*I should be home in about an hour. See you then.*
At first, he was disappointed that Cherry was going home instead of coming here, then he read the text again, more slowly, and sat upright on the couch.
“He called my house home. This is home to him.”
Maybe they were about to rent a trailer after all.
?Chapter Twenty-One
Cherry
He went looking for Ruger or Busk, finding both men seated on facing chairs along one side of the room. Cherry grabbed another chair and pulled up to form the third leg of their triangle.
“I have something I want to run by you. We don’t need privacy, I trust every man under the IMC patch.” Cherry paused and waited for Ruger’s approval. After he got the nod, he pulled in a breath. “This is all very coincidental, but I’m thinking there’s a link. The other night when we hit ASMC, one of the prospects hanging around the burn barrel at the entrance looked familiar. I thought he did, anyway, but couldn’t get the best look. You know how the ASMC prospects have their initials on their left shoulder?” Both men nodded, Busk looking at him with obvious impatience. “Hang on, Busk. Let me get to the good parts.” That pulled a chuckle from Ruger. “This prospect’s initials were HL. I pulled a blank on anyone I knew with those initials, so I didn’t spend much time puzzling at it. But today, in court, Warner said the rookie wasn’t available because he got burned.” He looked between the two men before dropping the bomb. “Rookie’s name is Herbert LaBlanc. HL. I think that’s too tight a spiral to be random.”
“ASMC prospect-patched a fucking LEO? That’s some fucking balls on the part of the prospect. Can you imagine if we did that? We’d be run out of town on the back of a lame cow.”
Cherry stared at Busk for a minute, then shook his head.
“Yeah, sometimes I don’t know where my mouth is going until we get there. But you get the gist. That’s a hell of a mistake.”
“What if it wasn’t a mistake?” Ruger shook his head. “We’ve been surprised by how quickly this chapter of the ASMC has grown. They’ve got what? Seven prospects right now? Seven prospects to about twenty members. That’s not a lotta mentorship time for any one member. Does this prospect LaBlanc have any other ties, outside of Warner?”
“I don’t know, but I’ll get Ricky working on it. He’s going to be pissed he missed the connection.”
“Probably make him work twice as hard.” Cherry pushed to his feet. “Nice to see Daddy and Daddy made up and aren’t fighting any longer.”
“Oh, fuck you. Go get your guy already. Call Ricky in the morning.”
“Won’t have to twist my arm twice.”
He pushed the door open and stepped into the quiet outside. He thumbed a message to Denis, trying to not rethink what he was admitting, even in small portions.
*Coming home to you, baby.*
***
