“Nah.”
The guys opened the doors and slid from the truck.
I didn’t move.
Rico leaned his head back in. “Get out. Or I’ll shoot you. I’m carrying.”
“You wouldn’t.”
His eyes narrowed. “Try me, Gordo.”
Rico had gotten scarier since he’d found out about werewolves. I almost believed him.
I got out of the truck.
People waved at us as we headed inside. It was the price of living in a small town. Everyone knew everyone. I was the guy who fixed their cars, who sometimes ate in the diner. I was a townie. The same with the guys. Sure, Chris and Tanner had left for a while, but they’d come back, the world too big for them. Rico had already been working for me. Chris and Tanner had followed shortly. And after that, they never left.
But that’s all we were to them. The guys from the garage. Townies.
I wondered what they would think if they knew everything.
I nodded in response, not wanting to stop for even a few short words. I hoped we’d find some dark corner, get a couple of pitchers, and get out of here in an hour or two. If I’d really wanted to, I could have begged off, but it’d been a long while since we’d done this, just the four of us. We’d tried it once after the death of Richard Collins. We hadn’t spoken much, staring down at our beers, the guys still too pissed at me for leaving.
But then life had happened. We got busy. The pack. The garage. Rico met Bambi. Tanner started taking some business classes online so he could do more with the shop and pack finances. Chris began grilling Elizabeth and Mark on all things wolf related, trying to find out as much as he could about a world that he hadn’t known existed for most of his life.
I saw them every day still. But we all had other things going on.
Well, they all had other things going on.
I was doing my best to ignore the obvious, working too much and sleeping too little.
“My baby!” a woman shrieked.
“Mi corazón,” Rico purred as his arms suddenly became full of blonde hair, flowery perfume, and fake tits.
Bambi was… Bambi. She was a townie who had worked at the bar since she’d graduated high school, which, unfortunately, wasn’t as long ago as I would have liked. She was a small-town girl who slung beers to a mostly male crowd, pretty and a little rough around the edges. Her nails were a bloodred, as were her lips, and she wore a revealing pair of shorts that probably got her more tips. She had a towel over her shoulder as she put her arms around Rico’s neck, peppering his face with sticky kisses, leaving lipstick on his cheeks and chin.
Tanner looked horrified.
Chris was amused.
Rico had himself an armful of Bambi.
I rolled my eyes.
A man I didn’t recognize was stumbling by behind her. For a moment I thought he’d keep on going.
Instead he pulled his hand back and slapped Bambi on the ass.
She tensed.
I sighed.
Almost quicker than I could follow, she whirled around, grabbed the man by the arm, and twisted it up behind his back. He squawked in pain as she kicked the backs of his knees, forcing him down. His beer bottle shattered on the floor. People in the bar fell silent as she pulled his arm up behind him almost to the point of breaking. “Touch me again without my permission,” she said, her voice high and sweet, “and I’ll rip off your balls. Understood?”
The man nodded frantically.
“Good,” she said, kissing his cheek. “Now get out. And if I catch you in my bar again, I will end you.”