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Parking the truck in the driveway, I walk across to the practice as Breaker walks out to the SUV. Just as I reach it, I see the junker drive past on the road. He’s a slippery fucker, I’ll give him that, but he gives me an idea that might get him caught, or better yet, dead.
Chapter 25
*~* Fury *~*
Walking to the kitchen for a coffee, I’m thinking I need to get myself a job. I seem to spend more time getting coffee from this kitchen than I do anything else these days. Seeing Ghost already there, I give him a chin lift.
“How’s things, Ghost?” I ask him.
“I've been better. Been waiting for you.” He takes a gulp of his coffee, and my eyes squint, eyebrows furrow, and lips purse. Can’t be a good look because he laughs at it. “I need some advice about Thorn.”
“What the fuck? You’re coming to me for fatherly advice? It must be freakin’ dire if you think I've got anything to bring to the table, Ghost. I know fuck all about kids of any age, size or gender.” Of all the things that could have come out of his mouth, I would have lost my shirt betting on it being this.
“You’re spilling your coffee.” Looking down, I see my cup has tipped slightly as I’m standing here gawking at him.
“I’ll help any way I can, Ghost, but I don’t know what I can do for you.”
“I’ve had to have a difficult conversation with Thorn. A young lady he’s met and got sweet on doesn’t have the same feelings in return. I said I’d speak to him about it on her behalf, and it didn’t go well. I wasn’t expecting a hug and kisses from it, but he got extremely upset and I think we may have gone back to square one in our relationship.” Ghost looks at me and I can see the hurt in his eyes. “I’ve come to like Thorn as a person and love him more as a son. I don’t want to lose him, especially over something like this.”
“I can understand that. He’s a good kid. Not so much a kid now, I guess. Young man. I like him, too. We had a good talk when I went to the barbers that…time. Oh, I get it. You want me to have a talk with him as we got on so well.” The lightbulb pops on, and I understand now.
“Would you? In his anger, he threw it at me that I hadn’t been there to protect him from Bandit, but you were. I offered to teach him some hand to hand, but he took that wrong too.”
“How did he take that wrong?” I’m baffled by that.
“He said that I was just trying to deflect another way of being there for him. Teaching him to look after himself so that I could go off and do my own thing again. That was not what I meant, Fury. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
I feel for Ghost, I really do. I can see that this thing with Thorn has deeply affected him. I have had no one in my life to affect me like this, except Jamie, and that has only been recently. I don’t know if my talking to Thorn would have any effect, but I have to try. I like Ghost and I like Thorn. I wouldn’t want to lose either from my limited social circle, as it were, so this could have repercussions for me, too.
“I’ll run by the barbershop, Ghost, while I’m out and see what I can do. Don’t hold it against me though, if he won’t listen.”
“Anything you can do will be appreciated, and don’t worry. If he doesn’t listen, that’s on him, not you. They weren’t even a couple. He hadn’t asked her on a date yet, for Christ’s sake.”
“Erm, just out of interest, who is the little lady? Anyone I know?”
“Nah, she’s somebody's daughter out of my past. Well, Thorn’s past too, if it comes to that.” Ghost gives me the lowdown on this ‘Salem’. I’m not so sure if I were in Thorn’s shoes, I would want to have any kind of relationship with the person who has lived her life on money that had been meant for me. When I say that to Ghost, he clears it up when I fully realize that she wasn’t aware of that fact, or even Thorn's existence until recently.
As I look at Ghost, another realization hits me. That’s where he has Jamie and Mateo hidden. None of us are even remotely aware of Salem’s existence, but Thorn would have guessed. He protected Jamie to the point of being beaten by Bandit. My respect for that young man just went up another notch.
“Don’t let the cat out of the bag, Fury. You could get Salem into some deep shit if it got out. She needs protecting from your father just as much as the Doc does.”
“You have my word, Ghost. If you, Thorn, or this Salem ever need help, you just have to say the word. I’ll be there for any of you after what you’ve all done to help my woman.” I give him a chin lift and offer my hand.
He takes my hand and pulls me in for a backslap as he does. “It’s about damn time you started calling her your woman, you big ape.” He leaves the kitchen, and I stand here alone for a minute and wonder, how the hell do I broach this with Thorn without making an even bigger mess than it already is?
Heading to Whack’s office, all that’s going through my freakin’ head is, ‘knock and wait.’ He tore me a new asshole before I was dismissed last time. I don’t need to go through that again.
Hearing him call enter, I walk in and stand in front of his desk. I know he’s deliberately leaving me standing here, but I’m not sitting until told to. I’ve stood in front of officers' desks for hours in the service, this doesn’t faze me one bit. I could stand here all day…
“FURY! I said sit the fuck down, man. What is wrong with you every time you come in here lately?” Whack stares at me with a pitying look, and I throw myself into a chair.
“He needs to kill his father, get the Doc locked down as his woman and get his balls drained. All that pent-up testosterone is leaking into his head and addling his brain,” Breaker’s voice from behind me has me looking around where I see him, Cannon and Griller all sitting there with big smirks on their faces.
Griller taunts me next. “You need to get your head out of your ass before you go after your father. You didn’t even see us sitting here when you came in. You are not in a good place, my brother.”
“I have a lot on my mind, brother, okay?”
“Hey, I was only saying. I don’t want or need to be firing a salute over another grave, if I can help it. If you don’t get your head fully on the mission, it’s going to go south fast, and you know it, Fury. We’ve both seen it happen too many times. Those days should be behind us now, but it seems that there’s always a scumbag somewhere who we need to bring our skills out of the closet for.” Griller gives me a glare, and I take in what he is saying, and that it is being said for all the right reasons.
