Warriors (Gutter Dogs Book 5)

by Carey Lewis

  LaGarrett started laughing. “Bobby, forget I was saying anything, this one being too clever for the likes of you.”

  “You can’t just take panties like a normal person?” she saw the embarrassment, and then the rage pass over his face. She knew he wanted to hit her but he was holding himself back. What she could pull together was LaGarrett was leading the show. Despite the way he talked, he was the smart one. Probably a show to get people to underestimate him.

  Bobby was the one with the short fuse, the immediate danger. It was Bobby who she could probably manipulate. But he could also snap quickly and everything in her life would be over before she could blink.

  “Why don’t you just tell us everything,” Bobby said, more steel in his eyes now.

  “What don’t you know? We got divorced before he won anything so I didn’t see a dime. You think I got half of ten mil I’d still be running a pawn shop?”

  “Who was the guy?” Bobby asked.

  “Old friend of Hugh’s. Looking for him too.”

  “You sleep with him?”

  She didn’t know how to answer. She stared at him, hoping to find something to say that wouldn’t get her a slap in the mouth.

  “Tell us what you thinking we don’t know,” LaGarrett said, maybe seeing where Bobby’s question was going.

  “There was an accident at work so he took some time off. He got hit by lightning and we divorced—”

  “You divorcing the man because he gone getting hit by lightning?”

  “No I divorced him because I had to spend time with him. He got hit by lightning, tried to kill himself, won a scratch ticket, won the lottery, won another scratch ticket, then he fucked off. Haven’t seen him since.”

  “No word from the man huh? No ‘hope you’re doing okay, how you been’ type correspondence?”

  “Sends me a postcard from Thailand once in awhile I’m sure this one found in the nightstand.”

  “Mr. Miracle having his way with the lady-boys huh?”

  “But still he sends you the postcards,” Bobby said, “wants to make sure you’re doing okay.”

  “I take it more as a fuck you.”

  “Nice lady like you? Now why would he go about doing that?”

  “Because I’m the reason he tried to kill himself.”

  THE WAY SHE TOLD it was that there was an accident where Mr. Miracle worked, washing windows way on up there in the sky. They was having arguments with their boss, boss man saying he was having arguments with the union and they both having arguments with the manufacturer over their equipment. The workers were none too happy, saying they had safety issues with the hardware they using up there, union gets in on it, starts pressuring the boss man and boss man and the people with the money told the workers they was crazy, all the shit be on the up and up. And then one of them died.

  Poor bastard took a tumble way up there from a skyscraper, falling thirty-eight floors she says to splat on the sidewalk. That guy worked on a crew with Mr. Miracle and the guy that came by to bone the ex.

  At that point, Mr. Miracle says he needs some time, some trauma gone effecting him, spending his days at home and it’s the first time him and his old lady spending any real time together. She comes to find out she don’t care much for this man she married.

  That’s when Bobby got really interested. LaGarrett saw the thought process run through his mind, him starting to think it was showing promise for him - Mrs. Miracle never really loved Mr. Miracle. Well, she starts going through the motions wanting a divorce and get away from him when Mr. Miracle decides that’s a good time to get hit by lightning.

  Lucky son of a bitch goes on and survives that only to get hit by a divorce. She says she said some nasty shit to him, which LaGarrett could believe coming from this woman. What he couldn’t believe was her saying she don’t remember what she said. The woman probably replayed that conversation in her brain every time her head touched a pillow. Probably run that through her mind like a highlight reel.

  That’s when Mr. Miracle tried to say goodbye cruel world and jump off a roof, him having access from cleaning the shit off the windows up there. Freaky thing, lucky motherfucker gets blown back in an open window a few floors down from a gust of wind, just breaking his hip. Back to the hospital with him where he wins on a scratch ticket and the ball starts to roll.

  “So now the man being in Thailand?” LaGarrett asked.

  “Far as I know. Where the postcards come from.”

  “No way of getting a hold of him? Saying maybe you want to reconcile or whatnot?”

  “If I even wanted to, I don’t think he has a phone. You win ten million, you want your ex-wife having your number?”

  LaGarrett smiled. They were still in the backroom, night settling in now. He couldn’t let her go, but he sensed another opportunity with her. They let her go, she could go to the cops. Not that LaGarrett thought she would, but why chance it?

  So now they couldn’t sell the shit to her, or at all probably, so that was a dead end. Bobby’s idea of shaking her down was a no go, LaGarrett believed she was pretty broke, probably as poor off as they were.

  At first, LaGarrett thought they could hold on to the lady, promise bodily harm would come her way if the man didn’t pony up some cash. That was if they even had a way to get a hold of him. He goes and tries killing himself over her? No man in his right mind would care what befell his ex-wife. So now what they needed was a new plan.

  “What’s your feeling on him?”

  He watched her come over to the desk, grab one of her cigarettes, the skinny kind women used to smoke in those olden movies. She lit it and exhaled, giving it some thought, probably trying to figure out where LaGarrett was going with this. They were on the same page but still playing like they weren’t. She went back over to the couch, took another drag and let it out slow, Bobby never taking his eyes off her.

  “I’m not his biggest fan,” she said.

  “You going try telling me you ain’t having a feeling one way or the other about him?”

  “Try not to give it much thought.”

  “But that’s what you do, don’t you? You still think about the man, you probably thinking about him every time you coming in here. Every time you staring at that wall start pulling on that fruity vodka.” He hoped he was making his point. He didn’t want to tell her in front of Bobby why she really bedded Mr. Miracle’s friend that came looking for him. He wasn’t sure what Bobby would do.

  “You know what I’m thinking now? In my head are you?” she asked.

  “Why you keeping the cutouts, the postcards. You tracking him. You don’t go doing that thing there ain’t no feelings involved one way or the other.”

  He saw it then, the flash in her eyes. It was just for a split second, but he caught it. It was a moment he didn’t want to delve too deep into, expose it, and then have to deal with Bobby.

  “You sore he coming out on top?” LaGarrett asked.

  “You always want to win the breakup,” she said, a hint of a smile as she exhaled.

  “Now we getting somewhere ain’t we? Thailand a big place, you have a feeling on where he might be spending his time?”

  “Other than the postcard from Bangkok, the others have been coming from the islands there,” her smiling a bit more, picking up where LaGarrett was going.

  “He seem like the type you thinking you could track down?”

  “Hugh was never subtle.”

  LaGarrett smiled. He saw her smile too, a sly smile.

  “We going to Thailand?” Bobby asked.

 

 

 
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