Page 4 of Givin' Me Fitz!
I looped the sheet over his chest and tugged it tight behind the seat so the fucker couldn’t move his arms or get out of the truck. Hobie cracked the fucker in the gut as I scooted closer and whispered in his ear.
“You beat up my friend who didn’t do anything to you. Now what do you think we should do about this shit?” I pulled the sheet tighter.
“I think we should break his fucking nose like he did to Emily.” Hobie glanced at me, and I nodded.
He closed his right fist and swung around, busting the fucker’s nose. The crunch was satisfying to hear, and I wasn’t surprised to see my friend still had a deadly southpaw.
Blood splattered everywhere, some even hitting the picture of the asshole’s family, but he couldn’t move his arms because of the sheet. It took all my restraint not to move the knot up to his neck and fucking strangle him with it.
“You son of a bitch! You got nothing on me! She’s my sidepiece. She likes it rough.”
Hobie glanced at me, pointing to the bat next to him. “Yeah.”
The bat met the asshole’s gut again with a crunch that made me smile. More blood poured out of his nose.
I leaned forward and got into his ear. “You ever fucking show yourself in this part of Nevada again, and you’ll get a free ride out to the desert. At night. Blindfolded. Naked. You feel me, asshole?”
“I’ve been seeing her for a few months, and she said it was okay to get rough. She wanted me to hurt her. I paid extra for it.” He was crying now, and I wanted to snap his fucking neck.
I was fuming. “You get that rough with your wife? The mother of your little girl let you break her nose and ribs when you fuck her up the ass like you did to Emily? Maybe I’ll call your wife and ask her. You hurt my employee, and she won’t be working for a few weeks. You know what that means? You fucking owe me money.”
Hobie kept poking the asshole with the fat end of the bat. The guy squirmed to get away, but I was holding him tight.
Smith started bawling. “Please, please, don’t tell my wife. I’m sorry. I’ll do whatever you want. I just got paid for this haul, so I’ll give you what I have.”
I glanced at Hobie who shrugged. “Pays the doc’s bill and makes up for what Em won’t make until she’s able to get back to work.”
Smith nodded to the glove box. “Open it.” Hobie opened it and started to reach for a thick manila envelope. I touched his arm to stop him.
I loosened the sheet and slid to my right. “You reach inside and give us the money.” We should have fucking worn gloves, but I wasn’t thinking straight when we left the clubhouse.
Smith did as I said, tossing the envelope onto Hobie’s lap. I adjusted the knot to Smith’s throat and choked him out before I reached for the envelope with the end of the sheet.
I grabbed the pillowcase and handed it to Hobie. “Wipe your seat down. From now on, we carry fucking rubber gloves with us when we go out for shit like this.”
I opened the clasp and dumped the contents in Hobie’s lap. “Damn! That’s a fat stack. What the fuck is he doing with that much cash?” There were ten straps of twenties equaling ten grand.
Hobie’s eyes grew to the size of silver dollars. “How much should we take?”
“Take half and leave the rest on the seat. He’s got a kid. He’s a dumbass and a scumbag, but he’ll need the rest of that money for his own hospital bills.”
Before the truck driver regained consciousness, Hobie and I got out of the truck and stayed out of the cameras’ views, running like hell to my truck before heading out. I doubted that fucker would forget this day for the rest of his life, but there was one question nagging me…
What the hell was he doing with ten thousand dollars in cash?
I called Bess Carroll, the house mother at East Adkisson. “Bones? What can I do for you?”
“Let’s talk about Emily Carter. Charles Smith says she was his sidepiece and he paid her to rough her up. Is that true? Has the guy been there before and you didn’t know or didn’t record it, the two of you splitting the money, or is she sneaking out to meet him and putting herself and her customers in jeopardy? If she is, she’s gone.”
I was fuming. We had rules against that shit. Nobody hit our employees, and if she invited him to brutalize her, we had a problem.
“I’m not going to dignify that with an answer, Bones. How you’d think I’d hide money from you… I can’t talk right now. Let me get the phone to her.”
Yeah, I was an asshole for saying it. Bess had always been loyal.
“Bess, wait. I’m sorry! What do you know? Was that guy her boyfriend, and if he was, what does she know about him?”
It was her job to know who our employees spent time with, but if our employees were making secret deals with the clients, I was going to put a stop to it. Bess couldn’t follow them around all the time.
