Page 68 of Daddy Issues

“Jester, tell him to meet me at Lawnmower Jay’s barn in an hour.” Cam glanced at me. “We can take one of the old vans from the building. Ditch the cuts. Figure if we come that close, load up something, nobody will notice.”

We left our cuts at the clubhouse, got one of Jester’s old install vans fired up, and drove out to the Bends. The place was a conglomeration of trailers and busted up old shacks that lined the dry riverbed. The sort of place where dreams and ambition died.

Cam got out first, shaking the hand of the little dude who spoke with a lisp, walked with a limp, and carried on a conversation like a child. Lawnmower Jay. I’d seen him around, knew Cam got information out of him sometimes but never had any interaction with him. He was a squirrely guy who always seemed too nervous for my liking.

Cam slipped him some money, and he ran toward the back of the van carrying two weed eaters.

“My yard is fucking cacti and rocks, brother, but I got enough equipment to start a lawn care company.” He looked back at the guy fondly. “Used to be a smart as fuck mechanic. Put together an entire bike by himself when he was in middle school. Would ride it to school and park in between the buses. Then some asshole cracked him over the skull, changed his entire life.”

“Damn.” I cringed at the thought. “Hope the fucker got what he deserved.”

“He did.” Cam lit a cigarette and strolled toward the barn, his demeanor telling me he’d made sure of it. “We got about twenty minutes.”

A skinny guy in a dark hoodie clung to the shadows behind an old, broken-down tractor.

“Did they hurt her?” Ghost’s expression was half frantic, half concern.

Whatever control I’d had talking to David snapped. I grabbed him by the front of that hoodie and slammed him against the wall of the barn. Pieces of rotting wood exploded into splinters around us. I ignored the pungent scent of decay.

“If they did, I’d fucking kill you.”

He thrashed in my arms, his right foot connecting with my shin. “Let me go, you fucking ape. Stop acting like you care. She’s just a hot piece of snatch from the Bends for you to throw away like you did Jessica.”

It wasn’t anger that gripped me by the throat but white-hot rage, like I’d swallowed fiery swords. He didn’t know shit about me, about Kenna, and damn sure not about the fucking shit my baby’s mama put me through.

Like the little snake he was, Ghost lashed out with a real kick and caught me on the side of my knee. I swayed, but fury kept me upright. I stumbled back, then clocked him in his right eye with a left cross. His hood went back, and he went down hard.

On my knees on top of him, I hammered him with two more punches, remembering the fear in my gut as I charged up those stairs in the frat house after Kenna. Or the way the parking lot at the Fall Fest had seemed impossibly long, like I might never get to her.

All of it, his fault.

A hard tug on my shirt jerked me back on my ass in the dirt. Before I could jump up, Cam was between us. “Enough.”

One word. Not shouted but not quiet either. The command rumbled through the barn, reminding me that if I moved for Ghost again, I could lose the patch. Or worse, find myself fighting Cam. Like when I played, I listened to the captain—I stood slowly now, dusting myself off and taking my orders from Cam.

“You obviously know why we’re here.” He zeroed in on Ghost, who spat blood in the dirt as he stood. “What happened?”

“I didn’t say shit.” He stood, snarled at me with blood in his teeth. “Except what you told me. You killed Preach, and he stole my girl. All that shit. JoJo is just trying to prove himself now that Jerry Wayne is taking over Wanda’s distribution. Take out aKing, make him look good. Kenna was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and he used it as an excuse.”

Cam lifted his brow. “Jerry Wayne cooking meth?”

“Not yet, just moving it. Wanda’s still got the strangle hold on ingredient suppliers. It’s why he’s all up her ass. But he made some deal with a big fentanyl guy, moving it across the desert from Cali sometime this month. That should give him enough money to buy favor with Wanda’s people.”

He turned fully to me, ignoring Cam now. “Listen, I don’t care who Kenna is with so long as she’s happy. I damn sure don’t want her hurt.”

“And yet it keeps happening—because of you.”

His body sagged, and he dropped his gaze. “Just keep her safe. Jerry Wayne is sniffing around for information on you, on your kid. That shit’s going to come back on her if you don’t watch it.”

I straightened, itching to go at him again. “I can take care of mine. Hell, I was better at keeping her safe than you were when she was with you.”

Before he could respond, Cam silenced him with a hard look. “Email Jester everything you’ve got on Jerry Wayne. I want labs, cars, whatever you’ve got.” We made it to the opening of the barn before he spun around again. “Who drives the black Challenger?”

“Jerry Wayne’s kid.” Ghost wiped blood from his rapidly swelling face. “Harlan. Real sketchy fucker. Wasn’t raised out here, came when his dad got out. Shacked up with your ex right now.”

Her stepbrother. Didn’t surprise me. Jerry Wayne was fucked like that. Probably thought it made her legitimate family now.

I fought back the sickness in my gut. He better stay far away from my kid.

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