Punc gestured for her to go inside, and he followed her into the kitchen. “He’s out of the picture, Cat. That’s all you need to know. Go hit the books. I gotta shower and head to work.”
She grinned at him. “Yeah, you’re pretty sweaty. And thanks for mowing the grass. Savannah and I both hate doing that chore, so you rock.”
Turk approached Punc an hour before closing. “There aren’t even six customers here. Tundra’s got it. Come up to the office with me.”
In the office, Turk stood at a credenza holding up a bottle of scotch. “You’d think by now, I’d know your preference, but you want scotch, bourbon, or something else?”
“Scotch works. You want me to shut the door?”
Turk nodded and poured into two highball glasses.
Punc closed the door behind him and grabbed his drink. “This is unusual. Are you giving me the ax?”
Turk lowered himself into his chair and twisted a hand up. “No, but it’s interesting that’s your first thought.”
Punc slouched down in the chair opposite Turk, sipped the scotch, and waited him out.
“You don’t have anything to say?” Turk asked.
“Brother, I had to deal with Savannah’s dad this afternoon right after mowing the yard. I’m in no mood to guess what’s going on or why what I say is interesting to you.”
Turk’s head reared back. “Did he want his merchandise?”
Punc huffed out a chuckle. “Only after he noticed the boxes were MIA, and I told him they’d been dealt with.”
“I take it he didn’t like that you sold them.”
“No, he didn’t like that I insisted the other half of the profit went to Catalina as back child support.”
“What’d Ava say to that?”
Punc grimaced. “I didn’t get to see her before leaving. My guess is that Catalina will tell her before I do.”
Turk nodded. “That’s going to happen a lot with your schedules.”
“Yeah. So far, we’ve managed all right.”
“It hasn’t been that long. What are your goals, Punc? When you started prospecting you were a mechanic. When we bought Platinum’s you were all in to help, and initially I thought it was only because of the dancers.”
“It wasn’t, though they didn’t hurt either.”
“Right,” Turk said with a chin dip. “Now that you’ve claimed a woman, wouldn’t you rather have a schedule similar to hers?”
“At some point, perhaps, but I understood what I signed on for three years ago.”
“Right, but that was before you started seeing Ava.”
“I thought you said I wasn’t getting fired.”
“You aren’t. Just feeling you out.”
“Feeling me out for what?”
“What do you want out of working here? Yak pointed out that for you, Tundra, and Evict this is a dead-end job.”
Punc chuckled. “Got a feeling Yak said something else.”
“Yeah. Dead end with blue balls every night.”
