Page 95 of Walking Red Flag

“Do it,” I agreed. “I’ll talk to Shasha and make sure that he’s on board, but I don’t see why he would have an issue.”

“Would be easier if we had time to get this done, though. Make it more of a permanent thing instead of a small charge. Really get it to stick,” Chevy put in.

“She’s headed to Montana,” I said. “Shasha is sending a bodyguard, so whatever we do needs to be done before she gets back so she’s not implicated.”

“So go over the phone call one more time,” Webber requested.

I looked over at Milena, who was talking with Simeon and Conway, her two newest hires.

She was over the moon to have them, and I was over the moon to have someone I knew could protect her and always be with her.

“Got home and started to take a shower. Milena followed me in like she always does when I’m gettin’ in, and the look on her face was…terrifying. Her face leeched of color and I reached for the phone,” I said as I leaned back in my chair and took a long sip of my beer. It was nearly hot, but I wouldn’t point that out. Simeon and Conway were doin’ the best they could with the hours that I’d pretty much forced upon them. I’d give them a slide on the beer. “When I put the phone to my ear, the first thing I heard was Lyle Pennington saying he was getting out soon.”

“What else did he say?” Chevy leaned forward, eager to hear it all.

Lyle Pennington had been causing Copper some trouble for weeks now, and he’d been on our shit list since it’d started.

We didn’t like anyone messing with our brother, and though he was in jail, that didn’t mean we didn’t have the connections that allowed us to get to him.

“When I cut into his celebration of getting out, by telling him to listen to me, and to listen very carefully,” I said, “he went quiet, and then I told him to never call her again, to lose her fuckin’ number. Or I’d make sure that he never saw the outside of those prison walls again.

“Only when I was done did he say that he was getting out in two weeks, and there wasn’t much I could do to him because he had friends inside, and no one would allow anything to happen to him.” I paused. “That’s when he started talking about Asher, and how he was going to get Asher to kill her, and any other ex-boyfriend that Milena strung along like he did all the others.”

“He sounds like a fuckin’ prick,” Detroit muttered. “Maybe I should get myself locked up there for a bit so I can take care of it.”

“When I smarted off to him again, he told me that Milena would be dead before next week if I wasn’t careful,” I said. “After a few more choice words, I hung up on him.”

“So we need to get a list of all her ex-boyfriends and watch them,” Apollo said. “I can do that.” He paused again. “And I can also get Asher pulled in. If anything else, I can put him on a twenty-four-hour hold, which’ll be enough time to get Milena to Montana. I can then change her info on the flight manifest once she’s on, and there’ll be no record of her leaving the state.” He grinned then. “I can get Asher put on a no-fly list for the time being. He won’t be able to go anywhere.”

“That’ll do for now,” I said as I looked at my watch. “But my most immediate plan of action is going to visit the warden.”

“Tonight?” Webber asked.

“No,” I shook my head. “She’s leaving from Dallas Love Field tomorrow at six in the morning. I don’t have to be at work until well past noon. That should give me enough time to run to Bear Bottom and back.”

“Bear Bottom?” Knight said. “Are you gonna go see the Guardians?”

“Gonna go see the warden at his place, and hope that he’ll help me,” I said as I glanced at my woman who was now looking at me with concern. “We should party like we intended. I don’t want her worried about what I’m about to do.”

Webber got up and slapped me on the back before saying, “We’ll let Apollo go to work. The rest of us will have beer, brats, and talk about how stupid of a decision she made marrying you.”

Lord, please take this gas out of my stomach and put it into my car.

—Milena’s secret thoughts

MILENA

“And then there was this one time that Coastguard went down to the Dairy Queen off Interstate 5 and was talking to a man about dolphin training for a whole hour,” Detroit wheezed.

Out of all the guys, I thought Detroit was the funniest.

It also helped that he had these mesmerizing green eyes that seemed to light from within whenever he talked.

To be completely truthful, I liked them all a lot.

Not a single one of them had been unwelcoming the entire time.

Well, as long as you didn’t count the women.

---