Page 27 of Other Woman Drama (Content Advisory #4)

Twenty-Four

When you go to someone’s social media and you see that they have fake boobs, do you also go through all their old photos to see when they got their fake boobs?

— Silver to Webber

WEBBER

Give me a kiss, Piers.

I’ll give you anything you want.

I hadn’t kissed my woman in four days, and I missed her so much it was hard to breathe.

Though that breathing thing might have a little bit to do with it being a hundred and ten in the middle of August in Texas.

Working outside wasn’t for the weak, and I’d been doing it so long that one would think I should be used to it by now.

It didn’t make it better that I had a pair of coveralls over my jeans, tied at the waist, with a black wifebeater hugging close to my chest.

Tight meant no air flow.

I was on bottle of water number eleven and would probably go through fifteen before I left for the house.

Apollo calling gave me a much-needed excuse to head into my office and enjoy the air conditioner for a few minutes while he gave me an update.

“Webber,” he said the moment I answered. “I have a lot of info for you. You have time?”

“Yep,” I answered. “What’s up?”

“One, your wife and all the old ladies are good. I checked on them through Audric’s security cameras a few minutes ago.

They’re on the back porch discussing the merits of getting married on the beach for a destination wedding.

” He started right in. “Two, they’ve spent a lot of money.

They’ve dipped into the cash you had me put into their accounts from the club fund.

Though, they didn’t realize it was put in there.

All of them would be overdrawn except for Searcy had I not added it in. ”

I chuckled. “What else?”

“They had a case of wine delivered last night and based on the number of bottles on the porch, they’ve been tasting the hell out of them,” he continued.

I rolled my eyes. “Thanks, man.”

“Number two, the cops talked to that old lady, and now they’re officially listing Cadence and her father as persons of interest in the shooting at your shop.

They want to talk to Jasper, but Gunner informed them that he was in Hawaii recovering at a friend’s place.

I so helpfully answered his phone for him and slipped them some information.

They’ll probably find the two assholes today. ”

As planned.

I had wanted to let them drown, but instead we dragged them out of the water and tied them up to a chair in their houseboat.

They were on day four of no water and were probably dehydrated as fuck.

If someone hadn’t found them in the next twenty-four hours, we’d have placed an anonymous tip that the cops could’ve found them before they died of dehydration.

“Did the cops get enough out of the old lady to convict?” I asked.

“According to their notes, yes,” he answered.

“As of right now, there’s a laundry list of things that they have going against them.

Conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, and assault and battery being a few.

The district attorney owes me a favor, and he’ll be indicting them on everything they can.

Plus, them being officers of the law, it’s not looking good for them at all.

Oh, and the old lady sang like a canary when the cops came in last night. The threat worked.”

The threat meaning I would sauté her dog on a skillet and video it for her to watch.

She had an irrational attachment to that animal.

Plus, she treated it more like her child than a dog.

I’d had the bright idea yesterday when I’d seen the thing running around the neighborhood.

I hadn’t given it a second thought until now, which was slightly wrong of me.

The innocent dog had probably gotten so hungry it’d had to use its perfectly pampered paws to dig out of the backyard.

I’d taken pity on it and brought it into my house.

Hai had been ecstatic, always wanted a dog but his mom never let him have one.

I’d decided to keep it, even if it was pampered as fuck and expected wet food every morning at six.

I was sure Eedie and Silver would love the damn thing when they got back.

“What about the other thing I had you looking into?” I asked.

“Jasper gave his notice to the department when he got to Hawaii. They’ve already reassigned the case to a new girl. I’m sure we’ll see her soon,” he answered.

“What’s her name?”

“Maxine Annmarie Cisneros. Twenty-nine. Fresh out of the academy. Has a bachelor’s in accounting and forensics. Goes by Max. Has two ferrets. Lives with a male roommate. Eight hundred credit score. School loans out the ass that she’ll probably never pay off.”

I chuckled. “Thanks, Apollo. We’ll keep an eye out for her.”

“I put a track on the cards she was issued through the bureau. I also have a tracker on her personal ones. She won’t be able to sneak up on us.

I’ll know the moment she gets into town.

I’m still waiting to see if she gets a new name, though.

I’ll keep you updated.” He paused. “Your future wife just told everyone that she wished you’d move.

