Page 75 of Peaks and Promises

“Have you been a good girl?” I held up a candy cane and winked.

Her lips parted. I probably shouldn’t have said that. Suddenly I was aware the costume was tight in more places than the shoulders and thighs.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I guess you’ll have to check your list.”

I gave her the candy cane, resisting the urge to say I wanted her on my naughty list.

She smiled. “Thanks, Santa Claus. Have fun out there.”

“Merry Christmas.”

Zachary slapped my back a few times. “Okay, Santa. Time to keep moving. We still have Christmas cheer to spread.”

Summer bit her lower lip and wiggled her fingers at me in a wave as I walked away.

Man, was I in trouble.

Axel

I took one last drag from my cigarette and flicked the butt into the dirt. The cloud of smoke followed me into the strip club. A few guys glanced in my direction, but I wasn’t nearly as interesting as the stripper circling the pole with her top off.

But I wasn’t there for her. I walked through the blaring music, past the stage, and into a back room.

Breaker stood guard. I stopped in front of him and waited while he turned to get the okay to let me in.

I tried not to let my irritation show. It was about time. I’d waited long enough. I got it, Stryker was busy. And he’d been away when I’d first come back from Arizona. But my patience was wearing thin.

With a nod, Breaker stepped aside to let me through.

Stryker’s long mustache was mostly gray, and his forehead was deeply lined. His vest was worn with age—a mark of his seniority—and his jeans had holes in the knees. He leaned against the front of a desk with a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth.

His old lady, Roxi, sat on a battered couch, her blond hair teased like an eighties beauty queen. And while she wore only slightly more clothing than the stripper, her tight red dress leaving little to the imagination, I knew better than to look too closely.

A few other guys lounged around the room. One got up, and with a nod to Stryker, left through the door I’d come in.

“Axel,” Stryker said.

I cut to the chase. He wouldn’t want me to waste his time with details he didn’t care about. “I’m trying to get my son back. But his mother isn’t cooperating.”

Stryker’s eyes flicked to his old lady. She didn’t say anything.

“So?”

I hesitated, not prepared for that response. “She took off with him. I don’t know where they went.”

“She ran?”

“Looks like it. Skipped town. She left with some guy.”

He took a drag and pinched his cigarette between two fingers, drawing it out of his mouth to blow the smoke toward the ceiling. “What does that have to do with me?”

“I could use help tracking her down.”

He glanced at his old lady again. “You know where she is?”

Roxi shook her head. “No.”

Stryker’s eyes moved back to me and he shrugged.