AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I think the song is two cats in the yard.”
She smiled. “Kids, cats. Either way. I wouldn’t be any damn good at it. My mother was… well, she was no June Cleaver. She got busted at twenty-two, holding her boyfriend’s stash. Dad posted her bond, believed her story that she was forced into it. He took her in, married her, and I came along about nine months later. She was clean the whole time she was pregnant with me, or close enough, I guess. But she wasn’t the domestic type. It only took a year or so for her to go crazy changing diapers and doing dishes. Dad came home from a two-day trace and she was gone. I was locked in my room, screaming like a banshee. I’d been there for pretty much the whole two days, alone. It didn’t take long for him to track her down. They were holed up in a flea bag about the same as the Rainbow, she and her ex, completely wasted. Dad told her she had to choose, right then and there.”
“And she didn’t choose you,” Caleb finished quietly.
She shook her head. “Nope.” Then, “Fuck her. I had Pop. He did the best he could, which was pretty damn good if you ask me.” She smiled ruefully. “Denver never got it. Not really. He never understood that taking evil out of the world is just as important as putting something good in.”
Caleb nodded. He could definitely understand that. It was the sole reason he’d taken up the badge. It was also the reason he wasn’t wearing it now. “Nothing feels better than taking out the trash.”
She grinned. “Well, I can think of at least one thing that might be better, but you’re right. It’s a damn good feeling.”
“Want to go back to bed and compare them again?” he asked.
“Absolutely.” She nodded at her laptop. “And I think I’ve found a way to get Paul.”
“Really? Did the cabin pan out? You did a property search?”
She shook her head. “No. Unfortunately, the Pauls don’t seem to own that cabin in the photo. My guess is that it belongs to one of their biker buddies. But I don’t know all their names so I can’t do a thorough search.”
“So, how do we find it?”
“I’ve got an idea,” she said cryptically.
Caleb watched as she shut down the program and closed the laptop. “You want to tell me what the plan is?” he prompted.
“Pretty simple, actually,” she told him. “We’re going to ask their boss.”
Chapter 24
Caleb watched from across the bar as Izzy cozied up to Preacher Prior, president of the Badlands Buzzards MC. He set his beer down on the counter so he didn’t accidentally squeeze it too hard and send shards of glass everywhere. Izzy had one hip leaning against the corner pool table and she was caressing Prior’s stick—his pool stick—suggestively.
“Doc?” came a familiar voice to Caleb’s right.
“Yeah?” Caleb replied without taking his eyes off Izzy and Prior.
“Why are you at the bar by yourself?” Easy asked. “You and I could still get a table, even if everyone else is at home.”
The others were home with their women, as was more often the case these days. Easy still hung around Maria’s every night that Daisy was working to keep an eye out for her.
Easy followed Caleb’s gaze toward the darkened corner of the bar and gave a concerned grunt. “Isn’t that Izzy? Rubbing on Prior’s cue?” he asked.
Caleb tapped his fingers on the polished wood of the counter. “Yeah.”
“Isn’t she your woman?”
Caleb caught himself before he answered again. “No,” he replied, which ran counter to his instincts. His cock jerked in protest.
“What’s she doing?”
“Baiting the hook for Prior.”
Easy gave a low whistle. “Bad idea.”
“I don’t disagree. But it’s our best shot at catching the Paul kid whose cousin seems to have pulled a disappearing act around the same time the younger one robbed that gas station.”
“What the fuck makes her think that Prior would give up anybody in his organization?” Easy asked, obviously incredulous. “Even a pissant hangaround?”
“Izzy’s got leverage,” Caleb said quietly. He watched as Prior finally lost interest in the game and turned his full attention to the beautiful woman in front of him. Izzy took him by the arm and led him away from the table and toward the front door.
“What kind of leverage?” Easy asked. “Her tits? Because I’ve got to say, Doc, I don’t think that’s going to be enough.”
Caleb growled at the thought of Prior’s hands on her. He stood up and made his way toward the exit—not the front door as Izzy and Prior had done, but the back, through the kitchen.
“I’m coming with you,” Easy insisted. Caleb didn’t argue.
It was sheer hell having lost sight of her, even for just a few moments. Caleb quickened his pace down the alley just outside the back door and turned the corner to the side of the building.
