Unfortunately, that was the moment that whoever he was calling answered and heard, “Ouch, that stings. Leave my ass alone!”
Oops!EighteenMadix“Y ou might be onto something, son,” Jer muttered as I told the family my suspicions. “What were the names of the guys who bullied Dahlia in high school, Levi?”
Levi was sitting looking relaxed, but there was no doubt that underneath it all he was fuming. It was all adding up. Why? Because at one of the sites, we’d underestimated the importance of something. In one of the machines that had been targeted, there had been sugar, water and beer which had blocked the filter and fucked it up. In another, there had been eight beans floating in the hydraulic fluid – that’s what we’d underestimated, and I was kicking myself for it.
“Perry White, Leif Strand, Andy Granger and Nick Short,” Levi replied, almost like he was reading from a list.
Looking at him a bit closer, it was clear that the feelings he had for those four hadn’t died down since graduation. Knowing how protective the Townsends were, and also knowing the soft spot that Levi had for damsels in distress, I didn’t doubt that he would hold the grudge until his last breath regardless of what they did in life to make up for it.
“Did you say Nick Short?” Archer sat up straight and looked at his brother.
“Yeah, why?”
“Nick Short has been working for the company for six months,” Archer informed us all. “He moved back to Gonzales County after his wife divorced him. They’d only been married for four months, but apparently she wasn’t Bueno with him sticking his dick in other women,” he stopped as we all huffed out a breath that would have been amused, if it wasn’t for what this could mean. “He applied for Rich’s job saying he was more qualified than Suave and when I told him we didn’t need another project manager, he asked if I was sure about that and then said that he’d take the job anyway and prove me wrong.”
“And you gave him the job?” I asked incredulously.
“We needed more hands,” Archer shrugged. “I also recognized him from school, not knowing what he did to Dahlia,” he glared at a Levi who had the decency to cringe.
“Where is he now?” Jer asked, standing up and walking over to where his cell phone was charging.
“If I knew the whereabouts of everyone at any time, I’d likely be doing time,” Archer snapped, pulling out his own cell.
As Jer rang the police and Archer rang Rich, I looked over at Dahlia who was sitting frozen in place with my niece on her lap.
The two of us had that in common – that baby scared the bejesus out of us. No doubt our own kids would cure us of that…
The world seemed to narrow in on that one thought as all the voices around me dimmed. Babies with Dahlia. I wanted that, badly.
Before we came over here, I’d thrown a sweater for her to put on and told her to hurry. She’d pulled it over her head and then yelped and turned around in circles begging for help. When I got a handful of the sweater and went to tug it down, she’d dug her nails into my hand and screamed at me to stop. After a couple minutes of trying to persuade her to let me just pull it down, she’d admitted that it had snagged on her nose stud so if I did that, I’d ‘tear her nose clean off her face’. That was yet another moment where her craziness had balanced out my anger making it easier to think calmly and rationally.
So, fuck yeah I wanted to make babies with her. I wanted to make everything with her.
And once I got rid of this asshole, that’s what I was going to do.Six hours later…
Living in a community your entire life apparently had its benefits. It meant that you knew everyone. It meant you knew everywhere. If you treated people how the Townsends treated people it meant that you had people’s respect and help. It also meant that if a little shit dicking weasel by the name of Nick Short was seen in a certain place, that you would find out quickly. It also meant that the Sheriff who abided by the law instead of using it for his own benefit like the Sheriff I’d worked for had, backed you up and worked with you.
Which is where we were right now.
Not living in a community your entire life and having the experience I had also meant that I could blend in, even at my height. Which is where I was at right now.
Nodding at the chick behind the bar, I took the glass that was full to the rim with bourbon. Raising an eyebrow at her, I looked back down at the glass and got a whiff of it. Jesus!