“I know that I got paid and delivered what was asked.”
“Who put you up to this?” Deacon does his best to hide his fury, but it’s well-known that redheads have anger issues. I would feel pretty upset too if I’d been born a ginger.
“If I could tell you that, I would have done it,” I answer calmly, hoping to get my ass out of this situation before Deacon probes me further. What does it matter who did what? What happens at the club house, stays at the club house. Especially if you use your military training to fuck with the cameras.
Deacon doesn’t agree and keeps pressing for answers to his so-called mystery. It really isn’t much of a mystery.
“Fuck, Zeb. I don’t have time for games,” Deacon growls.
“I’m not playing games, Rage. I’m saving my own fucking skin.”
“What if you didn’t tell me?”
“I like the sound of that.”
“No, you dumbass. I need you toshow mewho put you up to this.”
I can’t help but admire his ingenuity. Technically, setting up a meeting and doingeverything in my powerto stay hidden but of course, failing to account for Deacon Hollingsworth’stalent… would keep me well within the boundaries of my original contract.
You never want the reputation of a snitch.
“That might work.”
Deacon gives me a look as if to suggest it hadbetter fucking workbut I can’t control the future. I might be able to get him what he wants without losing my hide. I won’t make it free.
“Putting my ass on the line could cost me a hell of a lot,” I start, keeping my mind fully fixed on my goal of getting some money out of this considering I really am putting myself at quite a disadvantage by getting involved in all this messy business between families.
“I don’t have time for this, Zeb.”
“And I don’t have money.”
“Doesn’t the government give you like a million fucking dollars to sit on your ass siphoning my tax dollars.”
“You pay your fair share of taxes?”
Deacon snarls. “How much do you want? And hurry the fuck up, because I don’t have all night to deal with this.”
He acts like I personally interrupted him from fucking his wife. I’m only down here looking for profitable work. I have to get my neurological problem from the military fixed but honestly, I don’t remember or understand the medical details. They said there might be details with remembering stuff and as for all of that medical terminology. I was hopeless in the face of the written word since I was a kid.
I get to work properly again when the doctors clear me and so far – not clear.
I need more than my military stipend to work on my bike and travel across this country in freedom. There’s no hope of locking down an old lady in this day and age without having a fair chunk of change.
“I need $7,000.”
That would give me enough to survive a month or two on the road. I could get a pair of new tires for my bike and maybe even drive back out to my trailer out in Missouri and fix it up a bit. So long as I don’t stop to gamble anywhere along the way, I could make that money stretch.
“That’s it?” Deacon asks. “Fine. I’ll wire it over in the morning. Contact your personnow, Zeb. I don’t have time for this. I need to get back to my wife.”
His wife…
Pretty lady. Nice big butt. Perfect smile. I’ve never been in bed with a woman who had skin as dark as that but in the military, you get plenty of opportunity to fantasize. There was this one woman I worked with very briefly during my deployment... she smelled like frankincense just naturally with no perfume on.
Maybe it was her hair. Either way, I understand Deacon’s urgency. If I had a woman like that, I would never leave her alone for a second.
“I’ll send a text,” I tell Deacon. “Where should we all meet up?”
After that little meeting with Deacon, I take the money and head out to keep my ass out of trouble, doing exactly what Wyatt asks of me. When it’s all said and done, he brings me in for a little heart to heart with him and Gideon.
