Golden Trail (29 page)

“Why?”

“Because, what Drew told me and what you
added last night, I had a feeling this was bad, now I know this is
worse.
A lot
worse. Something is going on there and we
fucked it up by committing a variety of unlawful acts to come about
undeniably damning information. As damning as it is, sweetcheeks,
they build a case against this guy, it’ll all come crashing down if
anyone ever finds out they were tipped from info we acquired and
the way we acquired it. That could happen, Roc. So, a kid’s gotta
report him and that kid’s gonna be Tripp, but he has to know what
he’s reporting. He can’t just go to a few Youth Group meetings and
cry wolf. If this guy is in there doin’ bad shit with those kids,
someone says boo, he’s gone and they’ll never find him. Tripp gets
anything, they can investigate in a way where they won’t tweak him
until they got enough to arrest him. I have a meet with Colt later
this morning, I’ll give him the head’s up Drew punted this case to
me and what Tripp’s doin’ so he can work his end. You see Drew or
Merry, you do the same. But what we did no one knows about,
yeah?”

She stared at him for three long beats
before she muttered, “I hate it when you make sense.”

Layne smiled and muttered back, “Baby.”

Her irritation fled and her face changed,
worry seeping into it, so much, she didn’t check herself from
leaning closer to him and resting her bandaged hand lightly on his
chest. “Layne, we’re talking girls here.
Young
girls.”

He put his hand to her neck and gave her a
squeeze. “I’ll coach Tripp, Rocky, and give him the sense of
urgency. He’ll play it smart but he won’t fuck around. You have to
have patience. Even if the cops were investigating this, it would
take time. Now, we’re goin’ at it both ways.”

“Yes, I understand that, but time –”

Layne interrupted her. “He’s doin’ bad shit
with kids, this guy has gotta go down and stay down, Roc and,
baby,” his head dipped so his face was close to hers, “I’m sorry,
but that takes time.”

She stared into his eyes and then she
nodded. She’d agreed but he didn’t move out of her space or her
face. His fingers tensed on her neck and his eyes dropped to her
raspberry lips and, his hand on her skin, her hand on his chest,
she was so close he could smell her perfume, Layne had the sudden
urge to discover if she tasted like raspberries.

“Layne,” those lips whispered as his hand at
her neck pulled her closer.

“Yeah, baby?” he asked, his mouth nearly on
hers.

“What –?”

His mouth captured hers and his tongue
darted out to taste her lip gloss. It tasted like fruit but he
didn’t know if it was raspberry and he didn’t care because her lips
parted and Layne didn’t waste the opportunity, his tongue slid
inside.

His hand stayed at her neck as his other
hand gripped her waist and pulled her body into his. Both her hands
went to his shoulders, not to push away, for the fingers to curl in
and she held on.

Her head tipped further back and tilted to
the side causing her breasts to press into his chest. That felt
good and he wanted more of it.

So he moved his hand along her waist,
feeling the fabric of her sweater was soft, not scratchy, and he
wrapped his arm around her, pulling her body deeper into his,
plastering her softness against him.

Yep, that felt better and Rocky thought so
too, he knew this because she made a sweet, little noise in her
throat that vibrated against his tongue.

That noise made Layne give a reciprocating
one, but his wasn’t sweet, it was hungry.

Too hungry, the taste of her, the smell of
her perfume, her body pressed against his felt fucking great. His
body was reacting and she was at work. This couldn’t get out of
hand. Not how he wanted it to, not here.

He tore his lips from hers but kept her
close with his hand at her neck and arm around her waist.

“Layne,” she breathed and he realized then
she’d kissed him back. No complaints, no resistance, like Sunday
night, he’d touched his tongue to her lips and she was his.

This said a lot and all of it was fucking
brilliant.

“I got work to do, baby,” he whispered.

“What are you… why are you –?” she started
to ask but he touched his mouth to hers once, then again then he
looked in her eyes to see they were slightly unfocused and slightly
confused and that look was definitely cute.

“Got shit to do, sweetcheeks. Colt’s got a
guy who may give me info I need on Stew and I got a file to build
on a case I completed last night and I need to get that done so I
can get paid.”

