by Jenny Penn
“You’re telling me,” GD grumbled. Things were an absolute disaster these days. “Ever since Patton came back to town, my life has been nothing but a headache. That girl causes more trouble than Pig-Pen did messes. It’s a good thing she’s a hell of a lot better looking than that kid.”
“Hell, she must be downright gorgeous to beat out Lana.”
GD smirked at that, hearing the hint of a grudge in those words. “You haven’t met Patton, have you?”
“She never seems to come by the club.”
“Yeah, like those boys would let her anywhere near the club.”
Just the idea made GD feel a little sick. Of course that wouldn’t be his problem for much longer. He’d be resigning soon. After all, he had his special woman. He didn’t need a club full of them all.
GD knew he wasn’t alone in that sentiment. The Davis brothers had really been piling the responsibilities on him ever since Patton had returned home. The brothers were distracted and their biggest concern about the club was protecting Patton from it.
“The less Patton knows about the club, the safer we all are.”
“If you say so.” Dylan didn’t sound the least bit interested in Patton but seemed more than stuck on Lana. “Are you sure it’s not the kid?”
“Anything is possible.” GD shrugged.
“It’d be a hell of a lot easier if it was,” Dylan muttered more to himself than GD, but GD couldn’t but pick up on those words.
“Really?” He frowned, wondering if he’d misjudged the other man. “It’d be easy for you to turn a kid in for arson?”
“No…but Lana’s an old friend, and her brothers might be asses, but they’re her kin.” Dylan smiled sadly.
“So you’re loyal to them because you’re loyal to her?” GD shook his head at that reasoning. “That’s just why I could never make it as a cop.”
Dylan considered that for a moment, his brow wrinkling into a frown as it began to dawn on him that it hadn’t sounded much like a compliment. As GD suspected, once that revelation hit, Dylan was pressing him for a clarification.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“There is right and wrong…and then loyalty.” GD had already made his choice in life.
Right was right. Wrong was wrong. The law was the law. Sometimes it was right. Sometimes it was wrong.
“And what is that supposed to mean?”
Dylan knew exactly what GD meant, and GD wasn’t going to waste his time explaining himself. “You do what you got to. You know everything I know now.”
That was a lie, but GD was a good liar. He didn’t know if he was good enough to get one past Dylan, and Dylan didn’t give away what he thought as he huffed off. GD watched him go with a sick feeling in his stomach. He had better call Nick and give him a heads-up just in case things got bad.
Even as he was telling himself that, GD’s attention was shifting back toward Kitty Anne. She really did look pretty. He could just stare at her all day. Stare at her and smile. That was just what he did until the urge became too much to control and he found himself sliding out of the booth completely forgetting about the phone call he was supposed to make.
It was time to go play with his Kitty Anne.
* * * *
Kitty Anne felt GD coming her way but didn’t dare to look up from the book she was trying to read. So far she’d managed to read the same sentence a few hundred times and still didn’t know what it said. Every sense, every nerve, every fiber of her being was tuned to the big man stalking her way.
Still, she refused to openly acknowledge him. Turning in her seat and giving GD the cold shoulder, Kitty Anne knew she was being childish, but she was also having a strange kind of fun. There was a sense of excitement and anticipation to the air as each of them waited for the other to make the next move.
GD claimed it as he slid into the seat beside her and proceeded to simply stare at her. He was acting like enough of a freak to draw Polly’s attention. She hurried over to assure everything was all right. Kitty Anne ignored her, too, but GD didn’t. He turned to face the older woman as she asked if there was anything he needed.
“Just the check.”
Offering Polly a smile as he stood up, GD didn’t even glance Kitty Anne’s way as he leaned to his side, invading her personal space as he fished his wallet out of his back pocket. She tilted with him, assuring GD didn’t bang into her and refusing to reward him with so much as even a catch in her breath as his warm, musky scent infused the air around her.
