Page 17 of Tank

I open the flaps wide and start to lean in when a gruff voice belonging to a man I haven’t met yet growls out, “Why the fuck does this place smell like liver?”

Chapter 5

Tank

Looks like having a keen sense of smell runs in the family. Chewy sniffs the air before leaning forward and peering into the box with her grandfather.

“Why do you have that?” Pops asks, his voice gruff.

“I have no clue. Someone keeps sending livers to me, which I agree is totally weird but also kinda handy because my cat loves eating them. But it’s weird right? Unless I accidentally signed up to a delivery service and forgot. I did that once before. I kept having train trading cards delivered.” Mira shrugs.

“There ain’t no service that delivers human liver that I know of, girl.”

“What!?” The whole room roars, all of us jostling for a closer look.

“Shit, he’s right, they are human,” Switch says in his booming voice, Mira blinking a couple of times at the sheer noise.

“Human liver has four lobes. One, two, three, four. Pig livers look the closest to ours, but they have five lobes.” Chewy says calmly, as if it’s common knowledge.

Mira is looking pale as fuck, her hand resting on her chest. If she had pearls she would be clutching them.

“Human? Like, from people?” she whispers.

“Mira, sweetheart, take a seat.” I tell her gently, guiding her back into her seat. “This is Chewy’s grandfather, Pops. He’s Mama Debs’ Ol Man.” She gives him a tight smile and waves. “Pops, this is Mira. She’s a writer.”

He ignores the introduction. “Girl, who have you pissed off to have livers sent to you?”

“I, I have no idea. Oh, holy carp I’ve been feeding people to Mrs. McKenzie?” A look of pure horror washes over her pretty face.

“Who’s Mrs. McKenzie?” Chewy asks, head tipped to the side.

“She’s my cat. The one that’s been looking fabulous thanks to a diet of delivered liver.” She squeezes her eyes tightly. “Ew.”

“Mira, how often do you get these packages?” Pops asks, eyes still on the box.

“Well, I’ve had maybe three or four since that day we went to the slammer,” she says, looking up at me from her seat at the table.

“That was, what? Two months back?” I think out loud.

“If you’ve had four parcels, then that’s every two weeks,” Chewy adds. “How many do you get each time? And is it always delivered on the same day?”

Mira looks shocked at Chewy’s quick fire questions, then nods, her curly blonde ponytail bobbing. “Well, the first time it happened was a Sunday. Then the next time I remember seeing Mrs. and Mr. Barklay in their nice church clothes when I was on the porch with the parcel, so another Sunday. But today is a Tuesday, so maybe it’s just whenever they have livers?” Chewy looks at Pops and they do that weird no talking communication. “Oh, and I always get two in the box.”

“Four bodies,” Chewy mumbles.

“To Trap a Kiss,” Marx’s rough voice mutters.

We all spin to look at him, what the fuck is he talking about?

“Holy shirt balls, you’re right!” Mira shouts. What in the fuck?

“Um, care to share?” Dex’s voice pipes up. The whole MC is here, wanting to know why the hell the woman we’ve let into our clubhouse is having body parts sent to her. Not just her, but now us.

“In my book, ‘To Trap a Kiss’, the main character was investigating a killer who would remove the victims’ livers.”

“I thought you wrote sex books? Nothing about liver is sexy,” Rider asks.

“Oh, well, the main character joins forces with a prickly single mom medical examiner that he had a fling with four years prior but doesn’t recognize. He’s super attracted to her and she hates him because he left without saying a word after they shared a wild weekend together. What he doesn’t know is that the weekend they shared resulted in a daughter. So not only does he have to find a killer, but he also has to uncover the fact that the woman of his dreams hid a child from him, all while groveling enough to get her to give him another chance and heal his childhood trauma at the same time.” Mira says, all in one breath.

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