Page 45 of Walker

“Right, then we’re tagging along.”

That stopped me in my tracks. “Why?”

“We’re club brothers. If you’re on a mission to protect your new old lady, then we’re going along for the ride. Besides, three assholes are better than one.” Hollywood grinned as he gave his answer, and I couldn’t argue with him. It would work to my benefit to have a few more men from the club backing my ass as I rounded up Josh’s old casino buddies. “Fine, get in.”

“Why didn’t you ask Spike to tag along with you? You two seem attached to the hip the past couple years.” Trouble asked.

“Spike has his own shit going on right now.”

“So, why didn’t you ask anyone else?”

I turned to Trouble as I shut the doors on the back of the van. “I didn’t think to ask around.”

“Because we’ve been shitty club brothers, and you didn’t think you could count on anyone else?”

“Something like that,” I admitted.

“Well, that fucking ends today,” Troubled demanded. “Honest to fuck, no one had anything against you. I think everyone was afraid they’d catch whatever fucking disease kept Sweet crawling up your ass the past couple years. That’s no excuse for having a brother feel like no one has his back. It felt like you were always one foot out the door, though. Not always because of your own actions. It made it tough for people to get close to you again.”

“Let’s put this conversation on hold until we’re done. I have to grab these guys before they leave for work.”

Both men nodded as they hopped into the van and looked around. “Damn brother, you lined this motherfucker.”

I glanced back at Hollywood in the rearview mirror. “Never know what kind of mess there will be when you question your garden variety pussies.”

“Garden variety pussies?” Hollywood asked and then threw his head back and laughed. “Holy fuck, man. Let’s go. My day is suddenly looking up.”

“He has nothing better to do,” Trouble proclaimed.

“Bullshit. I could be fucking Hilary Morton.”

“What the fuck?” I asked. “The town counsel lady?”

“Yeah, man. You know her?”

“No. Isn’t she in her sixties?”

Hollywood grinned. “So? Older ladies need love to.”

“What the absolute fuck, Hollywood?” Trouble turned and gave him a look that was part disgust and part intrigue. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Okay, so maybe the look had been more about the fact that Hollywood left something out. Those two had become close after Flight stepped on Hollywood’s toes, stole the girl he wanted, and then dropped her for some other chick. The woman ran before Hollywood could swoop in and make a connection and they were no longer on the friendliest of terms even though both men were still a part of the club.

The two men could almost be mistaken for brothers the way they both wore their hair buzzed close to their scalps and had their own shorthand language that I think had more to do with their prior military experience than anything else. They were both well over six feet tall and while Hollywood was more on the lean, runner’s side of the spectrum, Trouble was often found in the gym lifting and it showed in his muscular physique.

It baffled me that Hollywood, aptly named because he looked like a fucking movie star, would be fucking a woman twice his age, but to each their own. We headed off toward Hiawassee where there was a parking lot on the lake that the ride share crew used to meet up. For those guys headed to different work crews, it made it easier than traveling all over the mountain back roads to pick one another up. Lucky for us, Gary, Andy, and Chuck all rode to work together. They were part of the lineman crew that Josh used to belong to before he got himself killed on the job.

“Fill us in. What’s the job?”

I glanced back at Hollywood again. “My woman’s dead husband left behind a bit of drama that has caught up to his teenage daughter.” I explained the situation and that I was trying to find out some information because Reesa had called that morning and said she saw the same car sitting outside her house when she left to take Ariel to school.

“You think it has to do with his gambling debts or the bitch claiming one of her kids belonged to the dead husband?” Trouble asked.

“Not sure, but that’s why I’m grabbing these fuckers up. They might have some answers, especially if the fuckwad owed money to the wrong people. These dicks were supposedly his casino buddies. If not that, they were at least his alibi for the time he spent with the other bitch.”

“You going to interrogate the bitch as well?”

“Last resort since she’s a single mom with kids of her own, but if she continues to be a problem, I will put an end to that shit.”

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