“You can go ahead and put the rest of the lady’s lunch on my tab,” GD offered, causing Polly to glance in her direction and forcing Kitty Anne to either ignore her, too, or recognize GD in some basic way. That she would not do. Besides, Polly would understand.
Turning the page as though she’d actually been reading, Kitty Anne continued to ignore GD. He returned the favor, leaving Polly nervously uncertain. In the end she caved to the pointed look GD shot her as he settled back down onto his seat, his wallet now open and waiting.
“It’ll be an extra three or so bucks,” Polly warned him as she slid a slip across the counter. “The lady’s ticket isn’t printed up yet.”
“That’s fine,” GD assured her as he pulled out a fifty and passed it along with his ticket back to her without even bothering to glance at the total with typical male arrogance. “I’m sure this will cover it.”
“It certainly will.” Polly’s eyes widened at the sight of the generous bribe and suddenly she was all smiles. “Well, I hope everything was to your liking, sir.”
“It was fine, thank you.” GD paused before adding on, “You have excellent tea.”
“Really?” The other woman seemed honestly shocked by that. “It just comes out of a Lipton box.”
“Well, maybe it’s the way you brew it because, trust me, I’m a connoisseur of tea.”
GD stressed that last word, giving it a suggestive emphasis that might have confused Polly but wasn’t lost on Kitty Anne. He was threatening her with her mother. That was a pretty serious threat.
“I’m glad you liked it.” Polly didn’t argue over the matter. It didn’t even sound as if she cared. Of course, she wasn’t in on the joke. “I hope you come back and see us again.”
“Oh, I’ll be around,” GD assured her as he bent over once again to shove his wallet back into his pocket. Kitty Anne tipped to the side along with him, assuring he didn’t bang into her.
“I got a thing for tea.” GD tossed Polly a wink as he straightened back up.
“Well…we always have a pot ready?” Polly stumbled over her words, her uncertainty turning them into a question when they should have been a statement.
Kitty Anne didn’t blame the older woman for getting flustered. It was hard to keep up with GD. Despite the fact that the man looked big and slow, he was slipperier than a fish and waiting for her to try and take a bite, but she didn’t even flinch.
Kitty Anne didn’t believe for a moment he was going to waste his afternoon hanging out with her crazy mother. He was bluffing, and she wasn’t going to be suckered in. Besides, she had her own appointment to keep.
Chapter Eight
GD pulled to a stop in front of Lynn Anne’s small trailer and parked by the daisy-lined curb. Somebody had laid in a set of cobblestones, assuring the flowers were protected from the sweep truck’s door as it opened. The bricks and rocks looked truly old and worn instead of newly cast and led in a gentle curb along the drive and around the cheery garden beds that, no doubt, took a lot of time to maintain.
Whatever else one could say about the Anne women, they had an eye for aesthetics and drama. GD was greeted with the first as he made his way up to the door and the second when it opened to reveal a very stern-looking woman, who stood in sharp contrast to the outrageous creature that had greeted him last night.
“You came.” Lynn Anne managed to make that sound so much like an accusation that GD couldn’t help but smirk as he reminded her of her own offer.
&n
bsp; “You invited me.”
“Hmm.” Lynn Anne drew herself up after a moment’s consideration and nodded at him. “Fine. You get one glass of tea and five questions that I might not answer honestly.”
GD hesitated on the step to look up at the woman in surprise because there was no way that she’d come up with that compromise by coincidence. Neither did she try to pretend it was as she snorted over his look.
“Yes, Mr. Davis, my daughter and I get along better than most people think.” Lynn Anne offered him that assurance with enough of an edge marking her words to add a menacing hint to them, even as she stepped back to allow him room to pass. “Come on in.”
“Said the spider to the fly,” GD quipped as he shouldered his way past her and into a main room that couldn’t have been more than a hundred square feet.
It was nicely proportioned, though, and appeared bright and airy. Still, when GD stepped up onto the worn carpeted floor the whole tin can of a home shifted slightly beneath his booted foot.