How do you feel about the country life?”

It took me all of two seconds before I said, “I’ll look for a realtor.”

“No realtor needed.” He sounded like he was typing. “There’s room on the same block that the Semyonovs live on. Just down the street a bit.”

“Eh, I’m thinking acreage. Lake living isn’t really for me,” I admitted.

Chevy and Copper now lived at the lake. Though I thought it was nice there, I didn’t want to make the lake my home.

Now, rolling hills and pastureland? That sounded right up my alley.

“There’s a forty-six-acre farm in Plano. They are for sale, but they’re looking for the right people who won’t give in to land developers and sell to them. I’m sending you the listing now.” My phone pinged.

“I also sent you two other things. I’ll get you an appointment to go look at it today.” He hung up.

I shook my head, used to Apollo’s abrupt hang ups.

I glanced at the desk at the stack of shit that needed my attention and ignored it to go back outside.

The heat blasted me in the face, and the sweat that’d started to cool on my skin instantly went hot and clammy again.

“Yo,” a customer called out to me. “You got anywhere around here that you can get a cup of joe?”

“There’s a coffee place across the street, but I don’t recommend it to customers because the owner is a bit psycho. She doesn’t like when my customers come over there,” I answered.

Didn’t like was an understatement. She hated when they came over. Hated even more that the only reason they were there was because of me.

“I’ll give it a try anyway.” He looked across the street at the small coffee shop, then stepped toward it in determination.

I left him to his own devices and went back to the car I’d been working on for a customer.

I was the only one left, and the customer that’d just walked into his own doom had been waiting on me to fix the car for him for hours.

The only problem was, the moron had tried to fix it himself first, so now I had to take the carburetor apart and refix it, while also trying to figure out what he’d fucked up along the way.

It was taking longer than anticipated, and we were both ready to get out of here.

A grin spread across my face when an hour later Chevy, Cakes, Copper, Cutter, and Gunner rolled into the lot.

“Hello, boys,” I drawled when they were close enough.

All of them reached into their pockets for their phones. “Look at them.”

I frowned as I looked at their phones. All of them had photos of their women on them except for Gunner and Cakes. Cakes had a picture of Aella, who was wearing a party hat that said ‘Happy 40 th .’

Gunner had a picture of Jasper, who looked bemused and a little bit strained.

“Who’s forty?” I asked.

“Jasper.” Cakes grinned. “Forgot it was his birthday soon. The girls didn’t, though.”

“I’m glad that they were there to help him celebrate. How’s he feeling?”

Before anyone could answer, the customer whose car I was working on came storming back over, his eyes crazy.

“You weren’t fucking lying, man,” he said as he walked right up to us. “She’s…”

“I told you not to send your customers to my store!” Lauralee screeched from across the street. “I don’t want them spying on me!”

I sighed, shaking my head.

“I didn’t send them over there, lady,” I called back. “Just take the nine dollars for a damn cup of coffee and be happy you have a customer at all.”

Lauralee threw her hands up and stormed back into her shop.

The customer looked at me and said, “She was ranting and raving about how you were engaged to be engaged, and you broke it off with her when she got ‘clingy.’”

I groaned, my head falling back on my shoulders and my eyes staring blindly at the sun for way too long to be considered safe.

Jesus Christ.

How did I always attract these crazy women?

Reign—Copper’s once friend—truly psychotic to the point where she nearly killed Copper and his ol’ lady, Baker. Not that we’d been dating or anything, but I’d felt awful about her situation and had fallen for her poor, pitiful me act hook, line, and sinker.

Then there was Lauralee, the woman that I’d gone on a date with a whole two times before she’d picked out a wedding venue, how many kids we’d have, and the backyard dog breed that she would get from her favorite puppy mill.

Though, just sayin’, that was one of the things that turned me off of her on the second date was her lack of knowledge and understanding of why the dogs sold at Walmart in the parking lot were such a bad thing.

It wasn’t that I was a crazy animal lover.

I wasn’t. I liked dogs and all, but dogs had never been my favorite thing in the world—or cats for that matter.

But I fuckin’ hated the fact that some of the people in this world didn’t know that backyard dog breeders, even ones that were purebred, were slowly adding to the already out-of-control pet population.