Shit.
Luckily, she sat right back down on the seat, then moved forward underneath the bar’s overhang, hiding everything so I could no longer see anything naughty.
“I’ll be right back,” I said kissing her forehead.
She nodded, but continued talking with Mercy and Viddy while I walked outside behind Sebastian.
It didn’t surprise me to find Miller and Trance at my back within moments of getting outside.
They were protective.
“What’s the note say?” I asked as we walked.
Sebastian didn’t say a word, only walking until we came to a stop at the passenger side door of my truck.
“How’d this happen?” I asked in a deceptively calm tone.
Inside, though, I was on fire.
My mind was reeling at the thought that I was wrong.
Earlier I’d thought that Blake had been safe. Yet, here I was being proven wrong.
“I don’t know, but you bet your ass I’ll find out,” Sebastian promised.
“You’re lucky you’re with the whore. Don’t you know it’s illegal to fuck in public?” Miller read.
I clenched my teeth.
“How’d you not see him do this?” Miller asked, walking around the truck.
“Is that…is that jizz?” Trace asked, shining the flashlight from his pocket onto the piece of paper.
“Fucking motherfucker,” I growled.
Goddammit!
“He stuck his fucking note to my door with his own goddamn jizz?” I yelled, my arms waving wildly. “Pull your fucking tapes.”
Sebastian grunted and we followed him, but he stopped at the entrance to the clubhouse, speaking lowly with the prospect. “Get that note into a Ziplock bag from the kitchen. Use gloves. Then wash the truck off. Yeah?”
The prospect nodded. “Yeah.”
Twenty minutes later found us reviewing the tapes.
“That’s Manny’s brother,” Trance said, looking closer.
“Manny’s brother?” I asked.
Trance nodded. “Yeah. He’s a member’s brother. A prospect right now.”
“Go get him,” Sebastian said.
Trance left, and came back a minute later with a very confused looking Manny.
“What’s going on?” Manny asked.
“Your brother. Where is he?” Sebastian asked.
“He said he got called into work,” Manny explained.
“Where does he work?”
That’s when he rocked my fucking world.
“Kilgore Police Department.”
My mind blanked, and I knew instantly what I had to do.
“What’s his name?” I demanded shortly.
Manny blinked. “Quentin Ortiz.”
I closed my eyes, pissed off that I knew the fucker.
He worked in evidence.
“Who you calling?” Trance asked when I moved to withdraw my phone from my pocket.
I only said one word.
“Shank.”
“And what’s he going to do?” Trance asked.
I laughed humorlessly. “Find him.”
Chapter 20
Snugglefuck- a type of foreplay that begins with snuggling, but transforms to sex after the snuggling faze is over.
-Word of the day
Blake
I knew as soon as Foster disappeared outside that something was wrong.
I also knew that the moment he showed back up inside that something was seriously wrong.
Then he’d disappeared into an office, and hadn’t come out since.
“Some party this is,” I muttered, seeing only the women left.
The men had disappeared slowly but surely, leaving only the women.
“This happens sometimes. They’re all busybodies,” Viddy explained. “They can’t stand to be left out of the action.”
A woman whom I’d just met named Baylee, laughed.
Baylee was apparently the sister of Luke, and the wife of the man who’d been the one to call Foster outside.
She was very pretty, and had a great personality.
I could see why someone would be attracted to her.
Hell. I was attracted to her.
Only in a friendly way, of course.
“Well, I guess I should get used to it, eh? I still get kind of freaked when he catches a SWAT call, though. My daddy’s a cop, too. However, he never gets called out like Foster does,” I explained.
“Who’s your dad?” Baylee asked. “I actually work for the Kilgore Fire Department. I’m just wondering if I’ve seen him around anywhere.”
I smiled at her. “He’s a state trooper. His name is Lou Rhodes.”
She looked at me oddly. “Is he the one that saved that little baby from being kidnapped two years ago?”
I smiled fondly at the memory. “Yeah, that’s him. The baby’s three now, and the sweetest thing ever. He actually lives just down the street from my father.”
“What happened?” Mercy asked.
I leaned back in my chair and relayed the events that had led up to the kidnapping.
“The parents were young. Maybe sixteen and seventeen, at most,” I said, taking a sip of my coke before continuing. “They’d been swinging the child on the swing when there’d been a commotion in the parking lot. Some kid had ran out in front of a car, and the car swerved, hitting the bathroom that was set up for the kids. Anyway, while the parents moved to see what was going on, a man had come out from behind the slide and had taken the child when they weren’t looking, taking off with him into the woods.”
They all nodded, captivated with my story of my father.
“Was your dad the hiker?” Baylee asked.
I nodded.
“Yeah, he was on my uncle’s land about ten miles from there. He’d been walking along the creek when he heard a baby crying and decided to follow the sound,” I explained. “He found the man trying to bury the kid alive. He knocked the man upside the head with a tree branch and rescued the child. They later found out that that wasn’t the man’s first time to do something like that. Apparently, it was his fifth. And that was where he’d buried those children he’d abducted.”
