Page 52 of Snow in Texas

Colin couldn’t watch this. It was pathetic, and clearly, the kid knew nothing. He’d grown up around liars, pickpockets, and shysters, in the dark backstreets of New Orleans. Pup was none of those things; a blind man could have seen that.

He took a step forward.

A hand landed on his shoulder, its grip strong. It was Blue. “Leave it,” the old timer said. “Don’t get in his way.”

“His way,” Colin said, “is gonna kill an innocent kid who doesn’t know shit.”

Blue’s scruffy brows went up. “You gonna take a suspect’s side over your VP’s?”

Colin didn’t get a chance to answer, distracted by Pup’s truly pitiful scream.

“Please! Shit, Candy,please!”

Their faces in shadow, Jinx and Talis looked nothing short of grim reapers, bare, muscled arms writhing with tattoos.

Candy stood statue-still in front of his captive, wide shoulders and narrow hips throwing a triangular shadow back behind him.

Stop, Colin willed him.

Candy said, voice low but carrying, “Stop crying. Get your shit together a second. Hush. Listen. Do you know Judson Riley?”

Colin understood the method. Disarmed, panicked, emotional, Pup couldn’t hide a knee-jerk reaction to hearing Riley’s name. So Colin took it as genuine when the boy didn’t react with any surprise. He shook his head.

“No. No. I don’t know him. Please…”

“Nick,” Candy said. “Do you work for the Riley brothers?”

Pup’s eyes opened, swimming with tears, his face screwed up with fear and pain. “Who?”

Candy leaned in closer.

Pup screamed, the sound strangled, incoherent.

And Candy stepped back, threw the knife down into the dirt and stalked to the truck.

Pup gasped and sagged against his bonds, crying quietly with his head bent down.

Jinx and Talis joined Candy at the truck, and they talked quietly, too low for Colin to hear.

Fuck. Colin scrubbed his hands down his face, exhaling loudly through his gapped fingers. He was exhausted, suddenly. He wanted a drink. A soft bed – one softer than his dorm mattress. And he wanted Jenny. Her arms around him, her feminine curves pressed against his own hard body, the whisper of her breath in his ear.

I love you, he imagined, in her throaty voice. Where had that come from? He didn’t know. The only woman who’d ever claimed to love him was his mother. His lying, cheating, weak-willed mother.

He suddenly, desperately wanted Jenny to love him. Even if it wasn’t fair, even if she couldn’t possibly. He wanted to be loved. Didn’t everyone? Acceptance and fraternity only went so far. He wanted someone to love him, for him, specifically. Not the Lean Dog, not the soldier, but Colin O’Donnell.

Jenny was right. He was a sap.

He was staring at Candy in a detached, unfocused sort of way, until Candy glanced up and headed toward him. He stood his ground, because retreat wasn’t an option. But he curled his hands into fists, prepared for the worst.

Candy’s face was all in shadow as he drew up in front of him. His voice was emotionless as he said, “Did you learn anything just now, prospect?”

Yeah. He’d learned his VP would go to great lengths to frighten and intimidate. But he said, “Yes, sir.”

Candy’s teeth were a flash of white in the dark as he grinned. “Yeah? You ain’t seen shit yet.”

~*~

He didn’t wait around to drink and socialize when they got back to the clubhouse. He slipped down the back hall, paused, and then entered the sanctuary. It was dark and smelled faintly of something baked. Potatoes maybe. He couldn’t tell.

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