Page 63 of Absolution

Slider looks to Raze who nods in return, then back to me.

“I may be young, but I doubt I could pass for an elementary school student,” he jokes, trying to lighten the mood.

“I didn’t mean infiltrate the school as a student, dumbass. I want you to watch him. Think you can handle that?”

“Yeah, Yeah. I got it.”

“He will be getting out of school soon. There are signs on the main drag through town. Just follow them to the school, and stay out of sight.”

“Yes, boss,” he chides me, before stepping out the door and on his way to his task. With Slider watching Asher, I could have an early alert system, should her dad try to run.

With Slider gone, it’s just Raze and I left to twiddle our thumbs.

“How are you managing this, brother?” He asks me.

“Is this your version of a man to man talk, Prez? Because you really need to work on your intro a bit more before you have this with one of Darcy’s boys.”

“Shut up, asshole,” he fires back. “I know this can’t be fucking easy for you. She took off, and you followed her into this mess.”

“That I did,” I acknowledge. “I thought this would be a simple dash and grab, but nothing is easy with her. Just when I think I have her figured out, she changes her damn mind or lies to me. There’s never common ground with her. I spend every single day second guessing myself on if I made the right decision.”

Raze slaps his hand on my shoulder, while I pour my heart out to him. Of all the people who would understand, it’s him. His first wife was a cunt who knew more about betrayal than how to be a wife and mother to his two kids. Because of her, his best friend is dead. Yet, his death brought something else into his life… Darcy and her kids. I was against the union at first, but seeing them together made more sense, after I realized how much they needed to lean on each other. It helped that Jagger posthumously consented to the match. Call him crazy, but Jagger was the kind of guy that would sacrifice everything to keep her safe. And that’s exactly what he did. He saved her and through it, he gave her a second chance at happiness with his brother in arms. Strange as it might be on the outside looking it, it worked. Raze was happier than I had ever seen him, and the addition of her kids made his new house the home it was truly meant to be.

“Women will never be a simple fix, brother. They are like the rarest of cars, the parts are either hard to find or non-existent. No matter how many flaws you find, you just have to live with them as they are. The chinks and dings in them, gives them character and doesn’t take away from their value.”

His wise words sink in. As much as I want to condemn Ricca for her lies, I can longer fault her for them. When you spend your life trying to keep yourself safe from the world, you learn to survive on your own and in your own way. What she saw as protecting me was actually hindering my ability to help, but it was also shielding herself from the onslaught we’re currently facing now. With her father in the equation, we would have always ended up in the exact same position as we are now. I just had to find a way of putting the pieces back together again. For her. For Asher. And for myself.

Raze’s phone rings in his pocket, and he retrieves it. He answers it with muffled tones, before pulling it away from his head, and flicking it on speakerphone.

“Hello Sunshine,” Voodoo’s voice rings from the phone. “Miss me yet?”

“I miss you like a damn toothache,” I fire back at him. He chuckles in response. “What have you found?”

“You were right about one thing. Her father is a fucking douche canoe.”

“He had his daughter thrown in jail. Tell me something I don’t already know.”

Raze hands me the phone, before searching the room for something to write one. He shuffles around some of the debris and finds a discarded paper towel and one of Ricca’s make-up pens. Not a notepad and paper, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

“Her daddy dearest is about to be in some pretty hot water,” he starts. “Finding out his contact information wasn’t the hard part. I did a little digging in his financial and court records, and you’re not going to believe what I have on him.”

“Seriously? This suspense thing again? Just spit it out.” I order him. Raze shakes his head at V’s theatrics, and waits to take down notes.

“Fine, Buzz Killington. Her father, one Ronald Boatman, has filed for bankruptcy three times in the last twenty odd years. The most recent of those files was last year. But what’s interesting to me is that his bank account doesn’t appear to be empty. The secret one that is.”

“Dude, how in the fuck do you even find this shit out,” I blurt.

“Magic. Stop interrupting me. About four years ago, her dad started working for the local hospital, and that’s when the large deposits of cash started showing up into this other account. The funny thing about this account is that his name isn’t on it. It’s Asher’s.”

“Son of a bitch,” I exclaim.

“It gets worse. Not only does he have this bank account in Asher’s name, there is also a corresponding life insurance policy for over a million dollars. Looks to me like daddy is planning a one-way ticket to the six feet under hotel for little Asher.”

“That’s why he wanted him so badly. He has all this money in his name, but for what purpose? Where did the initial sum even come from?”

“Boatman is about to be served with a summons to appear for court regarding a missing drugs case at the local hospital. He worked part-time as a chaplain there during the period in question.”

“You don’t think?” I ask Raze, who nods in return.

“It would explain the drugs. If he’s selling prescription drugs, he would have access to non-controlled substances. It makes sense to me.”

“The part I don’t understand is if he has a bank account with Asher’s name on it, and a life insurance policy, how did he get those without claiming the kid? Don’t you have to be a legal guardian to set that shit up?”

“That’s the other part of this. He didn’t set them up. The mother did.”

You have got to be fucking kidding me. Ricca’s mother is the reason this wheel of insanity started rolling. Was this all her idea or did he play a part in it? The only way I’m going to find that out was to ask him myself.

“Give me that address for him, V. I think I need to make a house call.”

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