Page 21 of Givin' Me Fitz!
I also wasn’t stupid enough to think the Steel Cowboys didn’t have their fingers in pies of the less than legal variety, but it wasn’t my business. In a town like Vegas, they weren’t alone. Hell, I wasn’t some self-righteous prick anyway. I hadn’t always followed the letter of the law. I was more a spirit kinda guy.
The doorbell rang at the back door before I heard a code being entered, so I closed the email Casper had sent me and walked into the kitchen to get another cup of coffee.
Paws clicked on the Masonite floor alerting me that Dixie, the canine company mascot, was on her way to the kitchen. I quickly filled her bowl with fresh water and placed it in the corner of the kitchen near her large bed.
When the dog nuzzled my leg, I reached down to pet her. “Good morning, Miss Dixie. How was your weekend?”
Sparky and Monty came in after her. “She’s living the good life. She got groomed this weekend, and Jesse got to meet the woman who would take my place in a heartbeat.”
Monty was laughing, and Sparky’s face turned red, which had me hiding a chuckle so I didn’t piss off the bosses. I was coming to like the guys at Sparks Bail Bonds. They were a good group of people.
“Ryan thinks he’s a comedian because the dog groomer appears to have a crush on me, and my husband wouldn’t let me tell her I was married. Our weekend was nice and quiet, though there weren’t any bail calls, which is unusual. Maybe people are behaving around Vegas?”
Monty cracked up at that. Best behavior in Vegas was an oxymoron for most of the visitors who came to town. Sparky’s low chuckle confirmed my thoughts.
Sparky went to the cabinet and retrieved two mugs. He picked up a coffee pod from the carousel and held it up for Monty, who nodded and winked at him.
It was easy to see the two of them were very much in love. They made it look so easy. Maybe I just wasn’t meant to find a partner? Fuck, if I kept thinking like that, I’d probably eat my gun.
For the next hour, the other bounty hunters straggled in, and the phone finally began to ring at about eight. Monty picked it up from his desk as Sparky approached me, stopping beside my desk. “Got a minute?”
“Yes, of course. Is there somethin’ you need?”
He gave a slight nod. “Denise isn’t feeling well, so I told her to stay home. No need for all of us to get sick if she has the flu or something. Anyway, Jake’s off this week and Hardy has classes until one every day. Could I trouble you to sit at reception this morning and take calls? We’ll all rotate until Denise feels better.”
“Happy to help, boss.”
I took my laptop to the front desk and sat, smiling when Dixie came from the kitchen and relaxed next to my chair. I glanced down to see her toenails were painted red, which was funny. Sparky and Monty had a hell of a sense of humor when it came to the dog.
Kade Leonard—Leo—came in through the front door with a manila folder and a bag from a donut shop I recognized was near the Clark County jail.
Leo was a good-looking guy. Hell, all the guys at Sparks Bail Bonds were, but I only had one man on my mind. A certain biker was fucking with my head, and I couldn’t let him go.
“Donut?” Leo dropped the paperwork in Denise’s inbox and offered the bag to me.
I opened the sack, taking a napkin from the stack in his hand and reaching inside to snag a glazed donut. “Thank ya. You already have a call this mornin’?”
There was a log to record the calls and outcomes, though I didn’t see it among the books on Denise’s desk.
“Greeley and I had a court date to be sure a guy we’d bonded out showed up this morning. The guy did, and Greeley should be here in a few minutes. He had a stop to make at the clerk’s office.”
Leo reached into the waxed bag and pulled out a donut of his own before he went into the kitchen. Of course, Dixie followed him. The man had food, and she was a food whore.
Sparky came out of his office and glanced around before stepping over to the reception desk. “Did I hear Leo?”
“Yes. He took donuts to the kitchen. Do you know where the logbook is? He brought these,” I said as I held up the folder with the bond release papers inside.
“Oh, good. Benny Frances showed up?”
Leo strolled into the swamp with a mug of coffee. “Yeah. Somebody beat the hell out of him. It wasn’t me or Greeley. His dad was with him, but that guy’s no bigger than Hardy, so I think there’s an outside influence. He was picked up for shoplifting. Should we check into it? I brought back the release papers.” He pointed to the folder I was holding out to Sparky.
“Great. Yeah, let’s check into it, but there isn’t shit we can do about it if the kid doesn’t want help.”
Sparky took the folder, slapped it against his hand, and turned to me. “Thanks Fitz. Hardy told me you got your credentials on Friday, which works out great. I’ve got a new guy coming in today to interview for the other hunter spot I want to fill.
“His name is Jagger Hansen. He worked out of Reno for the Nevada State Patrol for fifteen years after he did five years with Reno PD as a patrolman. He wants to see if he can hack it down here where the lawless roam. We’ll see. Sometimes law enforcement can work out as recovery agents. Sometimes they can’t.”
I could see his point. Some law enforcement agents became one-man vigilante crews and refused to let shit go, pursuing old vendettas. It would be interesting to see how the trooper settled into the work we did as bail recovery agents.
