Page 8 of His Old Lady

Chapter 2

Faye

Fury boiled insideFaye. She slammed the car door, ignoring the Tarkio members loitering around the front of the building, and marched into the clubhouse.

Paco jumped from the couch and stepped in her way. She darted around him and strode to the door of the meeting room. Banging her fist on the wood, she yelled, "Curley."

"He's not in there," said Paco behind her.

She turned around. "Where is he?"

"Behind the clubhouse."

She hurried down the hallway to the back door. Outside, she looked around and found him talking to Frank, Roddy, and Banks.

The other men alerted Curley to her presence before she reached him. Irritated more by their buddy-buddy-I've-got-your-back mentality, she stopped in front of him, fisted her hand, and raised her arm.

Curley's hand grasped her wrist before she could swing. "Don't even think about hitting me."

She kicked him in the shin and yanked her arm out of his clutch. "You can't stop me from working."

"I can stop you from working at Riverside Bar."

"Just because you don't want me there while you hang out, doesn't make it—"

"Shut up." He slipped his hand under her arm and walked her around the corner of the building. "That place is no good. I don't want you working there."

"That's not your decision to make."

"The hell it is." He swung her around until she faced him. "Paco fixed your car. Go home."

She stormed away. Coming to Missoula always turned out bad when she ran into Curley. He wanted her out of his life, and he was stuck with her, through no fault of her own.

He wasn't the only one who's life had changed the second he honored the code he swore by and told Uncle Walker about sleeping with her. She never would've mentioned that night to anyone.

She slid into the driver's seat of her car and slammed the door.

A shadow covered her, and she looked out the side window and found a welcome face a few inches from the glass, smiling at her. All her pent-up anger burst out in one long exhale, and she rolled down the window.

"I was yelling your name, and you never even heard me." Tracy reached inside the car and hugged her with one arm. "I didn't know you were going to be in town. Come inside and visit with me. Rick's at home waiting for the kids to wake from their nap, and I have to drop off some papers for Jerry, but I can stay long enough to catch up with you. Or, were you leaving?"

Tracy had been her best friend until she was eight years old and moved in with Grandma June. After that, they were lucky if they were able to see each other twice a year, during family day at the clubhouse or out shopping.

Their lack of communication and growing up apart had added an awkwardness to their relationship once they hit the teenage years. The distance coupled with Tracy's parents getting murdered when Tracy was in high school only made things more stilted between them for years. It wasn't until Tracy and Rick got together, and they ran into each other at the mall in Missoula that the barriers seemed to melt away.

"I'll stay for a few minutes." She got back out of the car, glancing at the corner of the building to make sure Curley had gone back to whatever he was doing with the guys. "I was going to call you soon."

"About?"

She walked inside the clubhouse, spotting Paco jumping from the couch again as if to stop her from causing trouble, and ignored him. "Well, I had a new job here in town and wanted to let you know so we could get together, but Curley put a stop to that."

"He stopped you from seeing me?"

"No. From working."

"So, you're going back home?" Tracy sat at the table. "Sit. Tell me what's going on."

She slumped in the chair. "I quit my job at the lounge. Things were getting out of control with the guy who owns the place since he got divorced."

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