Page 45 of Astrid
“That’s fine,” John answered. “As long as I know the arrests were made, and you three aren’t in any harm’s way, I’ll be fine. You?” He looked at his brothers as he asked.
“Yes,” both Alex and Justin said. They ended up walking out with the women, but stayed on the front porch while they made their way to the garage. Ten minutes later, they blew the women a kiss as they pulled out in the white pick-up truck, with Joyce behind the wheel, Astrid in the passenger seat, and Ava sitting in the back. They stayed outside until they couldn’t see the taillights of the truck, then looked at each other and sighed.
“Damn,” John said.
“What?” Alex asked as they turned to go back inside.
“I never thought it would be this hard to let the woman of my dreams do her job.”
“I know,” Justin said, and the three went inside, and down to the basement. John didn’t know about the others, but he was determined to master whatever Dillon threw at him that night. It was the only way he could keep his mind off what Astrid and the others were doing.
CHAPTER20
Astrid looked over at Joyce,then over her shoulder at Ava, and asked, “We drinking tonight?”
“I think we should,” Ava said.
“Why?” Joyce asked.
“We don’t want to come across as pussies, or that we’re setting them up, right?” The others agreed with her, so she continued. “By the looks of it, we’ll be there early, so we can go in and get a table. I don’t want a regular glass of wine like we drink at the house almost every night, because that has about fourteen percent alcohol content. I don’t know about you two, but I want to keep my wits about me tonight.”
“So do we,” the others answered. Astrid turned in her seat and frowned at Ava. “What do you suggest?”
“A sparkling wine has twelve percent alcohol content, while a wine cooler has around six.”
“If they have that, I’ll have one of those,” Joyce said from behind the wheel. “Don’t want too much alcohol in my system if I’m going to be driving.”
“Yeah,” the others said, and settled back to enjoy the ride. At one point, after Joyce made the last turn, she looked at Astrid with a frown.
“What?”
“Are you sure we’re going in the right direction?”
“Yep,” Astrid laughed. “Trust me.” She pointed out the windshield and the three women watched as they drove through a grove of trees and after at least a mile it opened to a stone parking lot surrounding a wooden building sitting in the middle of it. Joyce slowed down, and since there were only about four cars there, she parked in the middle of the lot and shut the truck down.
“This okay?”
“Yeah, it’s close enough to the door in case we need to make a break for it, but it’s also far enough away that it won’t be in the way.” They gathered their purses, and before they opened the doors, Astrid asked. “You guys wired?”
“Yes,” they answered, then opened the doors and exited the truck. Together the three of them made their way to the bar. It was only a quarter after six, and they were to meet Griff, Paul, and Harry at seven.
“Hold up,” Astrid said to the others and pulled her phone. She sent a quick text, waited for only a few seconds, then continued. “I just contacted Tom, told him we had arrived, he said he saw us, and once the men drive by wherever he is, he’ll send a text that they’ll have the building surrounded.”
“Sounds good,” Joyce said as she reached for the door. “I like knowing backup is there.”
“I don’t know about you guys,” Ava laughed. “But, this is the most fired up I’ve been since I took down Tanner at the BBQ. Don’t get me wrong, I love working for Boswell, but at times it’s boring. I want to sink my teeth into some action.”
The others laughed, and that was how they entered the bar. Three beautiful, laughing women. They had to stop to allow their eyes to adjust to the dimness of the interior and as they did, they looked around and saw several tables grouped together, a jukebox on one side of the bar, and what looked like a makeshift stage on the other side. In the middle was a long bar and two people were working behind it, while two people were sitting before it.
“Table?” Astrid asked as she leaned in toward the other women.
“Yes,” they said, and after Astrid said she’d buy the first round, she went to the bar while Joyce and Astrid went to the side of the bar with the jukebox. They sat near it, but not right on top of it. They also noted there was an area for dancing in front of it, as well as the stage on the other side.
Once Astrid joined them with a waitress hot on her heels, they gave their orders then she said, “From looking at this place on the outside, it doesn’t look this big.”
“I know, I was expecting some hole-in-the-wall place,” Joyce said. She looked around at the décor and then grinned at the other two ladies. “Do you think the guys would like to come here sometime?”
“I’d love to ride the bikes here,” Astrid admitted. “I haven’t ridden since I got here, and I’d like to get some riding in this summer.”
