Page 15 of His Road Dog

"Anything else?" he asked.

"Nope. We're good to go. Catch you later."

"Later." He returned to the hallway and hung up the receiver.

In the living room, he plopped on the couch, hooking his hands behind his head and stretching his legs out in front of him. Nicole hadn't moved from her spot in front of the window.

She raised her head. "Do you have an envelope?"

"What kind?"

"The kind you'd use to mail someone a letter."

Now he was getting somewhere. "I do. Why?"

"I want to write to my parents." She righted herself in the chair and put her feet on the floor, shuffling the chair around in a half-circle until she faced him. "I'd need to borrow a stamp, too. Unless you want to run me to the post office."

"You can pay me back."

"Over a quarter?"

He got up and motioned for her to follow him. "I like the idea that you owe me."

"You're showing your weirdness." She swatted his butt. "Are you going to charge me interest?"

He stopped outside his home office, barring her entrance. "You won't owe me money for an envelope and stamp."

She tipped her head to look up at him. "What do you have in mind?"

"I'll let you know." He lowered his arm and went inside the room, opened the top drawer, and got her an envelope. Finding a notebook, he tossed everything she'd need on the desk. "There are pens in the drawer."

"Do you have gel pens?"

"I don't know what that is."

She shrugged. "It's a girl thing. Carol and I have them at work."

"Just regular pens. Use whatever one you want."

"Thanks." She slid her hand in her pocket. "I wanted to send my folks this."

He looked down. On her palm sat a joint. She couldn't have surprised him more if she'd pulled a rabbit out of her pocket. He knew exactly where she'd gotten it.

"It's illegal to send drugs through the mail." He picked up the doobie and held it under his nose. "Did you steal this from the club?"

"I'm not a thief." She frowned. "That nice biker with the shaved head and the tail of hair at the back of his head gave it to me. I think his name was Ring. It might be illegal, but I doubt if the post office is going to x-ray slim envelopes. It's not like I'm sending them an ounce of pot."

"His name's Ringtail," he muttered. "Why are you sending it to your parents?"

If she was related to a federal agent, he was going to have to get rid of her fast. The prospects knew better than to share property of Tarkio. They had a lucrative business distributing pot from the growers to the sellers. The last thing Tarkio needed was one of their safer business plans going belly up or get the club raided.

"I just wanted to show them what other people are smoking." Amusement lit up her eyes. "Have you tried what's out there that your club members are smoking? It's...weak. Kindergarten level."

The hair on his arms bristled. "You think your parents will find that interesting?"

"Especially my dad." She smiled. "I also need to check in with them. They should probably know about what happened to Roy. Oh, and Greg."

His jaw tensed. "Who's Greg?"

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