Illusive (Storm MC 5)

“Yeah.”

“Okay, I’ll take him while you do your thing. Call me if you find out anything, and I’ll do the same,” he said before taking off.

Jesus. This was a bad way to start the week.

* * *

Scott’s and my efforts were futile. We discovered nothing, and after making a plan for tomorrow with J and Nash, I had to leave them and head out to take care of something.

A little over half an hour later, just after five-thirty, I pulled up outside a house I’d been visiting for every one of my thirty-six years; a house I’d continue to visit until I was no longer needed.

“Michael,” my aunt called from the front verandah, “did you remember the milk?”

I jogged the short distance to the verandah and took the stairs a few at a time. Bending, I placed a kiss on her cheek, and smiled. “Yeah, I got it. I’m gonna put it in the fridge and then I’ll be back.”

The lines on her face crinkled into a smile and she nodded as she motioned with her hand for me to move along.

A couple of minutes later, I returned and surveyed the front yard. “I’m gonna mow today; get you ready for Christmas,” I said. I mightn’t celebrate this holiday, but Aunt Josie did. She’d always been better at finding ways to move past her sister’s murder than I’d been.

Her hand found mine as I stood next to her, and she squeezed it. “You’re a good man, Michael, thank you.”

I squeezed her hand back and let it go. “Don’t tell anyone, Josie, they wouldn’t believe you,” I said. This was our standard conversation each week.

As I started taking the steps down, she asked, “When are you going to find yourself a girl?”

Her question caused my steps to falter; this was not our standard conversation.

When I didn’t reply, she said, “I want to see you happy before I die, young man, and I’m not getting any younger.”

I spun around to face her. Frowning, I asked, “Are you trying to tell me something?” My heart began beating a little faster in my chest. Josie was the only blood family I had left. Well, the only one I cared about. I wasn’t ready to lose her.

She nodded. “Yes, I’m trying to tell you to get your head out of your ass and start looking for a woman.” Relief sparked through me that she hadn’t been trying to tell me anything else.

The way she spoke so seriously and the way her mouth wrapped itself around language she never used, made me throw my head back and laugh. Aunt Josie had been raised a lady and I’d never seen her be anything but that, so she’d caught me off guard - enough to loosen my lips. “I found one once, Josie. It didn’t work out and I’m in no hurry to do it again.”

Her lips pursed and she shook her head. “So whenever things don’t go your way in life, you just pack it in and give up? That’s not the McAllister way.”

Jesus, she was being feisty today. “No, but when I’m screwed over like I was, I’m gonna do everything in my power to make sure

that doesn’t happen again. That’s the McAllister way.”

She tsked. “I think you need to revisit that and find a new way. The old way clearly isn’t working for you.”

If it had been anyone else telling me how to live my life, I would have told them where to go, but Aunt Josie held a piece of my heart so I always listened to what she had to say. I couldn’t figure out what had gotten into her today, though, because this was not typical Josie talk.

“I’ll take that under advisement,” I finally agreed, and the smile she gave me, and the nod of her head told me I’d given her the words she wanted. “And now I’m gonna go mow. Is that okay with you?”

“No need to get smart,” she murmured, and I fought the grin forming on my lips. She waved me away. “Go. I’ll have a cold drink ready for when you’re finished.”

I left her and found the mower in her back shed. Five minutes later, I started on her back yard, and disappeared into my thoughts, trying to figure out the riddle of the cocaine Ricky had mentioned. We’d contacted our suppliers and reached out to other contacts, but none of them confirmed anything for us. Either Ricky’s source was wrong or we were being lied to. My gut feeling was the latter, and Scott had the same instinct. Tomorrow, we’d work more on getting to the bottom of it.

When I finished the back yard, I took a five-minute break before heading out to the front. The humidity was cruel today and my shirt clung to me, so I ripped it off and dumped it at the bottom of the front stairs. I kicked myself for not changing into shorts, but the front yard was a lot smaller and I’d be done soon, so I persevered.

Ricky invaded my thoughts again, but at least that was a good distraction from thoughts of my family.

Anything was better than that.

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