Breath on the Wind (25 page)

Andy didn’t like the smile that the detective gave her at all.  It was a movement of his lips with no discernible friendly emotion behind it at all.

“It’s been confirmed that the explosion at your club was caused by an explosive device.  It was left in the room you had all the chains and the cuffs in, and that fancy, big wooden cross thing.  The CSI guys had quite a time piecing some of that gear back together, I can tell you.”  When the detective chuckled, Andy had to restrain herself from trying to knock him out. 

“Unfortunately they found that the device was generic, and pretty basic, the sort of thing that anyone can put together if they’ve got Google, and the inclination.  There’s no way to trace the materials that were used, and any other evidence was destroyed in the blast.  They’ve got nothin’ to go on.  There’s nothin’ we can do, I’m afraid.  The details you’ll need to pass to your insurance company will be in the paperwork I’ll send to you.”

Andy gritted her teeth to keep from saying what she was thinking, and she had to tighten her grip on Chiz’s arm to remind him that assaulting an officer of the law would get them nowhere.

“Thank you, detective, for personally coming to give me that information.  It’s a shame that no one’s going to pay for the hurt they’ve caused, but I understand that the culprit’s tracks were well covered.”

“It was my pleasure, Miss Broussard.  You have a good day now.”  The detective gave her a little mock salute before he opened his car door, and dropped into the driver’s seat.

The detective’s car wasn’t even out of sight before Chiz blew up.  “You know that’s bullshit, right?  There’s no way they’d’ve finished goin’ through everything yet.  He’s put a lid on the whole thing.”

That was exactly Andy’s opinion, too, and the knowledge depressed her profoundly.  “Him, or someone else. Honestly, I don’t see the good detective having the authority to squash an investigation into a blast that killed a number of people.”

“But doll, as far as those families are concerned, he hasn’t.  They get their cause.  Perpetrator unknown and unfindable.  They get their closure.  You know the cops ain’t lookin’ in the obvious direction, but those families don’t care about that.  If they’re all like that stuffed shirt today, they want this brushed under the rug as soon as possible. They probably think there’re too many suspects to count.”

Andy stepped in front of Chiz, wrapped her arms around him, and tucked herself against his chest.  “Chiz?”

He relaxed more as soon as she’d started to hold him.  She felt his arms band around her shoulders, and bring her closer still against the warm safety of his body.  She felt protected and comforted in equal measure. 

“Yeah?”

“I want to go on a ride.”

“Sure, doll.  Which direction today?”  Chiz loved riding, and he loved riding with her behind him.  He’d told her as much. The mere mention of an excursion had pushed his infuriation back.

“Take me to Absolution.  I want to see your town.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.  I know when I’m not wanted.  I want out of this place as soon as possible.  Show me where I’m going to.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chiz absolutely did not give a shit that he was going to be handed a fine for being late to Church.  He was mad, mad and scared, and fucking impatient to be done with the meeting, because he had somewhere he needed to be.  For the first time since before he was a Prospect, hell, since before that, he had somewhere that he wanted to be other than by his brothers’ sides.

Still, it wouldn’t do to piss the boss off.  Samuel was on board with what needed to be done, he agreed with it wholeheartedly, but Chiz did not need to end up in the doghouse, all the same.  To that end, he tried to master his temper, and at least ease the chapel door open with respect to the meeting in progress on the other side.

“Chiz.”  Samuel greeted him as soon as he’d closed the door behind him.  “You had more pressin’ business?”

“In a manner of speakin’, boss,” Chiz answered as he took his seat at the table.  Samuel’s expression was of amused interest.  He motioned for Chiz to continue.  “Elmo got a death threat.  At her house.”

Now Samuel sat forward, his irritation at Chiz’s tardiness forgotten.  “That piece of shit Church again?”

“Not likely to be anyone else.  Someone pushed it through her door.  Delivered it by hand.  It’s all letters cut from a magazine, real cartoon stuff, ‘cept it’s promisin’ the stonin’ and burnin’ of all whores.  Boss, I ain’t easy on the fact that it’s been dropped right in her lap.”

“Of course.”  Samuel nodded sympathetically.  “You’ll be wantin’ to go straight to her?”

“Yeah.  After Church, of course.”

“Of course.  We’ll make this quick, then.  I don’t doubt that your brothers’ll thank you for that.  Crash can get to Katie all the quicker.”

“You know me, boss.  I never keep a lady waitin’,” Crash quipped.

“Yeah, I heard you was real speedy.”  Kong’s laughter at his own joke echoed around the room.  Crash did not look all that amused.

