Page 68 of Dark Obsession

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“All I’m saying is they should call it Golden Throne instead of Golden Palace, because I ended up on the toilet all night, shitting my brains out.”

Cody wrinkled his nose.

“And Aggie had no issues at all, of course.” Jugs lifted another trap into the back of the truck. The squirrel inside darted back and forth, chittering and shrieking. Each shriek drilled into Cody’s temples as Jugs kept talking. “She even suggested I might be faking it to get out of work. How do you fake something like that?”

“Really can’t,” Cody said as he moved the trap to the back of the cab. He stood in the bed of the truck, sweaty skin itchy from having been up in another attic. The sun felt like lava across the back of his neck, and his briefs were drenched.

“Are you listening to me?”

Cody frowned at him. “Yeah, of course.”

“Doesn’t seem like it.”

“I just answered you, didn’t I?”

That made Jugs think. “Huh. That’s true.”

“There you go.”

“You’ve been acting weird all morning. What happened over the weekend?”

Cody turned away to adjust the row of cages, even though all of them were secure. Eight squirrels running around in their client’s attic. His brain could relate.

How the hell could he explain everything that had happened the last few days?

“It’s so hot in that attic. Do you boys want some iced tea to go?”

Cheryl Gibson, their client, was a sweet senior lady with white hair in a neat bun on the back of her head. Seeing her in a cardigan sweater almost made Cody pass out from heatstroke. Cheryl held two clear plastic cups filled with tea, complete with lids and straws.

“You are an angel from above, Mrs. Gibson,” Jugs said, accepting the drinks. “Where did you get these cups? It’s like you run your own drive-thru or something.”

She laughed and touched Jugs’s arm as Cody climbed down from the truck.

“I worked for a while at that Chick-fil-A over in Thorndale.” She crossed her arms and shook her head. “The manager was a snotty twenty-something named Preston.”

Jugs shook his head. “Never met a Preston I liked.”

“Have you ever met a Preston?” Cody asked, taking a long drink of tea through his straw. It was sweet, and the sugar hit him like a sledge hammer, making him squint.

“I was working to supplement my retirement, not start a new career at eighty years old.” She huffed and crossed her arms. “He demanded I work late one night and organize the stock room. So, I helped myself to four of those big garbage bags full of cups with lids and straws and left him a note telling him just what I thought of him.” She lightly touched her bun. “Now when I’m invited to potlucks, I always sign up to bring cups.”

Cody snorted a laugh and almost shot tea out his nose.

Cheryl and Jugs talked a little longer, then Cody handed her the invoice. She pulled a credit card from the back pocket of her embroidered jeans, and he applied a fifteen percent discount because he kind of loved her.

“You boys take care and stay cool,” she said as she stood by the truck in her cardigan sweater, chafing her arms. “And thank you!”

Cody pulled away from the curb, the squirrels chittering and rattling their cages in the bed.

“She’s pretty great,” Jugs said, sipping his tea. “And she makes some awesome tea.”

“Yeah.”

Jugs smacked him on the arm.

“Ow!” Cody gave him an annoyed side-eye. “What the hell was that for?”