Page 31 of It Takes a Thief

I felt the need to stand for this, though I felt a bit ridiculous now with my cock at half-mast. “And I will, Maddy! I will outbid any assholes on whatever cruise you want!”

“It’s all a write-off,” she said flippantly.

“Hell to the yeah it’s a write-off,” I said, before I realized I shouldn’t have. “Listen, Maddy. What’re you doing on the Rez, anyway? Some medical emergency?”

She tried to look prim now, dragging her little chair closer to the mirror and fussing with her hair. “Now you ask?”

My hands hung at my sides. “Look. I’m sorry. I know you’ve heard that a billion times before, but this time it’s real. I’m seriously looking at ways to reduce some of the time I spend at the construction company.”

She glared at me in the mirror. “The construction company? That’s the part you’re reducing? Not the club?”

What the hell? Why would I reduce my hours at the club? “Well, yeah. That’s the biggest time-suck. And it’s the only area where I can find a semi-qualified substitute.”

Now she turned to look at me. “Tuzigoot?” I detected hope in her voice.

“Tuzigoot, right.”

“You gonna name him Prez of the company?”

“Hell no, Maddy! You think I suddenly went from a Type A to a Type Zero? No, but if I make him Project Manager I can maybe delegate a lot of shit. Or he can. The trickle-down effect.”

She stood for this one. She came so close to me her luscious boobs jostled against my chest. I sunk my fingers into her hair. She said, “For real, Ford? You going to go to kid’s parties with me and Niko and Fidelia? Hiking with me and Sabrina and Charlie?”

When we both started laughing, I added, “Going to documentary screenings?”

“Playing Wii Bowling with Duji?”

The last was so absurd I didn’t even have to answer. I just held my old lady to me, feeling great for the first time in a long time. I noticed the phone on the floor, wondering who that clown was she’d been talking to.

But I didn’t want to wreck the moment. So I didn’t ask.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

MADISON

I was on top of the world.

I was with Sabrina, whom I hadn’t seen in a month. I was taking Galileo around, introducing him to movers and shakers. He was an awkward, innocent guy, but his personality really melded to the personality of whoever he was talking to. With club brothers, he’d take on an obsequious, subordinate role—not a stretch for him. It was almost like he’d make a good Prospect, although I wasn’t sure about his behavior under stress. Prospects were supposed to go to the wall for brothers, and I couldn’t imagine Galileo handling a piece, either. He’d probably shoot birds out of the sky.

He was surprisingly good, too, with public officials. Maybe he was experienced in all his dealing with Rez leaders, child protective agents, and Indian Health Services helping his mother as she died of cancer. Now I had to actually go and get this Rez job, but when I did, I’d be leaving, coming home on weekends or whatever my off days were. Hopefully, the end of my gig would coincide with the end of Ford’s stupid highway job.

Not only did Ford seem encouraging to me—leaving me deeply suspicious about why he wanted me gone—but he thought Galileo would be a shoe-in at his new dog grooming business. See, a lot of the club’s money was ill-gained, I knew. I didn’t ask questions, but I knew they needed businesses to launder the money through. This latest dog grooming shtick was Slushy’s idea. They all seemed to have dogs except me. And I had to agree, Galileo might work out there. He loved dogs. In the meantime, Ford agreed he could stay in our guest room.

Sabrina leaned into me. You had to shout in that giant, babbling hall. Hundreds of booming voices echoed off the walls, and there wasn’t even any music playing. I mean, people were fucking milling, trying to get as drunk as possible before the close of the silent auctions. Cops’ kids wearing giant sombreros chock-full of dangling lottery tickets wandered among the long rows of tables.

“Did you find the cruise you want?”

I smiled and sipped my red wine. I was done with fentanyl, at least until I took a pee test for the job. Wine would have to suffice for me—and the occasional bowl of Lytton’s Young Man Blue, of course. “Yes! Mexico is kind of dicey these days, so I saw a beautiful one out of Alaska.”

“Alaska! I always wanted to go there.”

“So does Ford! God, it’s been so long since we’ve taken off anywhere together.”

“Well, you guys are made in heaven. You’re just fucking meant to be. I don’t know about me and Charlie, but you two are like yin and yang. You, like, complement each other.”

I shined with pride. “I think so. But then you’ve heard me bitch a zillion times about how many hours he works. Here, let me show you the cruise I bid on.”

Sabrina said, “Bidding ends at nine. You better be standing right there when it does.”