Settling into his chair, he looked at the face of his phone before tapping the screen going into his contacts, he tapped again to dial Zeke’s number and placed the phone to his ear, his asshole chewing buttonholes in the seat of the chair.
“Zeke, we have a big problem,” Josh stated, swallowing hard.
12.
Her alarm clock began its siren call at six-fifteen in the morning, jolting Tiffany out of the best dream, though, as she turned over, alarmed and disoriented she completely forget what it was she had been dreaming about. Clearing her throat softly, Brody lifted his head up for a moment as she pushed the covers back, but otherwise didn’t make a move to get up. He just wasn’t much of a morning person, which Tiffany really wasn’t either. She just had to force herself to be awake sometimes. Rubbing her eyes, she padded out of the bedroom and flipped the light on in the bathroom, turning the faucet on to splash cold water on her face –when that didn’t work, she got in the shower, standing under the hot spray praying for wakefulness.
Wrapped in a towel, she made a pot of coffee as Brody finally made his way out of the bedroom, stretching so hard that his front legs just gave in and he laid down on the floor. Yesterday was a big day for him, and he was still recovering from running about town chasing criminals.
Drinking her coffee she sat down on the couch in her towel as she turned on the television to check the news, just about the only time that Tiffany watched cable and she had a digital antenna for that so she didn’t have to pay a dime to see what the weather would be.
It was supposed to rain at some point, but as she looked at the dark sky, it looked like it would be overcast all day. She’d remember to bring a jacket to throw on, so she didn’t get soaked.
Recovering from sleep, she stumbled into the kitchen feeling her stomach growling she took the rest of her leftovers from Eddie’s and put it in the oven to warm up, the other half of a chicken Parmesan sub would serve as a good breakfast this morning and she went ahead and filled Brody’s food dish because she knew that she would leave the house a little before eight and he was going to be hungry for breakfast, whether she was home or not.
Dressing, she ran a blow dryer through her brown almost black hair, straightening it before she pulled it all up into a loose bun on top of her head, feeling more awake as the scent of food began to waft through the tiny apartment. Letting Brody out she slipped her sandals on and went to the mailbox, remembering that she hadn’t checked it the day before when she got home. While Brody did his business, she thumbed through the mail, nothing but bills and clothing catalogs offering her some kind of store discount if she signed up for their in-store credit card, overhead the sky looked ominous and she hoped that didn’t mean today was going to go badly. Tiffany was a little nervous about meeting Gene, Margaret’s husband.
Tossing her sub into a bowl, she settled on the couch, turning on YouTube, but her stomach felt a little unsettled, though it was likely all nerves. While Margaret might have been happy with just grabbing someone off the street to go chasing down a bond, maybe her husband wouldn’t be? Eating a few bites of her sub, Tiffany couldn’t handle it and put it back in the fridge for later, it was almost like the first two weeks at a new job when she felt like she was going to throw up. She hoped that this didn’t turn into a new habit, feeling sick to her stomach in the morning.
Checking the time, she went to the bathroom and took a couple swigs from the Pepto bottle before she checked her reflection in the mirror. Thankfully, Tiffany didn’t look sick.
The sooner Tiffany got to the office, the quicker she could get her anxiety out of the way. Maybe Gene would be a very nice man who was a lot like his wife and thought that Tiffany was awesome, not that she was trying to put words into Margaret’s mouth. She didn’t know that Margaret thought she was anything, but she knew that they enjoyed spending time together and she hadn’t minded all of Tiffany’s probably obvious questions. Brushing her teeth, Tiffany went into her bedroom and found a pair of clean socks in her dresser and slipped them on so that she could have on running shoes today. That was the number one fear she had yesterday, if Mel popped out of nowhere and they needed to chase him down, they were both in flip-flops, Tiffany knew she could run in them, she could outrun anyone barefooted if she wanted to. She was a bunny; running was kind of her thing, but could Margaret? As it occurred to her, Tiffany really wanted to see Margaret in action, while she had completely disregarded her physic when they met, seeing her again yesterday taught her something, Margaret worked out, she had to because there was no other excuse to be in such amazingly good shape! Tiffany hoped that as she got older and reached Margaret’s age, she was able to attain her figure as well as Margaret had.
