Page 26 of Demon
She didn’t know how long they both sat there in silence, as everything sank in.She might have understood it if it was just a gang trying to get rid of her because she was a pain in their ass.She could understand it more if it was a single man who she’d somehow wronged, though she didn’t think there was anyone she would treat that badly, well, maybe her father now.But to be betrayed by someone who was supposed to love and protect you?By someone who should have been willing to step up and do whatever he had to in order to protect his kids, that was what hurt.The sad part was it didn’t hurt as much as it should have.They both had been betrayed by their father before.
“Well.Fuck,” she said after what felt like an eon, but the clock said it had been under five minutes.“What now?”
“I don’t know.”He looked lost.As if everything he’d known had been jerked out from under them.Ronnie understood that feeling.She didn’t like it, but she was there too.
“Do you think I’m safe here on my own or do you want to stay?”
“I’d like to say you’re safe, but how about I stay, just in case.”
Ronnie nodded.“I think we’ll both sleep better that way.”She took a deep breath and held it while she stared at the half full bottle in her hand.
She stared at the dark television and let everything she’d just learned, along with all the memories it had stirred up, circle in her mind.Something told her she was missing something, something important, but she couldn’t see anything.She was too close to the situation, she told herself.She needed to get a little distance to have any perspective at all.
Maybe a good night’s sleep would do it.
She made sure her brother had everything he needed and knew that he was welcome to raid the fridge, then she went to bed.She thought she would lie there a long time, trying to work out what was bothering her, but instead, she was out almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.
15
Afterclosingthebar,Demon headed over to the clubhouse.He’d thought about getting a place away from there, but decided why bother?Since he spent most of his time off here anyway, doing whatever the brothers needed done, it seemed a waste of money to pay rent for a place when he would barely be there.
Plus, it was close to the bar, so he didn’t have to go all the way across town at two or three in the morning.Not that he would have minded, traffic was next to nothing then and he could enjoy the ride more than during the day.
After backing his bike into line with the others there, he headed inside.The place was pretty quiet, but Puck was behind the bar and there were a few brothers scattered around the room.The one that surprised him was Gizmo.
Demon detoured behind the bar to help himself to a beer, then joined Gizmo at his table.The tech sergeant nodded his head to one of the chairs across from him, inviting Demon to sit."Is there a reason you're hanging out down here at three am instead of snuggled up with your old woman, sleeping?"Demon said as he pulled out a chair and sat.She's upstairs asleep.I went up with her but couldn't sleep with what's circling in my head."
"What's going on?”Giz looked around the room, as if deciding if they could talk here or if they needed to take it where they wouldn't be overheard."I got some new information on your cousin and the girl looking for him." Gizmo paused, his gaze flicking to something across the room and staying there for several seconds.Demon twisted to see what was going on, but all he saw was one of the TVs playing one of the 24 hour news stations.Demon turned back to Gizmo, wondering if something on the screen had caught his attention or if it was something else."Your cousin is mixed up with the wrong people, but we already knew that.I ran the bounty hunter’s name and didn’t come up with much.At least nothing unexpected.A couple of speeding tickets, an assault charge that was dropped, apparently someone complained about her take down but decided to drop it rather than go to court and say a woman beat him up.”Giz rolled his eyes.“But because of all the threads in this I decided to run everyone.”The tech sergeant tilted his head to one side, still watching Demon as if he was trying to figure something out.
“Tell me what kind of read you get on the bounty hunter.”
Demon scowled.“What do you mean?”
“Does she come across as someone trying to do a job?As someone who enjoys what she does?Or maybe someone who looks forward to picking up people who fight so she has an excuse to rough them up a bit?Maybe something different?You’re the only one of us who’s actually met her.I can tell you about her history, not necessarily what she’s done but what she’s been caught at, I can tell you any number of weird details about her, there’s a ton of shit on the internet, but none of what I can find tells me about her personality or what she’s really like.”
Demon stared at him a moment, wondering if perhaps Gizmo knew about Ronnie coming by Drifters earlier this evening?And if he knew, who else knew?Did they think he was hiding something from them?
He lifted his shoulders in an uncommitting shrug.“I’d never met her before the other day when she was following me.”
“I’m not looking for courtroom testimony, brother, I’m just looking for an idea of what she’s like.Other than a woman with enough balls to walk up to you and tell you she’s taking you in for missing your court date.”A grin spread across Gizmo’s face at the thought.
“Like I said, I hadn’t met her before that day, but she came into Drifter’s tonight.”
Gizmo didn’t say anything but lifted one brow in question.
“She came in to ask if I’d learned anything about where Jim Bob is.”
“And she just happened to come into the bar to find that out?”
“I thought about that, but if she’d thought I was Jim Bob, my place of employment would have come up when they ran me through the system.”He didn’t know that was how she’d found him, but it seemed plausible.
“What did you tell her?”
“That I’ve got some leads but nothing firm yet.I told her I plan to make sure he’s there before I give her the info, so she can take him down.”Demon had long ago learned to keep things as close to the truth as he could.If he didn’t have to lie about something, he didn’t.Typically, he tried to evade a question that he couldn’t be honest about the answer on and he’d done that with Ronnie.He hadn’t given her Aunt Chastity’s name when they’d talked about who put up the bail.
He'd given her as little information as he could, while encouraging her to give him what he needed.
“Oh,” he said remembering that she’d texted him that name and address earlier.“I’ve got someone else for you to look into.While she was at the bar this evening, I talked her into giving me the name of whoever put up the money for Jim Bob’s bail.My thought was if it was Aunt Chastity, it should have her address too.But that’s not what she sent me.”
