by Jamie Begley
“Like Whip said, there’s no need to cry over spilled milk.” Ice motioned with his hand for Dalton to go first. “Take your victory lap. You deserve it. It was a long time coming.”
Ice saw Dalton’s eyes grow moist as he reached into his jacket to pull out three different colored hair ribbons. Ice knew who they had belonged to. Mika had given them to Oceane the day Adrienne, Simone, and Avril had been kidnapped. And Oceane had kept them until her death. Then Dalton had taken possession of them, promising on her grave that Winston would see the true justice he deserved.
Raising the ribbons high, Dalton rode toward the gates as the mass of riders grew louder and the gates parted, allowing them to leave.
Riding behind Dalton was the proudest moment of his life, one that he would never be able to tell Grace about, or any of the children they would have. It was only a memory that he and Dalton would be able to share.
It was Dalton who had shown him that the shithead responsible for his birth wasn’t a true father. Dalton had stepped into those shoes, and not only did he wear them like a man should, but he also wore them as an example that Ice himself could only hope he could follow as an example for his own children.
The wind ripped his own tears away as the line of bikers cheered for Dalton as he passed.
Damn, chasing a rainbow had never felt so good.
“So, we good now?”
Shade turned his head to the side as Harvey prepared to get out of the borrowed truck.
“You’re safe from me. I promised I wouldn’t lay a hand on you, and I meant it.”
“I swear I won’t say anything about being in that mental hospital.”
Shade wouldn’t believe anything promised if Harvey swore it on a stack of Bibles, but he kept that doubt to himself.
“That’s good to know,” he stated, unmoved at the fear he could practically smell in the cab of the truck.
“Just making sure,” Harvey said nervously, getting out at the police station parking lot where his car had been towed when Greer pulled him over for drunk driving. “Go to Drake Hall’s office after you get your car keys back. He’s lined up an apartment for you to live in until you can get on your feet.”
“Thanks. I’m going job hunting tomorrow.”
Shade didn’t believe that any more than him not telling anyone where he had been.
“Good luck with that, then. Mind shutting the door? I’m going to go grab a bite to eat.”
“Sure, sorry. Thanks again, Shade.” Shutting the door, Harvey moved away from the truck.
Minutes later, he was walking into King’s restaurant, where his father-in-law was seating customers as he got in line at the hostess station.
The hostess was writing his name down when King took a menu from the side of the podium. “I got this. Take the next one.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’m expecting a guest,” Shade informed him.
King took another menu, then led him through the restaurant to a booth. Sliding inside, he took the menu from him.
“When’d you get back from your trip?”
“Just now,” Shade answered, opening the menu.
“Lily said you told her that it’ll be the last one you’d have to take for a while.”
“That’s true,” he replied, not looking up.
“She also said I’m expecting another grandchild.”
“We are,” he confirmed.
“Congratulations.”
“Thanks. I’ll take a whiskey,” he said, cutting off any further conversation when he saw the man coming up from behind King.
“I’ll take one of those myself.”
King’s face grew dark. “How many times do I have to tell you not to come here—”
“I invited him.”
“So did Rider the last time he came. He did nothing but complain the whole time that his steak was overcooked.”
Greer gave King a one-shoulder shrug. “It was.”
“It was still mooing when I put it on your plate.” King took the menu away from him, not giving Greer time to look at it.
“See? That shows you it wasn’t done. Unless it’s crying, it ain’t done.”
Shade took the menu away from King before he shoved it down Greer’s throat. “I’ll take the prime rib and baked potato,” he ordered, trying to hurry King away from the table.
“I’ll take the appetizer and—”
“I know your order. You order the same thing every time you come.”
“Then you shouldn’t have any problem getting it right this time, should you?” Greer snidely opened his eyes as wide as buttons, rocking his head back and forth on his shoulder.
Shade hastily grabbed for King’s hand before he could wrench Greer from the booth. “Go put orders in and send a waiter to take care of us. You won’t even notice we’re here. I need to talk to him.”
King dislodged Shade’s hand from his arm. “I better not.”
Shade didn’t miss the devilment in Greer’s eyes at getting on King’s nerves as he left. Then, when Greer returned his attention to him, he saw the smile of satisfaction that he made no effort to hide. Shade made no effort to warn Greer that he was poking a tiger with only a tennis shoe for protection. Besides, he had his own bone to pick with the provoking hillbilly.
He waited until he had his drink in hand to steady his nerves before discussing the reason he had invited Greer to dinner.
“I’m not hiring Bubba permanently. He wasn’t part of our deal.”
Greer drank his drink in one swallow, then motioned the waiter for another one.
“Aren’t you on duty?”
“Yeah. So? What’s your point?”
Shade swallowed, lifting two fingers when the waiter looked his way.
“Okay, let’s start over. I’m not hiring Bubba. He’s not part of our deal.”
“That’s true.” Greer nodded. “But it was my deal with Rider.”
“We… agreed,” Shade slowly pronounced each word to drive them home that he wasn’t going to be saddled with Bubba.
