Golden Trail (66 page)

She pulled her lips between her teeth and
pressed her teeth together. Then she nodded again.

“You did the right thing,” he repeated.

She nodded yet again then her teeth released
her lips so she could say, “Do me a favor?”

“What?” Layne asked.

Her face changed, she gave him that look
with her mouth going soft and Layne hoped for her that she’d direct
that look to the right guy, a guy who would show her the life she
should have had.

“Don’t get dead,” she replied on a whisper,
bent and gave Blondie a quick rub and then without looking at him
again, she turned and jogged away.

Blondie woofed her excited good-bye.

In case they had an audience, Layne didn’t
watch her go. He immediately opened the door to his truck, Blondie
jumped in, he slammed it, rounded the hood, folded into the
driver’s side and pulled out of his spot. He scanned the area as he
did so and he drove home with his eyes on his mirrors just as much
as they were on the road.

He’d wait until the planned meet later with
Devin and Ryker to give Devin his next assignment.

* * * * *

Layne was sitting in Merry’s armchair in his
living room, facing his front door as Merry walked in.

“You’re a hard man to get hold of,” Layne
remarked, Merry turned quickly, his hand going into his jacket
toward his gun before he saw Layne and stopped.

“Jesus, fuck, shit, Tanner, what the fuck?”
Merry clipped.

“Been callin’ you, brother,” Layne reminded
him.

“Yeah, so, I’m busy and you break into my
goddamned house?” Merry asked, coming into the room shrugging off
his leather jacket and throwing it on the back of the couch.

“You’re busy?” Layne asked, not making the
slightest move in his chair except to raise his eyebrows.

“Yeah,
brother,
busy,” Merry bit off
then asked, “How’d you get in here?”

“Picked the lock,” Layne answered.

“You’re tellin’ me you picked the lock of a
cop’s apartment?”

“Nope, I’m tellin’ you I picked the lock of
the apartment of the man who’s supposed to be my partner in an
operation, one that got my ass shot. He’s also the man who’s
supposed to be my goddamned friend and he knows I got all sorts of
shit goin’ down, some of it with my boys on the line. He’s also the
man who’s brother to my woman who –”

Merry lifted a hand and interrupted. “I get
it.”

“You do? I don’t think so. See, if you did,
you’d return my goddamned phone calls.”

“I’ve been busy, all right?” Merry lied.

“That’s fuckin’ lame and you fuckin’ know
it,” Layne growled, having trouble keeping his seat.

Merry moved straight off the defensive to
take the offensive. “You been busy too, brother.”

“Yeah, I have,” Layne agreed.

“So, let me help you with that. Lay off
Dad,” Merry returned.

Layne stood and Merry tensed.

Then Layne spoke. “Rutledge is providing
safe haven to a Caucasian female in her mid-forties named Nicolette
Towers. The shit goin’ down at Youth Group is her game. She likes
girls, she likes pimpin’ ‘em any way she can and she just plain
likes ‘em.” Layne ignored Merry’s face twisting with disgust and
continued. “Colt’s in on this as is a guy named Ryker who I ‘spect
you know. Ryker and me, we’ve partnered up and my man Devin is
workin’ this too. We’re goin’ in hard, her boy is goin’ down,
Rutledge is goin’ down and Towers is goin’ down. Of that cast of
characters, the one with the most to lose is Rutledge. She’s got
dirt on him and it’s not just dirt. It’s filth. Only thing the boys
in the hole hate worse than a cop is a pedophile. He’s both and
he’s fucked.” Layne crossed his arms on his chest and kept his eyes
locked on Merry. “I got intel that says what we suspected, that
ambush was a warning. If they meant to kill me, they’d have done
it. They won’t give me a second warning. That said, I’m not
pussyfooting around with this shit. I want Rutledge scared, I want
Gaines freaked and I want Towers on alert. And all that shit is
gonna come from me, not you, not Colt. Me. Colt’s workin’ it but
he’s not swingin’ his ass out there. I am. What I don’t want is any
of them to run. They run, we’re fucked, they’ll go out of your
jurisdiction and they’ll do it after they drill a round in my
skull. This operation is gonna require skill and it’s gonna require
teamwork and I gotta know, right now, if you’re out because you
disappear off radar like you did this week, I’m dead.”