“Um… okay,” she whispered.

His hand at her neck and his arm at her
waist gave her a squeeze. “See you tonight.”

“Okay,” she repeated.

“Later,” he muttered and touched his mouth
to hers again.

“Okay,” she muttered back when he was done,
her mutter breathy. “Later.”

He smiled down at her, let her go, stepped
away from her and her hands dropped from his shoulders. He wiped
her berry gloss off his lips with the back of his hand while still
smiling. Then he turned to the door and his timing couldn’t have
been any fucking better. The bell rang and he opened the door as
kids started streaming into the halls. He waited a few beats,
looking back at her and finding she was where he left her, staring
at him, still seeming unfocused. Then, when the halls were packed
with kids, he took a step out, turned back to her, gave her a wink
and started to walk down the hall.

A young girl ran into the back of an opened
locker right beside him after he took two steps and he caught her
by the bicep because the noise of her slamming into the locker was
loud and her dazed expression made it look like she was going
down.

“You all right?” he asked and she stared up
at him still looking dazed. He bent closer. “Hey, honey, I asked,
you all right?”

“Uh…” she stared up at him like she’d never
seen another human being before then she whispered in a voice so
quiet he could barely hear her, “you called me honey.”

“Molly,” Rocky was there, “did you hurt
yourself? Is everything okay?”

The girl tore her gaze from him, blinked at
Rocky and mumbled, “Uh, yeah, Mrs. Astley.”

“Her name is Ms. Merrick,” Layne told the
girl, he heard Rocky suck in breath, he let the girl’s arm go and
the girl turned her head and blinked up at him.

“Oh, okay,” she turned back to Rocky, “yeah,
I’m fine, Ms. Merrick.”

Rocky was glaring at him but she spoke to
the girl. “That’s good, Molly, now you better get to class.”

“Right,” she muttered, scuttled between them
and took off down the hall.

“Hey, Mrs. Astley,” a pack of girls called
in unison then one of them went on, “your boyfriend is
hot.
”
Then all of them burst out in giggles.

“Thank you, Mariah, your opinion is noted,”
Rocky replied irately and Layne burst out laughing. When he was
done, Rocky was close and she hissed at him, “Don’t you have work
to do?”

“Yeah, Roc.” He grinned at her. “See you
tonight.”

“See you tonight.”

He winked again and she glared, then she
turned, walked back to her room and then disappeared inside. It was
only two strides but she did it with her strut so Layne took the
time to watch. When he was done, he turned, saw two of Jasper’s
friends, backs against the walls, both of their eyes were locked on
Layne.

“Hey Mr. Layne,” one of them said in
Jasper’s “you the man” tone of last night.

“Jamie,” Layne nodded and his eyes cut to
the other kid, “Mitch.”

“Yo, Mr. Layne.”

Layne smiled at them and started walking
down the hall thinking that his whole play went really, fucking
great
.

* * * * *

Layne met Colt and they took off in Layne’s
Suburban.

When they did, Layne left Blondie with Sully
at the Station knowing Jas’s dog would love him forever, such was
her excitement at being left in a place full of men who liked dogs
as well as a variety of corners she could stick her nose into to
experience a variety of new and unusual smells.

“Things good?” Colt asked from the passenger
seat.

“Workin’ on it,” Layne answered.

“How’s Rocky?” Colt went on.

“Workin’ on that too,” Layne replied and
Colt chuckled.

“Can’t say I wasn’t shocked as shit coupla
weeks ago,” Colt remarked.

“Everyone’s shocked as shit, includin’ me,”
Layne told him.

Colt was silent a moment before he asked
quietly, his voice openly concerned, “It goin’ okay?”

Alec Colton was a good cop, a good man and a
good friend. They’d worked together years ago, he’d been that way
then and he was that way now. Colt knew Layne before Rocky left him
and after. He knew what she meant to him and he knew what it meant
she was back.

Therefore, Layne said quietly back, “Path’s
full of thorns.”

Another moment of silence and then Colt
replied, “You get to the rose, man, it’s unbelievably soft and
smells incredibly fuckin’ sweet.”