Turning the TV off, Tiffany turned the radio on low because she’d noticed there were times when she left YouTube or Hulu on for Brody while she was out, that it went to that screen where it was waiting for you to choose another video or asked if you were still watching. Then the apartment was completely silent. Brody always had an accident on the floor those days, so she left the radio on for him so that he could have something to listen to besides outside noises that may have potentially scared him.
“Ok, buddy. I don’t know how long I will be out today, but I will do my best to keep it under four hours before I come back and we can get lunch together.” Brody stared at her, making that face where his eyes got all big like he was questioning if she was really leaving him. Margaret hadn’t minded Brody being with them yesterday, instantly she began to waver. Twisting her lips up somewhat before she went and turned the radio off. “Ok, you can come with me. But only if you promise to be a good boy like yesterday, okay?” Brody barked softly, beginning to dance where he stood. It was like he knew that he had her wrapped around his little paw. Tiffany shook her head gently as she grabbed his leash and attached it to his collar, leaving the house.
Margaret had said that she would get donuts from Howie’s in the morning, but Tiffany was still very nervous about meeting Gene, she wanted to make a good first impression on him, plus Brody hadn’t eaten any of his breakfast this morning. Swinging through the Hardy’s drive-thru on the way she got nine bacon egg cheese biscuits. Each of them could have two, and there were extras just in case anyone else was in the office wanted one, or who knew, they might all be extra hungry and eat three apiece. Once she was on her way, and the Pepto had settled her stomach, Tiffany felt like she could chow down on a whole cow if it had been on the Hardy’s breakfast menu.
Now that her gift of food was situated in her lap as she drove, Brody was very curiously checking out the bag, sniffing and snorting with excitement, Tiffany drove down the main street noticing how utterly deserted the town looked this early in the morning. Whenever she had an opening shift at the grocery store, she never went this way. This was the oldest part of the town, the part of town that was first built a hundred years ago when the town was originally founded, but as the generations wore on, it grew and expanded to areas that were more suburbanized, though it never got as big as some of the other towns or cities that were about thirty to forty-five minutes away.
Pulling up, she saw Margaret’s car and another one parked right in front of the building so she pulled into the space that was beside Margaret’s and hopped out, Brody sniffing and snorting as he tried to get back to the delicious scent of bacon that was totally overwhelming to him from the fast food bag.
The door was still locked, but she could see lights on inside, so she tapped on the door with her knuckles, knowing she was still just a little early. Tiffany had a paranoid fear of being late, so she always showed up in places a little earlier than she needed to.
Smiling, she saw Margaret coming towards the door. Once more she was wearing a kind of sporty gym type of outfit. A tank top and yoga pants, but today she had on sneakers. Tiffany was relieved to see that she had made the correct choice in shoes today. She was going to take it as a sign that they might be doing some running today.
“Hey sweetheart, get on in here. What’s th
at?” Margaret instantly pointed at the fast-food sack.
“Well, I know that you said you were grabbing donuts this morning, but I thought I might bring some bacon, egg and cheese biscuits too, because, well I could eat a cow so I always assume everyone around me can too.” Tiffany laughed as she scooted deeper into the office and Margaret closed and relocked the door behind her.
“You’re a lifesaver because guess who forgot to go to Howie’s this morning? Me. And Gene is being a total bear this morning so these will put him in a much better mood.”
Bear. Tiffany felt her cheeks flush deeply as Margaret said that. Then, she felt her heart sink right down to her butt hole. What if Gene… was the guy?
Hearing someone moving around towards the back of the office, Tiffany felt her stomach knot up before she saw the outline of a man of about five-eleven, he was a somewhat rotund man, though she wouldn’t have considered him fat, he was just built that way, he had salt and pepper hair and a mustache. Tiffany was instantly reminded of Tom Selleck as Magnum P.I. Her fears instantly washed away.
