“I’m not sticking around for this shit,” the shifty guy said.
“Do what you have to do, man,” Zeke replied.
The short, baldy, stubby guy looked from me to Zeke, then said, “Fuck this,” and walked out the door.
I turned my attention to Zeke, who was still smiling to himself over his victory, and asked, “Was that Brady?”
“The drummer turned cop who’s been sniffing around my wife and filling her head with stories for years?” Zeke asked, his tone nasty. “Yeah, that was him.”
I paused, thinking about what I wanted to say ... how I wanted to play this. I needed to keep a level head and try and keep this situation as calm as it was now, but worry for Brady was now gnawing at my gut.
“What’s your end game?” I asked finally.
“My what?”
“What do you hope to get from this? Are you planning to use that? To kill me?”
He looked down at his gun, then back at me.
“Not as long as you’re a good girl and don’t try anything stupid.”
“Then, what is it that you want?”
“What I’ve always wanted … My wife. And, as a little bonus, revenge on the fucker who took her from me.”
“What do you want with me?”
Zeke leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and said, “Well, you see, I’ve been wanting to teach that cop and his nosy brothers a lesson for a while. Always filling Nat’s head with nonsense, making her think she’s something more that she is … And, even though Nat denies it, I always figured he was fucking her. She’s a nice piece, and the way she’s always flashing her tits around that damn bar, I’m wouldn’t be surprised if she’d taken on all three of them.”
He started getting angry, but surprised me when he seemed to calm himself down and rested back into his chair.
“I was pissed as hell when she filed for divorce, then put the cops on me like she did, forcing me to go underground, and she surprised the shit out of me when I came home and she came at me with that fucking bat. But, I was willing to forgive her, for all of it. Him, on the other, I wanted to teach him a lesson about butting in to another man’s marriage. Into his home.”
Zeke’s eyes were hard, his finger playing with the trigger of the gun.
“I had time to think about it while I was sitting in ja
il. My buddies came up with the plan to help me get out. I was going to get Nat and get out of here, but not before I found Brady, preferably in a dark alley…” This he spoke softly, like we were conspiring together, then he clapped his hand on his leg loudly, causing me to jump. “But, when my buddy said he saw you, my woman’s lawyer, leaving Nat’s friend’s house with the cop, and that you looked real tight … if you get my drift. Well, an idea popped into my head. I’d take his woman, just like he took mine.”
“But, you just said you weren’t planning to hurt me,” I replied evenly, grateful that he couldn’t feel my pulse throbbing painfully.
“Well, not physically,” Zeke said, his face turning into a frightening scowl. “But, he’ll come here looking for you, and when he does, I’m gonna kill him.”
Chapter Thirty-Five ~ Brady
“Where would he go?” I asked Natalie after Zeke disconnected.
Natalie looked nervously between Doobie and me, and I realized that they didn’t know what was happening.
“Zeke has Ming.”
Doobie swore under his breath and Natalie’s eyes widened as her lower lip started to tremble.
“Home,” she said, and I realized she was answering my previous question.
“Back to the trailer?” I asked over my shoulder, already moving toward the door.
“Irish,” Doobie called, chasing me out the door. “We gotta call it in.”