Baylee’s mouth was open in surprise. “I don’t remember hearing anything about that part of it.”
I shrugged. “It wasn’t something they shared with anybody but the parents of the deceased. It was on military property. Something my father got a fine for trespassing on. Which he later got a commendation for by his department.”
“Wow!” Viddy exclaimed. “That’s pretty amazing. What a relief to have an end for those parent’s, too.”
I nodded. “He was pretty shaken up about that. I don’t think he’s gotten over it two years later, either.”
Just as Viddy was about to reply, she squeaked and launched herself from the booth. “Shit, Kosher. You scared the fuck out of me.”
Surprised, I looked at her for a few long seconds before bending down to peer under the table.
That’s when I came nose to snout with a very large dog.
“Oh, he’s freakin’ beautiful,” I whispered, pulling a fry off my plate and offering the dog some food.
“Don’t feed him. He’ll get fat,” an amused male voice said in front of me.
Trance.
God, his eyes!
They were freaking beautiful. One blue, and one green.
He was handsome, of course, but his eyes were what made all the difference.
I could see why he was named Trance by the MC. Something Foster had told me during the various discussions we’d had about his family.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I hedged, sneaking Kosher another fry.
He licked the fry from my hand, then swallowed it whole.
“Uh huh,” he agreed. “I can see that.”
I grinned unrepentantly at him. “Where’s Foster?”
He pointed to a room beyond the bar. “Something came up. I was sent in here to take you ladies home w
ith me for a while. You can meet the puppies.”
“Puppies?” Mercy and I chirped at the same time.
We’d both done amazingly well about not hinting about wanting to know what was going on. It would be a losing battle. Something we both knew we wouldn’t be winning wholly for the fact that if Trance had wanted us to know, he’d have told us. Instead, he’d cleanly glossed over the two men having ‘something to do,’ and had told us what we were doing. And I was fairly sure he wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Sighing, I said, “I’ll go with you on one condition.”
He raised his brow at me. “What’s that?”
I grinned.
***
“I want the white one,” Mercy said from her perch on the floor next to me.
Oakley, Trance’s daughter, picked up the white one and gave her to Mercy. “This one’s daddy’s favorite. You can’t have her. You can have him, though.”
She pointed at the other white one. The one Trance’s son, Ford, was currently torturing…I mean holding.
“Your husband won’t let you have another one,” Trance drawled from his spot on the couch.
He was scratching Tequila’s head.
Tequila was the mother of the massive brood. She was also a trained K-9 officer, but Trance had never used her in the field.
Kosher was the father of the brood, and surprisingly protective of them all.
“How much longer do they need to stay with Tequila before they’re ready to be weaned?” Mercy asked, totally disregarding Trance’s comment.
“They were ready a week and a half ago, but Viddy here seems to think that we’re keeping them all, which we most definitely are not,” he said, directing that comment at his wife who was sitting on the chair beside her husband.
Viddy shot him a look. “It’s not that I want to keep them, it’s just that I want them to have really good homes. Homes that I can visit whenever I want to so I can check on them. Make sure they’re happy.”
I understood that.
Although I’d heard about the retired K-9 officer dying a year or two ago, I never connected them with anyone I knew until Viddy had mentioned it upon arriving at their home.
“So I can pawn them off on my brothers, make them pay, and you’re happy?” Trance asked hopefully.
She considered it for a moment, and when she didn’t find any problems with it, she answered simply. “Yes.”
He jumped off his chair. “Sold!”
Viddy laughed as I looked down at the puppy in my lap.
I currently had the brute of the bunch.
Trance and Viddy said that Ford had started calling him Morris, and I had to laugh.
“I have a bird named Boris. They’d be best friends,” I cooed, petting the beautiful black and brown puppy in my lap.
He seriously was the most adorable thing I’d ever seen.
“You have a bird?” Trance asked in disgust. “Aren’t they gross?”
I shook my head. “Surprisingly, no. He is annoying, though.”
“He says, ‘boom goes the dynamite’ when we fuck,” Foster drawled from the doorway.
I gasped, covering the closest child’s ears, which happened to be Ford. “Watch your mouth!”
He grinned. “I’m sure he’s heard worse.”
Trance snorted, not saying a word. Viddy, though, glared at her brother in law.
Grinning deviously at Foster, she turned her evil smile to me. “So Blake…did you know that Foster hates hearing the sound of a nail file? And his feet are ticklish? Oh, he’s afraid of heights, yet he doesn’t like to admit it. Or…mmmmppph.”
Foster covered her mouth. “Remember, sister dearest. I know things about you, too. I’m sure Trance would love to know what you got him for his birthday.”
“You wouldn’t,” she glared.
He grinned deviously. “Try me.”
She opened her mouth to, what I’d guess was, blast him, but she closed it with a snap. “To answer your earlier question, Blake. Yes, you can have the dog.”
“No, she can’t,” Foster tried.
“Why not?” I asked.
He scowled. “Because the apartment doesn’t allow pets.”
I could tell he was lying.