“I’m not out,” Merry clipped.

“Good, welcome back to the team,” Layne
returned.

Merry scowled at him then asked, “You
done?”

“Nope,” Layne answered. “I’m guessin’ you
know Roc and I are back together.”

“Yeah, forgot to send my congratulations
bouquet,” Merry retorted sarcastically and Layne pulled in
breath.

They watched each other and Layne waited.
Merry couldn’t take a stare down, didn’t have enough control,
therefore he broke the silence first.

“I figure, since you aren’t movin’ toward
the door, you got more to say,” he prompted.

“No, I’m not movin’ to the door because I’m
waitin’ to hear what
you
have to say,” Layne replied.

“Think we had this conversation before,
brother,” Merry reminded him.

“And I think I made it pretty clear I didn’t
like the way that one went,” Layne shot back.

“Seems you liked it enough, since my
sister’s keepin’ you warm at night again.”

“Don’t piss me off,” Layne whispered his
warning.

“You aren’t already pissed?” Merry
returned.

“Good you could read that, Garrett.”

“Not hard, Tanner.”

“Okay, then I’ll keep makin’ it easy for
you. You and your Dad, you’re scared shitless of whatever the hell
it is your scared shitless of that would make Rocky cut you out if
one or the other of you grows a pair and pulls your head outta your
ass –”

“Okay, now you’re pissin’ me off,” Merry
growled.

“I’m not done,” Layne told him. “To finish,
I find out you sat on somethin’, somethin’ that kept her from me
when I wanted her and she wanted me, somethin’ that meant we lost
eighteen years, somethin’ that kept her livin’ in fear, led her to
a dickhead who treated her like shit, then you better stop worryin’
about her cuttin’ you out and start worryin’ about me. Because,
brother, there is nothin’ that is gonna tear us apart, not again,
she’s mine until she dies. And I find that shit out, I hold a mean
grudge and, God’s honest truth, Garrett, you’ll lose us all and not
one of us is ever comin’ back. Do you get me?”

Merry smiled and it was nasty. “Don’t play
that game, Tanner. You pit yourself against me and Dad, when it
comes to Rocky, I promise you, you’ll lose.”

“You seem sure.”

“That’s because I am.”

“She’s thirty-eight and still embarrassed
about her periods and scared shitless of the dark. Tell me,
Garrett, you two handled her with care, how can that be?”

Merry’s face changed and Layne couldn’t read
it before he hid it.

So Layne bluffed, “That’s what I thought,
you’re not so fuckin’ sure, are you?”

Layne won his bluff, he knew it when Merry
whispered, “Fuck you.”

He looked at his watch and back to Merry.
“You got fifteen minutes before I gotta go pick her up for the
game. You got anything for me?”

Merry was silent and Layne waited.

Then Layne warned quietly, “This is the last
time I’ll ask you, brother, you got anything for me?”

Merry kept his silence.

Layne nodded and whispered, “Right.”

Then without looking at his friend and
without another word, Layne walked right passed him and out the
door.

* * * * *

“Oh my God,” Rocky whispered, her face
white, she was staring at him.

Layne was at one end of her couch, his feet
on her coffee table, the mostly empty pizza box and several bottles
of beer scattered on it. Rocky was at the opposite end of the
couch, her feet were in his lap and he’d just told her Marissa
Gibbon’s entire story.

“Sorry, sweetcheeks,” Layne said softly. “I
woulda kept that from you but if Astley still has someone watchin’,
he could have been takin’ pictures and that could get back to you.
Forced my hand. You needed to know.”

“I don’t know what to say.” She was still
whispering.

“Nothin’ to say except try to find the
silver lining and that is that Marissa Gibbons learned how to be a
good woman today. She tried it on and it fit. You know Devin called
me when we were at the game. She set the meet. Now, she gets to
move on, leave this shit behind and maybe find a good life.”

Her eyes stayed glued to him until her mouth
got soft, her lids lowered then she pulled her feet out of his lap,
twisted her hips in the couch and crawled on all fours until she
had her hands on his shoulders and she was face to face and chest
to chest with him.

“You’re a good man, Tanner Layne,” she said
quietly then her eyes dropped to his mouth.

