Page 117 of Thug

“I do that to people.” He sipped his wine. “Did you two meet in the bar?”

“Price and a friend came in one night,” I said. “I knew right then and there that I wanted to know more.”

Jack chuckled. “Did he intrigue you?”

“He did.”

“Sounds like that’s an easy thing to do.”

“Not really.”

“I beg to differ,” he said. “You find one hundred percent of the men at this table intriguing. That’s an inarguable statistic.”

I laughed at his antics. “The two of you are exceptional.”

“I’ll accept that.” He took a drink. “Did he take you for a ride on that scooter of his? After you were intrigued?”

“No,” I said. “He told me women weren’t allowed to ride on the back.”

He removed his hat and rubbed his head. “Best I recall, you were on the back of it this evening, when he pulled into the drive.”

I grinned. “I was.”

He put his hat back on and adjusted it. “What changed?”

“I can’t really say. Something happened and he finally gave me a ride.”

Jack looked at Price. Price nodded.

I gave them both a confused look.

“Did he give you a ride home after that knucklehead kidnapped you?” Jack asked.

My eyes went wide. I sat up in my chair. “You know about that?”

He chuckled. “McNealy told me about it. Sounds like the man who did it was a hairbrained idiot.”

“He is an idiot, but I got back at him for it,” I said. “I stole his cats.”

He choked on his wine. “You did what?”

“The guy who kidnapped me had two cats. They were like his kids. Little leopard cats. They’re called Bengals. I wanted to get back at him for making my life miserable, so I decided to make his life miserable. I took his cats.”

He laughed out loud. “Just swiped ‘em? From his house?”

I grinned pridefully. “We broke in and took them. Left a ransom note.”

“You and McNealy?”

I nodded. “Yep.”

“What was the ransom?”

“Fifty grand.”

“Jesus jumped up Christ,” he said. “Should have gone with something a little closer to realistic. Might have been able to get a good steak dinner and a tank of gas out of the deal.”

Price scoffed. “He’d pay it if he knew how.”