Greer leaned into the table, unfazed. “Bubba won’t tell his pa that he was fired. I don’t like waking up every morning to share my breakfast with Jessie’s cousin. He eats my biscuits before I can get my ass out of the shower. I ain’t having it. So, unless you want me to tell Rider about that mysterious car sitting out in front of Jo’s house, you’re just going to have to suck it up,” he hissed in a low voice.
Shade seriously thought of driving to his house and getting his gun to get rid of him forever.
Greer narrowed his mean eyes at him. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re thinking. The only thing I can say is, try it.”
Taking just a swallow of his drink was useless. He needed the whole fucking bottle for it to do any good.
“Now.” Greer’s voice switched to a friendlier tone. “I don’t give a fuck why you want to raise Rider’s protective instincts for his woman. Personally, I think you wanted to get Gavin off his ass, but I’m just saying that’s what I would do. You may be smarter than me, and you may have a totally different reason. I really can’t say I give a rat’s dong anyway, as long as, when I come down to breakfast tomorrow morning, I don’t have Bubba sitting there. Capisce.”
“Capisce,” Shade ground out as the waiter set Greer’s appetizer tray down on the table.
“Good. Glad we talked this out.” Taking the whole plate and sliding it in front of him, Greer picked up his fork and started eating. And when he was almost finished, he magnanimously held out the lone stick that was left over when the waiter brought their steaks. “You want a mozzarella stick?”
“No,” Shade replied shortly.
Greer transferred his fork to his steak, cutting a small bite to taste. He gave King a thumbs-up as he escorted a couple to their booth.
King looked like he had the perfect place to tell Greer to shove his thumb. Shade was sure King was infuriated by Greer enough that he would be told never to come back himself for invitin
g him to dinner.
Greer hungrily ate as if he hadn’t just eaten an appetizer meant for four people. Cutting a large bite of his steak, Greer slathered it with A1 sauce before putting it in his mouth. Shade was cutting his own steak when Greer started cutting another piece, the food on his plate rapidly dwindling before he was a quarter near done with his.
“Nothing tastes better than an expensive cut of beef and A1, except…,” he qualified his statement, “another piece cut of beef.”
“I’m not buying you another steak,” Shade informed him.
“That’s rude.” Greer heaved of a sigh of contentment as he leaned back and patted his belly. “Here I do you a big-ass favor and what thanks do I get in return?”
Shade cut another piece of his steak, aware that Greer was eyeing it greedily. “You got quite a bit in return. Not only did I pay you to feed Rider that information, but you turned around and stuck it to Rider. Which is the only thing I’m not actually complaining about, except for Bubba.”
“Seems to me you’ve done nothing but complain since I sat down. Hell, you’re making me lose my appetite for dessert. I’m getting kind of insulted….”
If he ripped his fingernails off one by one, it would be less painful than dealing with Greer. He fucking knew better than to piss him off.
Cutting into another piece of his steak, he wished it was a piece of Greer’s liver. He kept his mouth shut as chewed the meat that was tasting like sawdust.
“Here I was doing you a favor, and you’re turning it around like I’m being a bad guy for asking a job for an in-law, which we aren’t talking about giving Bubba a high paying job, but one any Tom, Dick, and Jane could do with their hands tied behind their back.”
Shade forced another bite into his mouth.
“Furthermore…” Greer paused, taking a deep breath before resuming his tirade. “I ran that plate for you, since you never bothered to go by the car rental.”
Shade forced the bite down. “What plate?”
Peeved, Greer frowned. “What do you mean, what plate? The one I told you, Viper, and Rider about.”
Confused, Shade laid his fork and knife down on his plate before he started carving Greer into tiny pieces. “You and I made up the story about a rental car in front of Jo’s house, so how was there a plate to run?”
“Oh… I must have forgotten to tell you the part about the license plate being real.”
“You must have.” Shade said through clenched teeth. “Tell me now.”
“I was kind of listening in to that little chat you were having with Harvey. So, when he said how that money was in his truck one morning, I drove over to the apartment building he and Nicole lived in. It’s the same one Jessie lived in.”
“May I get you gentlemen another drink? Dessert?”
“No.” Shade gave the waiter a frustrated glare, wanting him to disappear.
Greer had other plans.
“I seem to have gotten my appetite back for dessert.”
At Greer’s smug expression, Shade knew he was going to have to pay for not properly kissing ass enough to him.
It was painful, but he managed to force a smile to his lips. “Order whatever you want. It’s”—he practically had to pry the last two words from his lips—“my treat.”
“Well, ain’t that nice of you.”
“Matter d', I’ll take a couple of those appetizer platters and four of those dinners I just ate to go.” Greer leaned across the table as if he was confiding to him. “Holly and Jessie have to work tonight. They wanted me to cook dinner for them. This works out better, don’t ya think?”
“For you,” he agreed.
Greer gave him a jaunty wink before turning back to the waiter. “I’ll take the hot fudge cake with extra ice cream and cherries on top. I’ll polish it off while the other food is cooking.”
“Yes, sir.” The waiter started moving away.
“Hold up a sec. My wife don’t like her steak as rare as mine. Burn that son of a bitch.”