“I smell food,” Gene said, looking around, he was also wearing a loosely fitted button down short sleeve shirt, board shorts, and flip flops. He looked like an old surfer dude, which added to Tiffany imagining Magnum P.I. as an older man. “Is that food?” He smiled at Tiffany. He was a bear, but more like –a big cuddly teddy bear of a man. Tiffany also didn’t smell any shifter on him at all.
“Yeah, I brought bacon, egg and cheese biscuits,” Tiffany replied, giving him a smile of her own as his flip-flops slapped against his heels. How had a man who looked like this, so laid back, become a bondsman? Tiffany hoped that he liked her enough that she got to stick around. She knew she wasn’t exactly ready to leave her current job, she’d only been doing this well –this was her second day and she wasn’t even officially an employee either, nor did she know if she ever would be, but she did know that so far, this was exciting and she’d enjoyed yesterday.
“Oh, right up my alley. Ok. She can stay.” Gene chuckled extending his hand out to Tiffany which she took, and he ended up shaking her whole arm in the process. “I’m Gene, as I am sure my wife has probably told you. She’s told me a lot about you too. Like that you’ve got what it takes to become an aspiring bounty hunter.” Gene winked at his wife before taking the fast-food sack from her arms. “Come on in the back and we can bust into these bad boys.”
“He’s no one to be afraid of unless you jump bond,” Margaret told Tiffany as she nudged her shoulder gently and they walked to the back of the office where there was a sitting area and large television and a dry erase board. Tiffany noticed that Mel’s picture was already taped to it.
“Were you able to come up with any leads yesterday?” Tiffany asked before Gene suddenly began to shout.
“No! No business talk before breakfast, it’s bad for your digestion. We’ll get to all that. Ladies, come to have a seat.” Gene was getting paper plates out of a cabinet, there was a coffee machine over in the corner, she noticed, and he was taking down a mug. “How do you like your coffee, Tiffany?”
Tiffany laughed a little, finding a seat on the sofa. “Why do I feel like if you’d remembered donuts, I would be talking to a surfer dude Santa Clause?” She asked, leaning over to whisper to Margaret. Snickering she nodded up and down. “I take it with cream and sugar, please. If you have it.” Tiffany replied, looking at Margaret as she continued to silently laugh.
“You have no idea; you should see him at Christmas time.” Margaret replied with a little twinkle in her eyes.
“Hmm? What? What are you ladies whispering about over there?” Gene asked, bringing two paper plates to the small coffee table in the room and the food sack before he then returned finally taking a seat as he balanced three coffee mugs and his own plate, his eyes following a little blonde dog who was just as interestingly following him.
“Tiffany and I were just discussing our favorite Holiday’s,” Margaret said as she took a breakfast sandwich from the bag and began to unwrap it.
The three of them spent some time getting to know one another while they ate their breakfast, and Tiffany was happy that she had gotten three sandwiches for each of them. Between herself and her ravenous hunger lately, Tiffany nearly inhaled hers. It was lucky that Gene and Margaret had been eaters just like she was because once it was time to start work, they had cleared the bag. And Brody got to have pinches of biscuit and bacon from everyone before he finally decided that he would take a nice morning nap next to Gene, who apparently was just as much of an animal lover as Margaret and couldn’t stop petting him and telling him, in baby talk, what a handsome boy he was.
“Okay,” Margaret began as she picked up the file folder on the coffee table. “Last night I made a few calls. I got in touch with Mel’s cousin, Josh. He was sketchy, to say the least, I could tell he did not want to be on the phone with me, but when he said that he had been looking for Mel and couldn’t find him either, I believe him. I think he may have been at his apartment before us.” Margaret said, filling Tiffany in on the phone call she’d made the evening before.
“Do you think he might know anyone who knows where Mel went?” Tiffany asked, crossing one leg over the other as she thought.
