He lived down a dirt road in a weather-beaten house, with car wrecks and broken kids’ toys littering the dead lawn. He had two wives, both of whom he pimped out, and a teenage nanny who liked to drive the wives crazy by strutting around in her tight denim shorts and a tight t-shirt that showed off her flat stomach and generous boobs.
It was a weird setup, but apart from a few calls to Bucky when the wives got to fighting, it was a setup that worked for them.
When I arrived, Bug was sitting on his derelict porch, smoking a cigarette and nursing a black cup of coffee in a glass jar. One of his wives sat next to him, a chubby baby latched onto her gargantuan breast. When I pulled up, he gave her a sharp nod and she disappeared inside.
“Nice to see you made it.” Bug’s voice was whiny, and when he spoke, his wispy ginger mustache shook like a hairy caterpillar over his thin lips. “Haven’t seen you out these parts in a long time, Bull.”
I stepped onto the porch and a floorboard groaned beneath my boot. “It’s been a while.”
He wiped his hands down his dirty t-shirt and offered me one. Reluctantly, I shook it.
“You said on the phone that you had some information.”
He ground out his cigarette with his boot. “Had a visitor yesterday, thought you might like to hear what he got to say.”
“Go on.”
His eyes gleamed greedily. “Like I said on the phone, I got something you need to hear…but for a price.”
I pulled a small bag of weed from my back pocket and dropped it on the side table next to him.
Bug grinned, revealing a mouth of tobacco-stained teeth.
“Like I was saying, we had a visitor yesterday. Said he was just visiting for work. Some security detail for a businessman staying just out of town. Said his boss had some business in Destiny. Said he didn’t know what the business was about, but he’d overheard some talk about getting revenge on a biker.”
As he spoke, a blonde girl in tight denim shorts and a blouse tied at her flat stomach stepped onto the porch from inside the house. When her dark eyes found mine, a seductive smile curled on her dry lips.
“And why would this visitor tell you all of this?” I asked turning back to Bug. “He a friend of yours.”
Bug looked sheepish.
“He was visiting with Tammy.” He jutted his chin toward the blonde girl who was now leaning against the porch railing. “Got real chatty when he was receiving some horizontal refreshment.”
So it wasn’t just his wives he pimped out.
I watched as he took another cigarette from behind his ear and lit it.
“This boss have a name?” I asked.
Was it Martel?
My stomach twisted with a sudden expectation.
Could it really be that easy?
“He mentioned a name a few times,” came a female voice from behind me. I turned my head. The blonde girl was walking slowly toward me, her eyes hooded, her lips twitching with dark amusement. She circled me, radiating sex and seduction.
“And that name was?”
“Mr. Carisi.”
The name rolled off her tongue like silk.
But it wasn’t familiar.
“That all he say about his boss?” I asked, ignoring her getting closer to me as she continued to circle. Any minute she was going to pounce. When she slid her hand up my chest, I peeled it off me and took a step back. She was marketing something I wasn’t interested in.
Bug licked his thin lips. “You like what you see? I’ll do you a good discount. Promise you won’t be disappointed.”
But I ignored him and focused on the girl.
“Can you tell me anything else?” When she reached for me again, I held her wrist to stop her. “I ain’t interested in that, darlin’. Now before I walk away from here feeling like this was a complete waste of my fucking time, can you tell me anything else?”
She narrowed her eyes and wrenched her wrist free.
“Only that his boss had some beef with someone in Destiny.”
“Was that someone me?”
“He didn’t say.”
My eyes darted to Bug. “You said he mentioned a biker.”
“I did…I mean, I’m sure…didn’t you say something about a biker, Tammy?”
“I don’t remember on account I was busy getting fucked in the ass at the time.”
Realizing they were wasting my time, I glared at Bug. “Next time, don’t fucking ring me unless you have something real. Not some fabricated bullshit.” I pointed to the bag of weed on the table. “You fucking owe me, and when I come collecting, you better be ready to pay. And I don’t mean in fucking pussy!”
I stormed off the porch to my bike and took off into a breezy morning.
I’d left Taylor’s arms for this?
Bug had taken a random piece of information to lure me to his cesspit of a home for a bag of weed, and hoping to make a quick buck on the side by pimping his nanny out to me.