“Bring me another drink first.” Shade stopped him before he could escape. “Make it a double again.”
“Hitting that sauce a little hard, ain’t you?”
Shade pressed his lips together, chanting to himself not to say anything.
Greer gave him another jaunty wink. “Don’t worry; I have connections with law enforcements if you get pulled over.”
He gave a murmur of appreciative as the waiter brought the cake and gave Shade the drink he ordered.
“Anyway,” Greer returned to what they had been discussing. “If you remember, Jessie was kidnapped from the building—”
“I remember.” Shade took a drink. He wasn’t a praying a man, but he was going to be praying over Greer’s grave if he didn’t get to the point.
“Management decided their best interest was to install working surveillance cameras. Management is also one of my customers… Not that I’m still selling,” he added quickly. “He used to be one of my customers, and he let me have a gander at those videos of his.”
Shade clutched his glass at the information.
“Couldn’t see his face. All I could see was a black rental car, and someone get out in a big, gray raincoat. That’s the plate I ran down for you. It’s not a rental from town, but I called around when you never went by and found out where it was rented from.”
“Here you go, sir.”
Greer raked a spoonful of cake into his mouth as the waiter set the two bags of food onto the table.
“Thank you kindly. I’m very appreciative of the service you have given me,” he complimented him. “Shade, make sure you show him my appreciation.”
“Of course.” Shade started to take another drink of his whiskey when he realized it was empty.
Greer waited until the waiter left to offer his advice. “I’d drink a couple of coffees before I hit the road if I were you.”
Patting his belly, he rose up from the table. At the same time, he reached inside his uniform pocket, coming out with a slip of paper that he laid down on the table.
Shade reached for it, but Greer didn’t remove his hand from the paper. Expecting him to ask for an outrageous sum of money for the information, he looked up to see Greer staring shrewdly down at him.
“Don’t feel bad about making Gavin get off his ass. I would have done it a year ago.”
“How’d you know…?”
“Shade, there isn’t much I don’t know.” Winking, he removed his hand. Then, taking the bag of food, he left him staring after him.
He was taking his credit card out of his wallet when King stopped at the booth.
“Next time you want to take Greer out to dinner, take him to the diner or the Pink Slipper.”
“It’ll definitely be cheaper. Grab some coffee and have a seat with me.”
“Dinner crowd is starting to come in—”
“King, have coffee with me.”
“I’ll be back.”
Shade put the slip of paper in his wallet as the waiter took his credit card. He was scrawling his signature on the receipt when King came back with the coffee.
His father-in-law sat down across from him. “What did you want to talk about?”
“How would you feel if someone in town tried to blackmail me by pretending to have pictures of Lily nude and spreading them around town?”
King’s gaze went glacial. The sophisticated host and owner of the most expensive restaurant was gone, and in his place was the cut-throat businessman who used to rule Queen City. “I’d ask you two questions.”
“What are they?”
“Why don’t you take care of him yourself?”
“I promised Lily I wouldn’t lay a hand on him.”
“Then I only need the answer to my next question.”
“Which is?”
“What’s his name?”
Shade entered his home to see Lily sitting on the floor by the couch with Clint, John, and Logan, playing Monopoly.
“Daddy, you’re ho
me!”
He smiled as the boys jumped up and ran to him, throwing themselves into his arms.
“Don’t get up,” he said when he saw Lily starting to stand. “I’ll come down there.”
Sitting down behind her, he kissed her as the boys resumed playing the game.
“Are you going to play with us?” Greer’s nephew Logan asked.
“No thanks. I’ll just watch.” He placed his arm on the couch cushion as Logan took his turn.
Lily leaned against his chest as they watched. “Logan came home with Chance and Noah until Jessie can pick him up. She’s running late, and the boys have football practice, so I offered for him to visit with us. Have you eaten?”
Shade looked up from winding a tendril of her hair around his finger. “I ate,” he told her, then asked the children, “What have you boys been up to?”
“I finished my homework before starting to play with Logan,” John said, rolling the dice on the gameboard.
Logan stood up. “You can take my turn, Mrs. Lily. I need to go to the restroom.”
Lily rolled the dice, moving her piece the required number of spaces.
“How about you, Clint?” he asked his younger son.
“Logan and I colored while John did his homework. You want to see my picture?”
“Yes.”
Clint hopped up from the floor to run into the dining room, coming back with two pieces of construction paper. It was easy to see whose was Clint’s and whose was Logan’s.
Seeing his expectant face, Shade looked at Clint’s first. It was a big cupcake with a candle on top.
“It’s Mrs. Bliss’ birthday tomorrow. I made her a cupcake.”
“I see. You did a good job. She’ll love it.”
Shade looked at the other picture in his hand as Clint sat back down on the floor. Greer’s nephew’s drawing wasn’t what he was expecting. John and Clint had both loved to draw since the first moment Lily put crayons in their hands. He had also gone to their school enough times and had seen the pictures the students had drawn, hanging up in the hallways. Logan’s was on another level. He was already showing signs of being a gifted artist.
As soon as the word gifted appeared in his mind, Shade studied the picture closer, his throat tightening.