“Actually, Downy had Mocha there for months before he moved out. I’m pretty sure they won’t mind,” Miller said, coming into the kitchen with a beer for each of the brothers.
Foster punched Miller in the arm, making him rock back on his feet and laugh.
I smiled, enjoying the way the brothers teased each other.
I never had anything like that.
My parents had had another child a few years after I was born, but he’d been born stillborn. Something that had torn both of my parents up so badly that they never tried to have any more.
I looked down at the puppy in my arms. “Do you want to come home with me, Morris?”
“No! His name isn’t Morris anymore! It’s Molder!” Ford yelled loudly.
I blinked. “So it’s okay if I take Molder home with me?” I asked the little boy.
He studied me for a moment. “Yeah, I guess.”
Viddy giggled, slapping her husband on the arm. “That’s you coming out in him.”
He shrugged. “At least that’s a somewhat good thing. He’s got your temper, though.”
Viddy smiled widely at her husband. “That’s true.”
“Trance, did mom tell you she was coming in in two weeks?” Miller asked, taking a seat on the floor beside his wife.
Trance shook his head. “No. Why?”
Foster took a seat on the couch directly behind me, and moved me until I was leaning against his legs.
“She said she had some news and that she wanted to tell us about it in person,” Foster said, scratching ‘Molder’s’ head.
“Are you sure you want a dog?” Foster whispered, interrupting the conversation I was listening to.
I nodded. “I’ve always wanted a dog. He’s cute, too.”
He sighed and pulled my hair backward until I looked up at him.
“You know that they shit and piss, and all that fun stuff, right?” he confirmed.
I nodded. “Yeah. I’ll ask Uncle Darren if I can bring him to work with me, and keep him in his office.”
He snorted. “Yeah, I’m sure that’ll go over well.”
***
Later that night
“No. No dogs in the station,” Uncle Darren declared loudly through the phone.
I laughed. “Downy has a dog.”
“Downy’s dog is a trained police dog. Yours still doesn’t have control of his bladder. No. Not happening,” he confirmed.
“He’s coming with me. I’ll buy him a crate and everything,” I declared firmly.
It was my uncle’s turn to laugh. “You’re not special. I don’t allow anybody else’s dogs there. Why should I allow yours?”
I grinned, knowing I had him. “Because I’m your only niece and you love me?”
He sighed. “The first complaint I have about him, he’s gone. Understand?”
I hung up a happy woman.
“You’re so bad,” Foster said from the bed.
He was lying on his back, both hands propping his head up as he watched the ten o’clock news on the TV in front of him.
I took a freshly bathed Molder to the bathroom, and closed him in.
He laid right down on the bathmat, practically flopping down with a sigh.
“Yes, yes I am,” I agreed as I crawled onto the bed.
I didn’t stop on what I’d come to call ‘my side’ though. Instead crawling to Foster’s side, and depositing myself on his lap. Legs settling on either side of his legs.
“Tell me what’s going on,” I ordered, knowing I’d waited long enough.
He sighed and flipped off the TV with the TV changer before tossing it on the bedside table next him.
His hands settled on either side of my hips as he looked into my eyes.
God, he was
so handsome.
His normally curly blonde hair was less curly, most likely because he’d spent a lot of time running his fingers through it. Something he did when he got worried or mad.
“We think we found the man responsible for shooting up your house,” he said finally.
I blinked. “How?”
He squeezed my hips slightly as he replayed something in his head.
His eyes went hard, but his voice went softer.
“There was a note on my truck door,” he finally said. “We pulled the camera’s feed from outside, and found him. He was a brother of one of the men with The Dixie Wardens. A new member that had transferred down here form the Alabama chapter,” he explained.
“Okay,” I said. “So did you find him yet?”
He shook his head. “No. But I have someone on it. As soon as he finds him, he’ll let us know.”
I studied his face. Noting the slight crookedness of his nose, and the way he clenched and unclenched his teeth as he waited for what I had to say next.
“Should I be worried?” I asked.
He closed his eyes. “I’d like to say no. However, I’m not going to give you false hope. You need to be vigilant and make sure you’re never alone. But that’s also not saying that I can’t keep you safe. Which I’ll do. Okay?”
I nodded. “Okay.”
I knew he would, too. With his life.
Chapter 21
Daddies are protectors for life. Down to the very end.
-Words of wisdom
Foster
“What do you mean you haven’t found him yet?” I asked.
I was probably crazy as fuck for yelling at Lou “The Shank” Rhodes, but I couldn’t fucking help it.
“He’s hiding. He hasn’t been at his house in four days, and he hasn’t been to work in the same,” Lou growled.
I knew it wasn’t any easier for him, but there was only so much patience to be had.
“Silas is running his name through whatever database he uses. Gabe hasn’t found a damn thing on him other than his exemplary service record,” I growled.
Apparently Quentin Ortiz was lucky as fuck. He’d managed to slip out of every single place we’d been able to locate the last four days.
His brother was willing to help, and had given all the known addresses he could find to us, practically throwing his brother under the bus.
Charlie Foxtrot Page 14
