“He was the one who resold me the Sportster at Christmas.”
The Sportster was Luke’s second bike that he’d traded to his and Saks’ lawyer, Matt Stone, as partial payment for helping Luke with his immigration problems. Emily bought the beloved bike back as a Christmas present for her husband.
“What!” Luke shouted.
“See, I told you, Saks,” Emily said with a frown.
“You were in on this, Saks?” Luke asked incredulously.
Saks held up his hands in mock surrender. “Look, someone told me it was a super-secret Christmas present. You think I’d dare mess with that?”
Luke shook his head, and Emily set beers in front of him and Saks. “What are you, three?” he muttered to Saks.
“Now you stop, Luke Wade,” Emily warned. “Super-secret Christmas presents are sacred.”
Luke scoffed, and Emily whirled and stalked back to the kitchen. While on the surface their discord had been light-hearted, Saks couldn’t help but notice the tinge of disappointment beneath it all. He’d always thought of the pair of them as the perfect couple, so to notice anything less than pleasant at all disheartened him.
“She okay?” Saks queried.
“Yeah. Pregnancy.” Luke shrugged.
Saks had forgotten for a moment that Emily was pregnant. He was pleased for Luke and Emily, but children were one of those things he never thought about. Though he did have brief thoughts about having them when he was with Chrissy, they were fleeting, and didn’t stick around long enough for him to give them serious consideration.
Luke rose from the couch. “I’ll be right back,” he said. “Damage control.”
Just as Luke vanished from the room, leaving Saks to wallow in his thoughts, the doorbell rang.
“Saks, can you get that?” Emily called from another room.
Saks pushed his body up with a grunt and checked the peephole. It surprised him to see his lawyer, Matt Stone, at the doorstep.
“Hey, Matt,” he said as he swung the door open. “Come in.”
“Saks, how have you been?”
“I’ve had better weeks.”
“Yeah, I heard. I’ve been trying to reach you.”
“I was in the hospital.”
“What’s up with your cell?”
“Like I said, I’ve been in the hospital. Just got out today. Haven’t checked my phone.” Saks motioned to the couch. “Have a seat. Luke’s in the kitchen with Emily.”
“That’s fine. I came to talk to you anyway about the traffic ticket.”
Saks’ brow arched in question. The damn ticket had been a thorn in his side ever since he’d gotten it with a few extra dings. He’d stupidly tried to pass a car at a well-known speed trap, and got yanked by a state trooper. Seeing Saks’ Hades’ Spawn coat, the trooper went overboard, and at an involuntary movement added the charge of resisting arrest. It was the reason Saks had hired a lawyer in the first place.
“I had a chat with the prosecutor, and I can get it reduced to simple speeding. The resisting arrest charge has been dropped, but they’ll hit you for reckless driving.”
“Bastards,” Saks muttered.
“I talked him into dropping the speeding charge if you take drivers’ re-education. Usually, that's reserved for people with more serious violations, but it was the only way I could get the speeding charge dropped. That's how the judicial system rolls. They want you to feel a little pain. He’ll continue the case until you take the class, and then he’ll make his recommendations.”
Saks huffed lightly as he picked up his beer again. He wondered how Matt finessed that deal. Saks had a high stack of points against him with law enforcement between the Spawn, his family, and the mess last year with the Rojos and the Hombres, which resulted in those people kidnapping him.
“Well, if I can get away without points on my license, that would be helpful. Not sure how many more I could spare.”