“Now, now gentlemen,” Samuel admonished.  “Actually, Chiz, we were waitin’ on you to start discussin’ your girl’s problems.  We’ve got the bank to help her put together a new place, as soon as she’s ready to start lookin’ for property.  When’s she likely to be ready to move?”

A little more than a week before, when Andy had asked to visit Absolution, they’d ridden over.  It had been late in the day by the time they’d arrived, but they’d had enough daylight to ride through town, and to look at some of the rental apartments that Andy had in mind.  She was desperate to get out of Alabama as soon as possible, so they’d stayed the night in a motel.  Neither Elmo, nor Chiz, wanted to sleep at the clubhouse.  The next day Elmo had arranged to visit some of the apartments on her list.  She’d put a deposit on one that day. 

Chiz had taken her back to Alabama, and then returned to Absolution straightaway to lay the details of the situation out to Samuel, and the rest of the club.  Shark had already filled them in on the broad strokes.  The club saw the injustice in the situation, and they were happy to provide the retribution.  Elmo had remained in Alabama to put her house on the market, to pack, and to tie up other loose ends.

“She’s gonna call the agent first thing in the mornin’.  She hasn’t got the keys yet. He was gonna get the place cleaned.  I’ll go over tonight.  I want to bring her back with me tomorrow, or the day after.  I don’t want her spendin’ another night there alone.”

“Understandable.  Which agent is it?”

“Jack Wilkes.”

“Jack’s an old friend.  When she calls him, tell him I’ll pick the keys up tomorrow mornin’.”

“Boss?”  Shark interrupted.  At Samuel’s questioning look, he continued.  “I’ll drive the van over in the mornin’ with the Prospect.  Between the three of us we can get her packed up and movin’ by the afternoon.”

“Good idea, but I don’t like the idea of you bein’ so far from home at the moment.  I know they say first babies don’t come fast, but my girl will wear your guts as a necklace ‘til Doomsday if you’re not back in time, and she might well add mine to the wreath.  No. Terry?  You okay to take the Prospect and watch him do a bit of liftin’?”

“Will do.”  Terry nodded.

“I’ll ride over with the van, boss.  Another pair of hands ain’t gonna hurt no one,” Sinatra volunteered.

Chiz figured that the beating that he’d laid on the kid in the ring had done some good, because Sinatra was still trying to get back in his good books.

“Thank you.  Many hands make light work. Now,” Samuel leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table, his fingers steepled in front of his face. “Crash, you’ve double checked the links from that cleaner back to the Church?”

“There’s no doubt, boss.”  Crash responded.  “The security feed from the bar across the street shows one Tricia Pendleton, employed as a cleaner at Pumpkin Patch for one month, leavin’ the building at twelve-thirty p.m.  At one p.m. exactly, the building explodes.  Tricia’s cousin, Will McCabe, is the Pastor of the First Church of Christ.  Her bank records show she donates a chunk of money to the Church every month.  She had the opportunity, and she had the motive.”

Samuel touched his fingers to his lips; his brow was drawn in concentration.  “That’s good enough for me.  Now, I know what they did was heinous, but we cannot go in there and wipe a whole congregation out.”  His eyes slid over to Chiz.  “Sorry brother, I know you want blood, but we can’t take the heat of takin’ out that many civilians.”

“Understood, boss.”  Personally, Chiz wanted nothing more than to blow the Church to high heaven come Sunday morning, but he also didn’t want to spend the rest of his life in jail, or worse, for murder and terrorism charges.

“Good.  But we will take the head, and we will take this Tricia, since it was her hand that put the bomb in place.  Damn zealots’re like weeds.  We can’t kill ‘em all, and for every one you do take out, two more pop up in their place, and twice as righteous.  We’ll put the fear of God into ‘em, though.  Make ‘em think twice before they go after good folk tryin’ to earn a legitimate livin’ again.  Crash, I want you to put together whatever you can get your hands on, regardin’ Tricia and the pastor.”

“Will do, boss.”

Samuel leaned back into his chair.  “We’ll talk strategy when we’ve got all the details.  We’ll cut this short for tonight.  Chiz, you be on your way.  Ride safe, brother.”

Chiz was out of his seat almost before the gavel had hit the table.

~o0o~

Even though it was late by the time he arrived at Elmo’s, Chiz knew she was still awake.  He could see the glow of the interior lights around the edges of the drapes as he pulled his bike off the street onto her driveway.  It just about fit behind her little roadster.  Elmo was opening the door before he’d even finished dismounting.  He knew she must have heard the engine, but it looked like she’d been waiting for him, too.

He hadn’t even managed to set foot over the threshold before she’d wrapped herself around him.  He held her for a moment, indulging her desire for contact, then he tilted her chin up so that he could get a good look at her face.  She wasn’t crying, but she was pale.  Given that pale was her natural state, she was looking almost ghostly.  Chiz kept an arm firmly around her, but moved her back across the doorway, and into the house, before shutting the door behind him.