“You flew into my web all on your own, Mr. Davis,” Lynn Anne reminded him as she shut the door. Stepping around GD to head for the little kitchenette in the back, she waved him toward the tiny, doll-sized furniture decorating the corner living room. “Please, have a seat.”
He wanted to ask on what, but that felt a little too rude. Feeling very much like an elephant in a miniature toy show, GD couldn’t even straighten up completely thanks to the low ceiling height. The loveseat that served as a couch for the room fit more like a chair around him. GD settled down into its floral depths, consciously aware of his bulk and size.
He was also pointedly aware that this was where Kitty Anne had grown up. Here the obvious poverty had been swept aside by a sense of taste and ability to make even used things look fresh and clean. Whatever else could be said about Lynn Anne, it was clear that she’d built a life that wasn’t so much deprived as simply miniaturized.
That thought made him snicker because that was the last thing he’d say about Kitty Anne. She’d built herself a supersized persona and indulged in life with an outsized enthusiasm that made every moment a thrill. At least, that was how he felt when he was with her. Like daughter, like mother, except that, with Lynn Anne, GD was just nervous.
“So…” Lynn Anne turned back from the small kitchen tucked into the corner. It didn’t even have a proper stove, but did have a burner and a mini-fridge that was big enough to hold a pitcher of tea. “Why did you really come here, Mr. Davis?”
“It’s GD,” he corrected her as she took one step and set the pitcher down on the tiny coffee table that was really nothing more than a tray. “And I thought I got to ask the questions?”
“Do you have any questions?”
GD considered that for the moment it took her to retrieve two glasses out of the one lone cupboard hanging on the wall. He had his answer as he watched her take that single step back to the living room.
“No. I think I got it all figured out.”
“Is that right? And just what do you think you have figured out?”
“You and your daughter, you’re both full of—”
“Watch your tone, young man. This is a lady’s house,” Lynn Anne declared with haughty grandeur as she settled down onto the rocking chair that faced both the windows and the small TV. GD had a feeling it was her customary seat, given the basket of needlework beside it.
“Forgive me, madam.” GD tipped his head, playing along with Kitty Anne’s mom’s game. “I meant to say that you and your daughter enjoy a lively and entertaining relationship. And I think my first question is going to be—”
“I thought you didn’t have any questions.”
“—can I have some tea?”
* * * *
Kitty Anne felt a sense of déjà vu when she sailed into her apartment on high hopes, only to have them crumble beneath the weight of reality. Like always, she thought she had something good going on, only to answer the phone and find herself in a sudden conversation with her mother.
“Your boy toy stopped by for tea today,” Lynn Anne stated, not bothering with a greeting.
Kitty Anne could hear the faint tug of a breath that assured her that her mother was sneaking another cigarette. A menthol, no doubt. There really was no point in nagging her about the habit. Lynn Anne didn’t listen to anybody, especially not Kitty Anne.
“Did you hear me?” her mother asked, taking Kitty Anne’s silence for inattention.
“Yeah, I heard you,” Kitty Anne assured her. “But I’m not sure what I’m supposed to say about that. I hope you managed to keep your clothes on?”
“Oh, please,” Lynn Anne huffed indignantly. “That was one time, and it was an accident.”
“Yes, because you normally dance naked around the house,” Kitty Anne muttered, knowing that was no accident.
Not that she believed her mother had actually made a play for her boyfriend so much as simply just trying to horrify the poor guy. It had worked. He’d all but tripped over his own feet as he fled for the door, and that had pretty much been the last Kitty Anne had heard from him.
“Actually we had a very pleasant conversation.”
“Is that right?” Kitty Anne could only imagine how it really went and wondered what the hell GD had been thinking to actually meet her mother for tea.
“He’s wonderfully polite and earnest. I think he would make you a perfect husband.”
“Which means you really don’t like him.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because you think I do the opposite of what you tell me to.” Kitty Anne kind of did, but that was mostly because her mother simply didn’t agree with anything she did. She saw that more as Lynn Anne’s problem than hers.
