Page 37 of Fury

Shame.

“Fuck, what a mess,” muttered Drac.

We kept walking, heading for a concert on the other end of the campsite. The rest of the evening we partied, we had fun. Little did we realize, that night’s mess would create a monster pissing bitterness and rage for years to come.

One day I would be the one who’d slash its throat and make it bleed.

11

I’d been keeping watch onthe movement of the Kansas City Smoking Guns for weeks. Of course, we did that in general, but I needed to find the right time and right way to get in and get Serena out.

I couldn’t tell Drac or Slade about it, about her. I didn’t want nobody to talk me out of it, or freak out on me and get me busted for it.

Only one person.

I pulled up to the laundromat two towns over and headed for the bank of pay phones at the end of the small strip of shops. My office of choice. I popped in the change and dialed. The beeper beeped, and I pushed in the number, hung up the phone, and waited.

Mrs. Macafee from the diner in town came out of the laundromat with a huge blue nylon laundry bag in a cart, tossing me her usual frown, and as usual I ignored it.

The phone rang, and I grabbed it.

“Yeah?” came his voice.

“Dig?”

“That’s me.”

“It’s Finger.”

“Hey, man.” The husky tone of his voice lightened. “How’re you doing?”

“Need help from you.”

“You got it.”

“This is between us. Has nothing to do with my club or yours. You still interested?”

“Tell me.”

“I’m gonna need a safe house in South Dakota. Might have to keep someone there for a week or two, then we’ll be out of your hair.”

“Not a problem. Got just the place, and it’s mine. No one knows about it.”

“What do you want for it? I got some money, and I can give you—”

“I don’t want your money. I just want you to be open to working with me, grease that channel with your club. I know what happened with me and Notch fucked things up with the Blades, and that doesn’t seem to be going away. You calling me to ask, shows that you knew I’d help you.”

The Blades and the Jacks were now on totally shit terms, shittiest in their history. That new friction was causing lots of problems for all of us.

“Yeah. That sucked.”

He let out a laugh. “That’s the word for it.”

“I’ll do what I can. I promise.”

“I appreciate it. When do you need the safe house?”

“Not sure yet. It’ll be a last minute kind of thing.”

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