Stone Cold - Ashby Crime Family

Mazie wrapped me in an embrace that almost made me cry. “If you have any questions, Bon, just ask. I’m still learning, too.” She hugged me much tighter now that the bruises had started to fade to an atrocious shade of yellow and green. “I love you, Bonnie. You’re my girl and don’t ever forget it.” She smacked a kiss to my cheek that brought a tear to my eye. She slipped out the door without another word and left me alone with my thoughts.

Thoughts I couldn’t control. Thoughts that brought me pain.

No. More. Pain.

I reached for the plastic baggie and poured another small mound on the back of my head. I inhaled it until the pain was a distant memory.

Tomorrow was another day to do better. To be better.

To try, anyway.

Chapter Six

Cal

Club Degenerate called itself a nightclub, but at best, it was just a dive bar. The patrons ran the gamut from old drunks in need of a strong cheap drink to the retired cops drinking to bury the pain, to bored housewives looking for a little excitement but not too much, and of course, the snakes that preyed on them all.

It wasn’t where I’d normally spend my free time, but I was meeting someone to help me track down the missing pieces of Agent Beck’s background.

Digging without Jasper’s approval was asking for trouble. He was such a stubborn ass sometimes that evidence was the only thing that would convince him of my suspicions. So I decided this was a scenario where it was better to ask for forgiveness instead of permission. While I waited, I watched the strange mix of people gathered to drink away their sins and their memories, feeling sorry for them until I spotted a familiar face.

Bonnie.

I almost didn’t recognize her in jeans that hugged her legs and ass in all the right places. It was a big difference from the shapeless skirts she favored that hit mid-calf most days, just below the knee on others. Her shirt wasn’t exactly lowcut, but it showed more of her chest and the swell of her cleavage than I’d seen outside of her lounging around the pool in a bathing suit. That was my first clue that something was up.

My second was the guy with the long blond hair, a lime green streak down the middle, approaching with a predatory gleam in his eyes. I knew that look well, had witnessed it in the eyes of grown men entrusted to keep me safe. Whoever this guy was, he considered Bonnie prey. And sitting there like she didn’t have a care in the world when I knew she bore the weight of it all on her frail shoulders, she made very appealing prey.

The Bonnie I’d met a few months ago, stuck up and so sure that her way was the right way, wouldn’t even breathe the same air as this guy, but this Bonnie, in a fucked up headspace thanks to life kicking her ass, greeted the guy with a hesitant smile.

“Hey, Cal, sorry I’m late. Sitter showed up thirty minutes late.” Chris was a guy I’d met online years ago, and we’d worked on some codes together over the years. He was a single dad, and I threw business his way when I could.

I looked up into tired brown eyes and nodded. “No worries. I’m keeping myself busy. You find anything?”

He took a seat across the high top from me, nodding and removing a flash drive from his bag as he did. Always multi-tasking.

“Beck’s father died under mysterious circumstances and the truth is, there’s no confirmation of his death. Just no proof that he’s been alive for the past decade or so.”

That sounded exactly like the kind of string I needed to spend a few hours tugging on. “Thanks Chris.” He slid the flash drive across the table and took the wad of bills in exchange.

“No problem. Thanks for paying in cash. My ex gave up rights to our son. But you can believe it? Thinks she’s entitled to alimony.” He snorted his own disbelief and I nodded, distracted by Bonnie and her green-haired friend.

“Whatever works. Thanks for the quick turnaround.” The guy with the green hair leaned in closer to Bonnie, his smile went from friendly to menacing in zero to 60, and I was on my feet as fear flashed in her eyes. Genuine fear, which could be my own projections. This wasn’t the same Bonnie with her nose up in the air I thought I knew. This was a shell of a version of the girl I met, eager to graduate college and take on the world. That girl had a fire that burned deep inside of her.

But as the guy leaned in closer, I got all the confirmation I needed to know she was afraid of him. I made my way over to the bar. “Everything all right, Bonnie?”