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“Jesus, Deke. You look like hell.”
“Long ass couple of days.” Deke sighed a long minute then shook his head slightly as if shaking off a lead weight.
“So, we good on the La Croix bitch?” I asked. Then I acquiesced cause looking at the exhaustion in my father’s eyes made me rethink my attitude. “Method might have been a little extreme…”
“Yeah, we’re good.” Deke’s shoulders slumped slightly as some of the tension was released from his bunched-up muscles “Something had to wake that girl up. Tisha La Croix has had that silver spoon shoved up her ass for too long now. Conniving little bitch likes to play one man against the other. Not saying a twenty-two shoved down her throat is the answer, but you’re right. Killer found her fucking around on him things it could have ended in a goddamn massacre.”
“Way I saw it.” I nodded relieved that my dad had come to see things my way.
“Way it is.” My old man grunted, but I could see the wheels turning. “Bradley Collins isn’t a bad fucking kid, and like I said that girl is trouble. You sure as hell saved both their asses—actually, three. Things wouldn’t have ended too well for Killer, either. Bunny LaCroix’s got the little slut halfway to their home in Montana right now. Poor fucking cowboys ain’t going to know what hit ‘em.” He added with a smirk.
“I got anything to worry about?”
“From Senator Suckass? Nah. He’s not thrilled with the method, but happy with the outcome.” Deke twisted off another beer cap. “I explained that we got our ways.”
So, there was no need for you to go apeshit on me then.I scowled at the thought because my throat and neck hurt like hell, and not gonna lie…my pride had taken a hit. Not easy for a guy like me to be grabbed by the throat and not lay the fucker out. Even if he was my father…still not easy.
“Heard Liddy Hall is back in town and sounds like she’s here to stay. What’s that look like for you?” He suddenly switched gears and looked at me curiously.
“Don’t look like shit.”
“Yeah? You used to follow her around like a lost damn puppy back in the day. Heard she’s single…you might want to grow a pair and make your play. Heard she grew into a real beauty, too.”
“I got no interest there.”
“Bullshit you don’t.” Then my dad gave me one of those soul-searching looks that went right through to the heart of me. “I know what eats at you, Kid, and we’ll find them. The fuckers can’t hide forever—can’t hold the cards they’re playing forever, either. Just a matter of time before we got the cocksuckers strung up, but in the meantime, life has to go on.”
“It’s taking too long,” I growled at him and felt my shoulders stoop slightly under the weight I carried.
Deke shook his head and gave me one of those long-ass assessing looks of his.
“Helluva thing.” He shook his head and tilted his beer up to his mouth.
“What?” I growled.
“Pretty Liddy back in town.”
“Shut the fuck up about me and Liddy, Dad. Me and her..we’re history…ancient fucking history.”
“She’s good.” Deke persisted. “Liddy Rose comes from good, and she sure as hell is good. A good woman is a rare thing.” Then my dad got a look in his eyes that I had never seen before, but it looked a lot like regret. “Ah, pretty little Betty Owens. The one who got away.”
“So, you two really did have a thing?”
“A thing?” My dad looked amused. “Yeah, I guess you could call it a thing. The best days of my life were the days that me and Betty spent sneaking off together. Her daddy was a sonofabitch so I stayed away from the house but bet your ass I didn’t stay away from the girl.”
“So definitely a thing.”
“We were young, but what we had was real. Then my dad got busted on a heroin charge and my mom moved us away. When I joined the Sinners, I used every excuse to come back here. We hooked up a few times.”
“How did that work out for ya?” I wondered in thatcuriosity killed the catkind of way.
“It was the same between us and it wasn’t.” Deke shrugged. “Been trying to figure that shit out for years now. Just never seemed like we got our time…life happened, and we both moved on. But I gotta tell you, moving back here and seeing Betty again? Man, it had been like no time had passed. Hit me hard.”
“You loved her.”
“Loved her? Yeah, I fucking loved her. Still do.”
“So then why not make your play?” I was practically on the edge of my seat now.
