Page 28 of Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

“Tried.” Liv admits that, too. “I got away. Then I finally broke down and called Gage.”

“’Bout time,” the old man says, then he looks at me. “You him?”

“Guilty.” I walk over to the counter and when I reach him, hold my hand out for him to shake.

The old man steps out from around the counter and shakes it. “Smitty.” He offers.

“Cha—or um—Gage,” I reply, catching myself. Liv doesn’t want anything club-related to reach her here right now, so despite my natural inclination, I fight against it in hopes of recapturing Gage. The man I’d been pre-brother of the Lords.

“Good to meet you, son. Been telling this gal for months that if she had a good man she needed to get him here because no good man will wait around forever.”

“I would for Liv,” I reply.

“Good answer,” Smitty says back. “I like him,” he then says to my woman.

Liv sighs one of those girly love sighs and tells him, “Me too.” Her smile brightened the whole space for a moment until I see it in her eyes, the minute she remembers what brought me here and her smile drops, and those brilliantly beautiful eyes dull before she quickly composes herself.

“We won’t keep you,” I tell Smitty. “Just wanted to introduce myself, let you know I’ll be around keeping an eye on Liv.”

“Got a phone?” Smitty bizarrely asks.

“Yep.”

“Let me get your number. You take mine in case I have to get a hold of you.”

Reaching into my jeans pocket, I pull out my phone and open up the contacts page, then hand it off to the old man.

He types in the store number, his home number and a cell. The man doesn’t look the type, but he pulls out an iPhone from his shirt pocket to type in my number. The old man has an iPhone.

All smiles and joviality he tells me, “Good to meet you, son. You can bet your bottom dollar I’ll be in touch.”

I nab a packet of Zingers, those raspberry- and coconut-covered sponge cakes with the cream filling, and reach into my pocket to pull the bills to pay for it when Smitty says, “Your money’s no good here, son. Enjoy.”

Liv climbs back in her pickup, which actually belongs to the Lords. Here, with the salt water a constant in the air, there’re a few more rust spots on the old truck, I notice.

My truck is newer. Not new, but newer than the truck Liv drives. And it’s a two-ton, slate gray hemi that rumbles to life when I turn the key. Everyone for at least a mile knows when a hemi passes through. I follow her back home, laughing and shaking my head. Liv thought thebikecauses more of a distraction.

We drive past acres of trees held back from the road by barbed wire fencing. Each tree holds a bright orange NO TRESPASSING sign. On the opposite side of the road, there’s a fucking gorgeous view of the ocean.

So busy checking out the scenery, I almost miss seeing Liv turn off the two-lane highway onto a hidden drive. Hidden between the trees.

We travel about a quarter-mile back before the drive opens up to a big lawn and the house Liv described to me.

She’d taken pride in the place, and I see she finally got around to weeding and mowing, even planting flowers. She edged the front walk with stone pavers.

Yeah, this place could really be something, slap a bit of new paint on the siding and trim. Maybe fitted with an updated door. A door that—

I cut the engine and jump out, running up to Liv’s truck to stop her getting out, then tap on her window. She rolls it down. “Hang tight, baby,” I say. “Keep the window up and doors locked.”

“What’s wrong?”

She hadn’t noticed.

Slowly, I walk up to the front door, which I’d noticed ajar when I drove up. I reach in my front pocket to pull a crumpled napkin so as not to cover up or smudge any fingerprints that shouldn’t be there.

As I push open the door I feel—shit—I feel heat at my back, a delicate hand placed to my shoulder and the most divine scent of Liv’s peony lotion.

“God dammit,” I whisper-hiss. “Thought I told you to wait in the truck.”

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