“Well, you do,” Lynn Anne retorted, unable to resist harping on one of her favorite topics.
“So if you’re telling me to keep him, you must want to see him go.”
“He’s too big.” Lynn Anne gave up the game and started down the list of her complaints. “He almost tipped over my trailer when he stepped in it. A man that big…you’ll end up suffocating beneath him.”
“Oh, please, Mother.” That was the stupidest thing in the world to worry about.
“And you should see how much tea the man drinks. You’re going to go broke feeding that thing.”
“Yes, Mother.”
“You go on and ‘yes, mother’ me. I know what I’m talking about. I’ve given birth, and you were little. That man…he’s going to give you fat babies that tear you all up down there.”
“Oh, for God’s sake, Mother!”
“Fine,” Lynn Anne snapped as if she weren’t being completely overbearing. “You don’t want my advice, you can pay me to shut up. Where is my two hundred?”
“I…I’m sorry, Mom.” Kitty Anne felt the weight and defeat of her failure press down on her, as she had no choice but to admit to the truth. “I don’t have it, but don’t worry. I had a job interview today, and it went really well.”
There was a long pause as silence built up into a heavy knot of tension before her mother sighed and accepted the situation. “Well, then I guess if you don’t have it, you don’t have it.”
Far from leaving Kitty Anne reassured, her mother’s words made her feel only sicker. The nausea didn’t get any better when she got off the phone, only to have it ring again. This time it was Phoebe, one of her coworkers down at the library, calling to warn her that Mrs. Diggard had spilt the beans about her arrest to Mr. Ruggan.
* * * *
“You would not believe this woman,” GD swore as he matched Nick’s rapid pace, trailing him across the yard. “I’m telling you, man, she makes your mother look sane.”
Nick snorted at that. There were few people who could compete with his mother. Thankfully, though, that was his sisters’ problem. His was much shorter and a good deal more stubborn.
“She actually had me call my mom so I could find out exactly how much I weighed at birth.”
Now that w
as weird. Nick shot him a look, but GD just shrugged and shook his head.
“I have no idea what the hell she wanted,” GD admitted. “I was just hoping to get in a good word for myself.”
“Please,” Nick snickered. “Everybody always likes you, GD.”
That was the truth. GD had been teachers’ pet, homecoming king, student body president. He’d even been voted the town’s most “wish I was more like him” guy. GD always seemed to have everything under control and everybody eating out of his hand. Everybody that was but the Allison women.
“No, I’m pretty certain she’s not in my corner,” GD insisted, coming to a stop alongside Nick as he paused to glance over the field. “So…what are we doing?”
“Looking for Kevin,” Nick admitted grimly.
The kid had disappeared once again, though, thankfully, all the bikes, both motorized and manual, were accounted for. It didn’t seem he could have gotten that far on foot, but Nick was still having a hell of a time finding the kid.
“You don’t think—”
“No.” Nick cut GD off, knowing exactly what he’d been about to ask. “I got the guys keeping tabs on him every half-hour, so he hasn’t had enough time to make it out to the ranch, yet.”
That didn’t mean he couldn’t have started in that way, which was just why Nick was headed in that direction. Thankfully, GD stopped complaining about his Kitty Anne’s mama long enough to offer to help find the kid. He headed in the opposite direction, as Nick continued on the main path that cut into the woods and led miles down into the Davis brothers’ ranch.
The camp backed up into the ranch, but that didn’t make it close by any means. Sure enough, Kevin had given out not even three miles down the lane, taking a long enough break for Nick to catch up with him. The kid saw him coming but didn’t make a run for it. Not that there was anything to run from or anywhere to run to.
He didn’t even try. Neither did Kevin bother either to offer Nick a greeting as he settled down on the fallen tree trunk that the kid was using as a bench. They sat there for several long minutes before Nick finally broke the silence, asking him the question that had been bugging Nick for a while now.