Order (Tattoos and Ties 2)

“Ignore him,” Hound said, hooking a thumb over his shoulder toward the tow truck. “We’re slammed today. I got another tow waitin’. I didn’t have a choice but to bring him along. I told him to keep his fuckin’ mouth shut. You see how that worked out.”

Keyes nodded, knowing even though he tuned his old man out, his current customers waiting in the parking lot for their tire changes could certainly hear every disparaging word coming from the cab of the truck. Whatever Hound wanted, it needed to get done as fast as humanly possible.

“Mack asked if you could get these tires changed. It’s all the customer needs. He’ll handle the payment.”

“Sure,” he said, and with a cock of his head, he nodded Hound toward the truck. As he started them that direction, a weird tug at his heart made Keyes slow. The feeling was instinctual more than anything tangible. Whatever it was had him turning toward the road. Keyes’s heart skipped a beat when the shiny flash of red and chrome caught his attention. His forward steps halted as he recognized Alec’s sports car rolling past. In that ten or so seconds, everything faded away. Keyes’s anxiety eased, his face softened, and a smile pulled at the corners of his lips. He didn’t know what Alec was doing on this side of town and didn’t care. He had needed the mental boost Alec always brought. Keyes had to check his urge to lift his hand in greeting.

As quickly as Alec had come, he left, and Keyes’s world rushed back in around him. Keyes’s gaze swept the parking lot, watching his staff dart around like a seasoned pit crew. The sounds of impact wrenches and his father’s shouted insults filled the peaceful place Alec had momentarily created. He turned toward the tow truck to see Hound several steps ahead of him, staring at him as if he lost his mind. Technically, he probably had, but he finished his steps and his thought as he headed around the rear of the truck.

“Umm. Yeah. I’ll help get the car off the truck. He’s gotta go before he fuckin’ freaks out my customers.”

“Prez says for you to stop by this afternoon,” Hound’s gravelly voice called out from the other side of the truck.

Keyes nodded, knowing that was code for another drug run. They were growing in frequency, which was risky as hell with the way the Dallas district attorney still breathed down their backs, but the prez knew what he was doing. He could trust that. Besides, Keyes was banking and socking that bonus cash away, so he’d count it as a win-win for everyone.

“He also called everybody to church tomorrow afternoon.”

Keyes paused in loosening the chain holding the back of the vehicle in place. A club meeting would mean two nights in a row he’d have to stay on this side of town. Technically, that wasn’t abnormal except he’d been going over to Alec’s every night this week, and he liked it. Alec seemed to like him there too.

“Smoke’s declinin’. They told me not to say anything, but I thought you should know,” Hound said, leaning toward Keyes, angling his body across the back of the truck bed. They made eye contact, and it held as Hound nodded toward his father. Honestly, Keyes didn’t want to know how or why his old man might have taken a turn for the worse. It was out of his control. No matter how hard he’d tried in the past to build a relationship with his father, it wasn’t ever going to happen. The man hated him, and there was no love lost on his end either, so it was best if they stayed out of each other’s way.

He didn’t say a word. Instead, he moved to the front of the loaded car to help lower the vehicle. As he worked, his father hit the outer side panel of the truck, drawing Keyes’s attention that direction. He caught his old man’s reflection in the side mirror. His father looked much thinner than the last time he’d seen him, and that couldn’t have been more than a month ago.

“You’re a fuckin’ pussy,” his father drawled with venom in his voice that didn’t match the sickly shell of the man he’d become. His father held his gaze in the side mirror then lifted his hand, pointing at him, making a pistol out of his forefinger and thumb. He fired at Keyes through the mirror. “It’s gonna fuckin’ happen, pussy.”

Keyes made a show of rolling his eyes then lifted his middle finger at his father before turning back to the car, refusing to engage no matter how badly he wanted to shove his fist into his father’s gaunt face for threatening him like that. He’d leveled far bigger and badder men than his father for much less of an insult.