Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 72561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
***
Later that night
“Goddamn, but I told that asshole that neither he, nor I, was allowed to open the box, but he was persistent. Put me in cuffs when I refused to open it. So I had to watch as he broke the electronic seal on the back doors,” Colton groaned. “He throws the back doors open, and I see from my position in the back of the cop car when he realizes what he’d just done. Ten minutes later, I hear the whomp-whomp-whomp, of two Apache’s heading towards us at a dead fucking sprint. Officer Dick scrambles out of the back of the box to see men start repelling from the motherfuckin’ Apache’s and landing on the ground. They were aiming weapons at everyone, and I was in the backseat laughing my ass off.”
I looked at him in stunned surprise.
“You didn’t know what you were transporting?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Negative. I only knew that it was something important. I had to call them with hourly updates. This was my fourth haul for this particular company, and I continued to do it since it paid so much. Should’ve known it was the fucking government.”
Sebastian, Cleo, Sterling, Trance, Kettle and I were all gathered around the bar at Halligans and Handcuffs, the bar and grill that the Dixie Wardens MC just recently opened.
Channing was in the corner, surrounded by all the old ladies, while Colton told us about his last haul he’d just completed.
“Goddammit, Loki, I fucking told you that you couldn’t have your dog here anymore.” Dixie growled from across the bar.
I turned to find him holding onto Lucy’s collar with a ferocious frown on his face.
“And I told you that, as soon as you refused to let Trance’s dog in here, I would stop bringing Lucy,” I said just before taking a sip of my beer.
“And I told you, that Trance’s dog knows fucking obedience! Your dog was just eating through a big ass fucking bag of tortilla chips,” he thundered.
I glared back at him. “What the fuck were the chips doing on the ground where he could reach them?”
Dixie picked up the closest thing, which happened to be a salt shaker, and launched it at me. “It was on the top shelf of the pantry, dillweed!”
I caught it effortlessly, but could think of nothing to say. “How the hell did he get up there?”
“Fucking Silas left a ladder leaning against the far wall,” he grumbled as he let Lucy’s collar go.
Chuckles filled the air around me as I called Lucy to my side. “Sit down, you big bastard.”
He sat, laying his head next to Kosher’s.
Kosher was Trance’s K-9 dog, and the polar opposite of Lucy.
Lucifer a.k.a. Lucy, was dark where Kosher was light. Lucifer started out as a Ben, and slowly changed to a Lucifer.
He ate couches.
He ate walls.
He ate my clothes.
Anything that was left within his eating distance was fair game to him. Which was why he was now kenneled during the times I was gone.
I tried to take him everywhere I went, other than work, but it was obvious if he was going to continue living up to his namesake, that I couldn’t continue bringing him here.
Silas wouldn’t tolerate it for much longer, and then I’d never hear the end of it.
“Alright, Dixie. After tonight, I won’t bring him with me anymore,” I pouted.
He turned around and left without another word.
“You really going to leave him at home?” Trance asked with a raised eyebrow.
He, too, had been on the receiving end of Lucy’s destructive mouth, and I ended up having to buy him a new stock for his AR-15 to pay for the one Lucy had destroyed.
I shook my head. “Nah, I’ll just tie him to a run outside. That way he’s not cooped up in his cage.”
“We used to have a Rottie like him. Although it was a girl. Her name was Bonnie. She died during the hurricane with my Margery,” Colton admitted sadly.
“I didn’t know that. Channing’s very closed off when it comes to her mom. I only got the bare bones explanation, and never pushed for more,” I replied carefully.
I knew Hurricane Katrina was catastrophic, but it’d never really touched me like it did everyone else in the lower half of Louisiana. Like it had Channing.
I’d seen how much it hurt the one and only time I’d asked about Channing’s parents, and hadn’t brought up the subject since.
“Yeah, she doesn’t like talking about it. I don’t blame her. She was with her mom when the tree they were holding onto collapsed. Channing had managed to hold onto what was left of the tree limb, but Margery was swept away. Channing blames herself. I blame myself. It was an all-around horrific thing, and she’s never been able to get past it. She’d already been traumatized from that impersonating fucker trying to rape her, and then that happened. Needless to say, she’s just lucky to be doing as good as she is,” he told me.
The men around the table had conveniently found something else to look at, but I knew they were listening.
Anything that affected me, affected them. They were like a bunch of old nosey women who spied out the window at the neighborhood. But I was grateful. I liked that I always had them at my back.
“I’m sorry to hear that, Colton,” I said truthfully.
He shrugged his shoulder. “Been a long time, now. Life has a way of pulling the cards that it thinks is best for you. Sometimes you win with the hand you’re dealt, and sometimes you lose. But the hand you’re given is only won by the skill of the player. I’ve just got to trust in that; otherwise, I’d have nothing to look forward to.”
“Did you learn anything else while you were meeting with the chief and following up on the leads he had for you?” Trance asked.
Everyone at the table silenced, and they listened for my reply.
I really shouldn’t have been talking about an active investigation, but after today, it didn’t much matter.