It hit Layne then that Colt and Feb had
lived their own bittersweet love story in that ‘burg. Colt was a
few years older than Layne but he’d been at high school with Feb.
With Colt best friends with February’s brother since he was in
kindergarten, Colt had known Feb forever. They’d been solid,
unshakable, the couple who hooked up in high school that everyone
knew would stick true. They didn’t. Layne had no idea what went
down except it wasn’t good. Colt had stayed in the ‘burg and,
working with him, Layne knew the loss of Feb, even years after, was
a loss that stayed fresh. Like Layne, Feb had taken off and she’d
been gone even longer than Layne. She came back a few years ago and
they’d hooked up again when a local guy lost control of what was
left of his mind and went on a killing spree in Feb’s name. Colt
had stepped in to keep her safe and they’d come out of that back
together, solid, unshakable, now married with a kid. Whatever tore
them apart, they found a way to put it behind them and they made it
through.

Reminded of this, Layne could say at that
juncture that reminder was really freaking welcome.

“So I take it Feb’s good,” Layne noted.

“Yeah, man, Feb is good.” Colt’s words were
weighty and Layne didn’t try to stop his smile.

Layne drove out of the ‘burg, they hit the
vast fields that surrounded it and he changed the subject. “Run
this down for me.”

Colt didn’t hesitate. “Guy’s name is Ryker.
It’s happening, he knows about it.”

“Informant?”

“He isn’t adverse to sharing information
when he might get somethin’ outta it.”

Layne glanced at Colt then back at the road.
“He the kind of guy I wanna owe a favor?”

“That’s the beauty of this, Tanner. Ryker is
not a friend of Carlito’s and
no one
is a friend of Stew’s.
I reckon he won’t consider it a favor to share what he knows about
Stew.”

Layne found himself smiling again.

Layne had learned one thing from his father,
a man he’d never met, or he hadn’t met him at a time where Layne
was old enough to form a coherent thought, and that was you not
only didn’t shit where you lived, you didn’t shit anywhere. Layne
had grown up watching his mother struggle to keep a roof over their
heads, working as a secretary, going to night school, studying to
be an accountant, having no time to do it and even less money so it
took her freaking forever. But she did it and began to make more
money but she always had to work. Layne was a latchkey kid, she had
no choice but to lean on him to help her out by learning how to
take care of himself early on and the minute he could earn, he did
what he could to kick in. His aunt and grandparents did as much as
they could but they had their own lives to lead. She was his Mom
but Layne knew his mother was a looker. He also knew she was a good
woman, she was funny, she was sweet, her family adored her and she
had dozens of friends, all of whom she could call close. A man
losing out on that, shitting where he lived, turning his back on a
good woman and family and never looking back, let the whole world
slip through his own fingers.

Layne had fucked up twice and both of them
were royally. The first time was out of his control when the condom
broke when he was with Gabby and it was now not debatable that he’d
fucked up nailing Gabby in the first place, drunk or not. The
second time was when he left his sons and the last year he’d given
a lot of headspace to trying to remember why the fuck he did that
at all.

Gabby was a bitch and divorcing her made her
worse and Rocky was in that town. Layne had felt tied down, not by
his sons, but by the history with Rocky and Gabby that fenced him
in. This brought up the urge to get out of that ‘burg and roam.
There were things he wanted to do, wanted to see and wanted to
learn, things he couldn’t learn, see and do in a small town. He’d
told Rocky all about this shit when they were together and she was
with him all the way because she shared his need to roam, to learn,
to see, to do. They had plans and, once she graduated from Butler,
they were going to go. They didn’t know where but it would be
somewhere.

He found what he was searching for in St.
Louis, San Antonio, Reno, Phoenix and LA but he lost more by
leaving what really mattered at home and he’d paid a mighty price
for that fuck up. Nevertheless, he made more friends than enemies
along the way, case in point, Devin Glover dropping everything and
hitting town after getting a phone call.

Jarrod Astley and Stew Baranski hadn’t
learned not to shit where they lived, where they worked, wherever
they wanted. They didn’t care who they screwed over. You couldn’t
live your life like that and not face retribution eventually.

And it was closing in on Astley and Stew’s
judgment days.