“Well, he didn’t seem smart enough to pick up Mel’s address book.” Margaret snickered. “He sounded nervous and I don’t think that it was just because of me. I think something deeper may be going on and Josh got mixed up in it, but we won’t know until we find Mel.” She said with a shrewd nod. “After that, I called the co-signer, Mr. Chambers, or Zeke as he asked me to call him. He said that he didn’t know where Mel was, but he’d be happy to try and help us find him –apparently the business he used as collateral is a… gentleman’s club.” Margaret said, glancing at Gene a moment. “No, I’m not telling you the name of the club and no, we can’t get remarried so you can have your bachelor party there.” She said teasing him.
“You should know the only woman I want to see dancing for me is you.” Gene plucked a kiss on top of Margaret’s head. “Maybe in some fishnets, but that’s beside the point.” He laughed headed to go open the office since he could hear someone knocking on the door and it was after eight.
“Good save,” Tiffany said with a little smile.
“He’s pretty smooth when he wants to be,” Margaret said with a laugh before she turned her attention back to the file in front of them.
“Looks like we have this Zeke guy on our side, I mean –sleazy strip club owner or not, I’m sure he wants to keep his business,” Tiffany said, though she felt like she was making assumptions. She couldn’t say for sure if the guy was a scumbag or not, nor could she know for sure that he was helping them, but it just stood to reason that he would want to, since his business was on the line.
“I feel like we have worked with him before, but it might have been one of Gene’s bonds. Normally, if I can’t remember someone, it means we didn’t have any problems out of them.”
“That makes sense,” Tiffany replied. “Were you able to take a look at the address book?”
“Nope, but I thought I would wait until you were here to help me. We could split up the contacts in it and start making some phone calls.” Margaret looked at her enthusiastically as a grumbling man with dark hair and a three-day beard came into what Tiffany kind of considered the conference room.
“Morning.” He said sullenly.
“Good morning.” Though Margaret didn’t sound at all like she was greeting him with a good morning. “You’re late Nate. You know what time you are supposed to be here. It’s fifteen after.”
The man named Nate didn’t seem to pay Margaret a bit of attention as he poured himself a cup of coffee. Tiffany could only assume that he was the one who was knocking on the door and that he was an asshole. From Margaret’s tone, it sounded a lot, like to Tiffany that she had been dealing with him coming in late a lot and not with a very good explanation. Come to think of it, Tiffany didn’t think she had ever gone to wo
rk late at any job unless there was some kind of emergency and then she usually called ahead to let her manager or supervisor know what happened but that she was still on her way.
When Nate never responded to her, and just strolled back out to the front office, Margaret shook her head.
“Is everything okay?” Tiffany asked her, reaching over and touching her shoulder.
“I’ve had just about all I can take. He doesn’t pull his weight, comes in late, leaves early, it’s like pulling teeth to get him to go check up on bonds. He thinks he’s a real chick magnet and he thinks all he should do here is answer the phone and take smoke breaks half the day.”
“That’s awful.” Tiffany replied, glancing back though she couldn’t see Nate from where she was sitting.
“It is, and we can’t fire him until we have someone who can replace him because if Gene or I am out chasing down a bond, we can’t just close the whole office down.” Margaret shook her head again as she tried to put her thoughts back together.
“You mean he doesn’t go out with you or Gene? Like what we were doing yesterday?” Tiffany asked her.
“Nope,” Margaret replied. “It’s been so difficult, Gene and I are doing everything that we can just to keep the business afloat, but Nate isn’t making it easy and I hate firing someone, but if they aren’t doing what they were hired to do what choice do I have? Gene has talked to him repeatedly and nothing changes.” Margaret looked like she was about to snap.
“Here, let’s go outside and grab a smoke,” Tiffany said, standing up, smoothing her hands down her legs. “You look like you could use it and we’ll talk about the case.” Smiling, she understood how frustrating it could be when you worked with someone who wasn’t pulling their weight. For the most part, at Tom’s it was a good gig and most of her co-workers were great people, but every now and then, she’d seen a new crew come in that was just hired on, and they wouldn’t last a month. It made it harder for everyone else on the crew because they had to work double-time not only to do their job, but to pick up the slack for the people who thought they were just there to count down the clock and give half-assed service. Plus get a paycheck for doing it.
Bunny and the Bear: A Shifter Romance Novella Page 5