His arms went around her but he pulled his
head back an inch and her eyes went back to his.

“Want your mouth on mine, honey, but we’re
not done talkin’,” he murmured.

“I don’t like the look on your face,” she
replied, losing her look, that look he liked so much and Layne
would be seriously fucking happy when all this shit was over and
life was just life.

So he didn’t waste time, wasting time would
mean a delay in getting to the good part of the evening and he
didn’t want that for him or for Roc.

He’d briefed her about the day’s events, all
except his chat with her brother, but he still had a few things he
needed to make clear. So he set about making them clear.

“We got a lot done today. Devin, Ryker and
me are gonna be takin’ turns listenin’ to the bugs. We know who she
is and Dev’s got prints from the apartment that an independent lab
is runnin’, we’ll have results tomorrow, so we’ll know who he is
and hopefully get confirmation on her. We know who’s pocket
Rutledge his in. This means it’s gonna get hotter. I told Jasper
and I’ll tell you. You keep sharp. You stay smart. You don’t talk
to Josie, Violet, Feb, anyone about this shit. You lock your doors
when you’re in your car and you drive with your eyes on your
mirrors. You see the same car more than once, you call me
immediately. Tomorrow, I take you to the office and get you a panic
button and you carry that with you everywhere. You don’t go
anywhere unless someone knows you’re goin’, where you’re goin’ and
when you’re expected to get there. You don’t sleep alone. I’m not
home, you stay awake. I’m not in this apartment; you’re not in this
apartment. Those vultures live close and my security system at home
is solid, they still haven’t fixed this one.”

“But, the girls are coming over tomorrow to
–”

“Yeah, and I’ll leave when they get here and
come back before they’re gone. Colt’s wife and Cal’s wife will both
be here. Someone might be dumb enough to fuck with you, and, baby,
that’s the truth even if I can see it freaks you out, but no one
would be dumb enough to fuck with the three of you.”

He stopped speaking and she didn’t say
anything, just held his eyes so his arms gave her a squeeze.

“You get all that?” he asked.

Rocky nodded.

“You freaked?” he went on.

Rocky kept nodding.

“You think I’d ever let anything hurt
you?”

Rocky stopped nodding, her mouth got soft,
her lids lowered and she shook her head.

“All right, baby,” he whispered, his hand
travelling up her back, her neck to cup her head. “I’m gonna clean
this shit up,” he told her quietly, tipping his head to the table.
“You go upstairs and get ready because I’m hungry.”

“Layne,” she breathed, her tits pressing
deeper into his chest and his cock started getting hard.

“Go get ready for me,” he growled.

“I have to ask you something first,” she
said, her hands moving up his neck, her fingers sliding into his
hair and curling around at the back.

“Yeah?” he prompted when she said no
more.

“That night, after that first game we went
to together, do you remember?”

“It was only a month ago, sweetcheeks.”

“So you remember,” she pushed.

“Yeah, Roc,” his arms tightened, “I remember
every second.”

She smiled, she’d liked that night but she
liked that he liked it too then she shared, “I didn’t want you to
leave.”

“I know.”

Rocky kept smiling and she kept sharing,
“Before Merry came, I was going to make a move on you.”

Layne smiled back. “Yeah, I know.”

Her smile got even brighter before her face
went strange, uncertain and she started, “Would you have… um,” she
pulled in a breath, “caught my move or deflected it?”

Layne felt his smile fading and he answered
honestly, “I don’t know, baby.”

She nodded, her eyes slid away and he used
his hand on her head to bring her attention back to him.

“It didn’t happen and I don’t know what I
would have done if it did, but I do know that it would have killed
to turn you down.” She studied his face and he repeated, “It would
have killed, Rocky. I wanted you to make that move and even
thinkin’ then that we’d never again be where we are right now, I
wanted you and I wanted you to want me.”

One of her hands came out of his hair to cup
his jaw.

Then she said, “You know, one of the reasons
I fell in love with you was because you were always honest. With
everyone, including me. I loved that. It made me feel safe. I still
love that about you, especially knowing it takes courage to be
honest. Your courage, I love that about you too.”

And he loved her words, fucking loved every
one of them but what he didn’t love was what they might mean.

And he had to know what they might mean.

“In your life, was someone not honest with
you?”