian saw the entire population of Parson’s Hollow.
“Here you go.” Alec slid the meat across the top of the display, the paper bright white under the fluorescent lights. He looked around, then said in a low voice, “I added an extra half pound of the burger as a thank you.”
The paper crinkled when Cody grabbed the packages. “Thanks, Alec, I appreciate it. If you talk to Paul, tell him I hope he’s back on his feet soon.”
“I will if he ever picks up his phone again.”
Another customer approached the counter, and Cody waved and turned to Jugs. “Let’s get out of here.”
“What was that about?”
“More trouble.” Cody looked around before saying in a quiet voice, “Bastian’s been busy.”