He was about to ask how she was, but then he saw the largest knife from the block in the kitchen, sitting next to a crystal glass of what looked like tequila.  Both were placed on the low coffee table, which Elmo had pulled in front of the couch.

“Scared, doll?”

“Fucking terrified.”  Fear was not evident in her voice, but he didn’t disbelieve her.  She was a strong one.  “They blew up an entire building with living people in it.  They wouldn’t think twice about following up on the threat they delivered.”  Elmo moved her chin away from Chiz’s grip and tucked her head back down against his chest.  He looked around, over the top of her head.  It looked like she had every light and lamp in the house switched on.  She didn’t have the television, or any music, playing.  It twisted something inside him to think that she’d been sitting, waiting, like this, since she’d called to tell him about the note.

He eyed the tequila.  There looked to be a couple of shots worth in the glass.  “You drunk, doll?”

He felt her shake her head.  “No.  I tried putting a movie on, but I kept hearing things and pressing mute so that I could listen.  I tried to read, but I couldn’t concentrate.  I wanted a drink to calm my nerves, but I kept thinking about how it would make me slow.  I haven’t touched it.”

There was a very faint tremble running through her body.  She might have been alert for hours, but she wasn’t a basket case of fear.

“I’m here now, doll.  The boys are bringin’ the van up in the mornin’.”

Elmo let him guide her over to the couch, so that they could sit down, but she tried to keep as much bodily contact as they did so.  She stayed tucked under his arm at his side, her head against his shoulder.

“I’m mostly packed.  There’s just the everyday stuff still to do.”

“That doesn’t matter tonight.  We’ll load every plate and glass one-by-one into the van if we have to.  You’re leavin this town tomorrow.  Let me speak to Jack when you call him in the mornin’.  The pres’ll pick up the keys for you.  Your place’ll be ready and waitin’ by the time we get there.”

“Okay.  I just want out.  I want to be able to relax again.”  Elmo sounded frustrated, and just a little defeated.  If he had thought it would’ve helped, he’d’ve loaded her onto his bike right then and there, and drive through the night to get her away from this place.

“Tomorrow, doll. It’ll all be over by tomorrow night.  Let’s go to bed, and get tonight out of the way.”

She looked up at him with wide eyes.  “I don’t think I can sleep.”

“That’s good, ‘cause I wasn’t plannin’ on goin’ to bed to sleep.”

When she returned his devilish grin, Chiz knew she was feeling better.  Elmo reached over for the glass of tequila and took a mouthful.  She was still grimacing around the burn of the alcohol in her mouth as she handed him the glass.  Chiz threw it back.  He doubted it had even touched the sides of his throat.

Chiz stood.  When Elmo stood too, he ducked suddenly, caught her around the waist, and as she squealed with shock, straightened, and hefted her over his shoulder.

“Chiz!  What’re you doing?”

“Takin’ you to bed, doll.”  He landed a sharp slap on her ass, which made her squeal again, and then headed to the bedroom.  He couldn’t do much at the moment, but he could distract the fuck out of her.

In the bedroom, Chiz dumped Elmo unceremoniously on the bed.

“I’ve got to say, baby.  Your delivery leaves a little something to be desired.”

“Oh, you think so, do you?”  Chiz shrugged his kutte off and hung it on the hook on the back of her bedroom door, over her fluffy robe.  He pulled his hoodie and long-sleeve thermal off in one go.  When he emerged from the garments, Elmo was still sitting on the bed, watching him.

“Doll, this ain’t gonna work unless you get at least a little naked.”

Chiz toed his boots off, and by the time he’d finished stripping himself, Elmo had shed the track pants and t-shirt that she’d been wearing, and was lying naked in the middle of the bed.

“That’s my girl,” Chiz said as he knelt on the bed and crawled over her.

He leaned down to kiss her, letting her feel his body along the length of hers, letting her feel the effect that she had on him.  They had the rest of the night, but Chiz didn’t want to take things slowly.  He’d been away from her for too long.  He couldn’t resist the instinct to move his hips, to gain whatever friction he could against his cock.  The sensation of rubbing over Elmo’s smooth mound was erotically familiar.  Chiz groaned into the kiss.  He was looking forward to having his woman around all the time.

Chiz made to push himself off Elmo.  He needed to get to his jeans for a condom.  She didn’t have a nightstand, only a set of drawers by the bed, which were full of clothes and other feminine shit.  He’d never found anywhere convenient to leave a couple of rubbers to grab in the heat of the moment.