Magnum drives us out to the Creek reservation. Wyatt wants us to find Oske, and it stands to reason that she would be out here with her brothers, since it’s much closer to the club house than her other place. When he pulls the bike outside the front of her trailer and chases off the dogs fighting over a random bone in the driveway, I sidle up to Magnum and ask what I’m sure must be on his mind.
“Do you think Oske drugged us?”
“Why would you say that?”
“The last thing I remember is sitting at the bar.”
Magnum scowls. “That’s not the last thing I remember.”
My ears burn hot. What? Maybe we should have actually talked about last night instead of this idiot dragging me off to the reservation in the middle of nowhere. There’s nothing out here and being out in the middle of nowhere freaks me out, ever since I left my ex.
“Wait, what?”
Magnum growls. “I don’t have time for a personal discussion right now. We need to find Oske and hopefully, we can be done with this so I can take you back to Santa Fe.”
He seems way too eager to take me back to Santa Fe. Maybe he’ll get tired of this game and realize when I’m actually pregnant that he doesn’t want to get a random black woman with pink hair pregnant.
“It’s not a personal discussion. We were victims of a crime.”
Magnum looks over his shoulder at me with absolute derision. “We aren’t victims of anything and I never want to hear you say that again.”
“Boy, that had better not be a confession…”
Magnum widens his stride to leave me behind, so I have to scuttle like a crab to catch up with his excessively tall ass. If he weren’t so big, I would have definitely attempted to throw a punch. Currently, I don’t want that smoke from Magnum. I might consider suffocating him if we ever end up lying down anywhere near each other.
He knocks on the door and a lanky man with black hair in a loose braid, several tattoos on his skinny chest, and a deep, russet skin tone opens it. It only takes me a couple seconds to realize this is Oske’s brother.
“Where’s your sister?” Magnum asks, not bothering with a greeting or any politeness that someone else might find necessary.
“Uhhh… the club house? Is this a test?” he yawns like he just got out of bed. The scent of pungent marijuana smoke finally reaches me and Magnum, explaining his sluggish demeanor.
“Chitto, get on that bike and get a hold of Oske. Now.”
“She never came back last night,” he says. “I can call her.”
“Do that. Now.”
Chapter Seven
Magnum
I’m surprised how quickly the situation with Oske resolves itself. I can’t accept that I’m not receiving new instructions from Wyatt sending me somewhere fucked up like Boston or Calgary.
Oske has Damara’s cell phone, but she’s nowhere near the reservation or the club house. She left early so she would have time to head out to her place in Missouri. She found Damara’s cell phone and had it tucked under the bar, planning to give it back when she saw Damara again. Unfortunately, she had to leave before ever seeing her.
I grab the phone from Chitto to hear the most important information from Oske directly. He barely reacts to me snatching the cell phone, and returns inside to retrieve something to smoke.
“Did you see anyone approach us?”
Oske answers disdainfully. “Who would have approached you when you were embarrassing yourself like that?”
“What are you talking about?” I answer proudly.
“You looked like a sick puppy. Damara could have had you eating her buttcheeks right there at the bar.”
Oske deserves a smack to the face for the way she talks to people. She’s lucky that she has Wyatt Shaw’s protection, and possibly Deacon Hollingsworth’s protection, depending on how many of his secrets she holds.
“If you don’t have any helpful information, point me to someone in the club who does. And call Wyatt the second we’re done here.”
