Chapter Three: Enemies and Loyalty
Numbers
I knocked on the door.
Smoke answered as he rubbed his near-bald head, ushering me in. “Hey man, come on in. I just got through shaping up the dome.” He flexed and pointed to his skull.
I followed him into the kitchen as I closed the door behind him. “You missed a patch in the back,” I remarked with a grin. Smoke was so methodical I knew it would get on his last nerve that he didn’t get his cut just right.
He rubbed his head again and circled a spot at the back of his skull.
“Yup, that’s the spot.”
“Shoot,” he said lightly.
“Shoot? Where’s Smoke at?” I asked. We walked through his kitchen where the air conditioning was running full force. I felt grateful because I didn’t want to be dripping wet from sweating.
“He’s here. I’m trying to make sure I don’t cuss in front of Gavin and it’s spilling over into other areas of my life I guess. Not such a bad thing.” He opened the refrigerator door as the light switched on.
My finger automatically pointed to the beer. “I’ll take that beer, brother. Shit, it’s hotter than hell’s bootyhole out there today.”
Smoke bobbed his head as he reached in for the beer and handed it to me. Grabbing a glass and filling it with ice, he ran the faucet, topping up his glass. “I hear you. I was out there earlier, cleaning up the bike, and I had to come on inside,” he explained as he sat opposite me at the kitchen table.
“I saw the bike when I got dropped off. She’s looking pretty good.”
“Uh-huh. Cleaned her up real nice,” he said, with pride swelling in his chest.
“Where’s Naomi?”
“She’s out getting her nails done, and Gavin is out with his boys doing his thing.”
A broad smile swept across my face as I looked at Smoke. He seemed content and in his element as a father.
“What? What is it?” he asked.
“Nothing man, I’m proud of you, is all. You’ve given up smoking, you got the girl and you have a great son. You’re handling it all like a pro.”
The shit-eating grin that showed up on Smoke’s face said it all. “Yeah, I got it made. We’re doing pretty good. Wasn’t the smoothest road to get to where we are now, but we’ve navigated the changes the best we could. We’re a family and that’s the main thing.”
I pulled the tab on my beer and guzzled it down. The perfect beverage for right now.
Smoke’s eyes grew serious as lines rippled in his forehead. “So talk to me. Tell me what happened?”
“You didn’t tell me how hot the lawyer was. She’s a stunner,” I confessed as I shook my head, thinking about those long slender legs and the possibility of them being wrapped around me.
“I can appreciate that, but let’s talk about the verdict. Did she do her job?” Smoke asked earnestly.
“Yeah, she did. I keep my receipts. Remember I went to go eat with Hawk, yeah? We went to eat at the fish fry joint. That was the nail in the coffin, and the detective had nowhere to go with it after that.”
Smoke leaned back in his chair. “That’s right! Anything else? Like where the accusation came from?”
“Mia was telling me it was an anonymous tip and one guess where the tip came from,” I speculated.
“Exactly. The Devil Riders had something to do with this for sure. It’s just ? what the hell is it about? Snake has to be involved. I got a gut feeling he tipped the cops off. Could be the cartel too. You never know. Thing is I want to know what he told them to get you to the point of an arrest.” He stroked his bristly chin.
I sipped on my beer some more. “Who else could we be talking about? What about Angel? Could have been her, right?”
Smoke jutted out his bottom lip. “Could be. I wouldn’t rule her out. She’s a possibility too,” Smoke deliberated. “Who else knows about your history?”