Page 9 of Race With The Devil

Relief washed over Slushy’s face. “Were they? That would be most advantageous, Tanner. The Bare Bones want to stick their dongs in a hornet’s nest, that’s up to them. But I always wind up getting sloppy seconds. And lots of the people I talked to today also mentioned how they can’t get ahold of Lavinia. I’d rather come down decisively on one side or the other of this.”

Wolf called over. “What’s Bikers Against Child Abuse?”

Slushy swiveled his entire torso this time. “What the fuck are you looking at? Get off my computer!”

“I fixed your seat cover problem by hacking into their website and repairing their dropdown box. You’re right—it was screwed. I couldn’t finish your order, though, ‘cause I don’t know your PayPal login. You want Desert Sand, right? Then I noticed you have a virus—the ol’ You’ve Got Male bug. You know, maybe if you stopped looking at sites like Village of the Rammed or Oklahomo! you wouldn’t get these bugs.”

Slushy was on his feet now, careening around the side of his desk. “That was research for the Bent Zealots, you Edward Penishands.”

“BACA,” I said loudly.

“What?” said Wolf. Seemingly oblivious to the fact that Slushy was bodily whipping him out of the chair.

“Bikers Against Child Abuse. They go around responding to calls of abuse and stand by threateningly while the abuser is removed, usually by cops. Scares the fuck out of the perverts. Where’d you see that?”

Wolf pointed. “Slushy got an email. That was the subject matter.”

Unity entered the office. She opened her arms to Beetle, and he came racing over to her.

“Who’s a good boy?” she asked, rubbing her face against his rabbit-soft ear. I knew I should have cut the bonds when I handed Beetle over but hey, he came to Unity, not Wolf. So I got up and squeezed big handfuls of his neck ruff, stroked my palm back and forth over his ribs. I swore he smiled at me.

Unity must have known I was acting inappropriately, because she gently led Beetle over to Wolf. “Who’s a good boy?” whispered Wolf, forlorn.

I suddenly felt for the guy. He hadn’t yet bonded with the pupper. That was understandable given the timeframe. I did them no justice by continuing my affection for Beetle. So I shouted over to Slushy, “Who’s talking about BACA?”

“It looks like the Bare Bones have a mission. I’m the point man for BACA but we’ve only gotten a few requests in the past couple years. I better tell Ford a group needs to go to Cottonwood.”

“Cottonwood?” asked Unity. “That’s where I’m from. And Bellamy, June and Maddy.”

Slushy turned to face us, whisking a page from his printer’s output tray. He rattled it into position. “I knew about Maddy and Bellamy. Seems to be a lot of abuse in that place. Now, this is strictly confidential, mind you. Don’t go warning anyone you might know, but this call is from a Beverly Mitford—“

Slushy stopped abruptly. Something seemed to dawn on him.

At the same time it dawned on Unity, judging from her slack face.

“That’s my mother,” she whispered.