Chapter 25

Alex started to come out of his dream state. He felt two warm bodies sandwiching him in his bed. In his sleep-hazed mind, he imagined it was Dawn and Maddie. Then a hot, wet tongue licked his ear.

“Ewww!”

He heard chuckles from his bedroom door. His eyes cracked open to see Janice and Grace smiling at him. That was when he realized Snickers and Boomer were snuggled up beside him.

“No dogs on the bed!” Alex said to get the dogs scurrying.

“Get your butt up. Janice made biscuits and gravy,” Grace shared.

That explained why Grace was here but didn’t shed any light on why Snickers had been in his bed.

“Why is wiggle-butt here?”

“I’m giving you a day off, so I made the executive decision that you could watch her. She gets lonely all by herself,” Grace said.

“Then start bringing her to work. With any luck, Snickers will deal with our Rusty problem,” Alex grumped as he crawled out of bed.

“Show’s over, ladies. Quit perving on the teen boy,” Lyric said as she passed his door to go downstairs.

He threw on a shirt and followed the women downstairs.

Once everyone was eating, Alex asked, “Why am I dog-sitting today?”

“I’m giving you a day off. Lyric will get the phone records from the data broker and start tracking your dad...” Grace began.

“Back up. You can track Alex’s dad?” Janice asked.

“Don’t look at me like that. You knew she would eventually find out,” Grace said to Alex and then turned to Janice. “We’ve tracked him to Tulsa, but the trail went cold. Lyric has an idea how to find him.”

“How?” Janice asked.

“That’s proprietary information,” Grace said.

Alex was impressed that she’d come up with that little nugget. The most impressive part was that she withstood the laser beams from Janice’s eyes. Then Janice got a sly look.

“Maybe the DA’s office could use that sort of information to track down other criminals. Could we put in a request for you to assist us with that?”

Lyric ignored the drama, confirming Alex’s feeling that girls confused him. Typically, she would be in the middle of something like this.

“Give me a for instance,” Grace said.

“Oh, I don’t know. This guy who dumped his kid on me might need finding. Or better yet, we have an open drug case where a truckload of marijuana was stolen,” Janice said.

“Dumped on you?” Alex asked.

“It sounded better in my head. You know what I meant,” Janice said.

The second part caught his attention. He had no doubt that Carl Cooper was involved. That dumbass had no idea how to be a real criminal, and someone should take the pot from him. Alex considered that thought for a moment and suddenly had a plan for his day off.

Former sheriff Steve Calhoun was fed up with everyone coming to him with their hand out. He’d used most of his ready cash to pay Stretch for helping him steal the marijuana shipment. Steve had put Carl in charge of selling it but hadn’t seen any results yet. There was presently a pot shortage, so he was going today to see why he hadn’t been paid. It should have been dead simple to get everything rolling again.

When Steve turned onto the block where Carl lived, he saw six police cars at his house. He watched as Carl and several of his crew were hauled out in handcuffs, which made him swear under his breath as he turned and drove away.

Not too long ago, they’d lost a significant amount of fentanyl, which was meant to keep them financially afloat. Then, one of his former deputies got caught passing counterfeit casino chips.

He was to the point where he was ready to rob one of the local farmers who kept ready cash on hand. The old nut didn’t trust banks. Steve hadn’t done it yet because he saw the logic in ‘you didn’t shit where you ate.’ It is a crude metaphor for not doing jobs in your county.

Steve had just witnessed Carl getting arrested in Chester. If he had to guess, it was because the fentanyl mess got their sheriff up off his ass, and he was now doing something about the drugs in his county. The sheriff was trying to save his butt because rumors were flying that the kid arrested had been a confidential informant. If Steve were still in office, Carl and his crew would’ve been the first ones he brought in.

He drove to the car repair place where the marijuana was being stored. Out back was a large cargo container that had been there for years. It was the perfect place to hide the drugs in plain sight.

Steve pulled around back and checked to make sure it was all there. Once he confirmed that, he began plans to move it before Carl, or one of his idiots, gave the product up to save their ass.

He called Stretch to help him figure out where to stash it.

Alex had been able to trick Boomer into going into his crate. Snickers had been too clever and hadn’t fallen for the treat offer. He didn’t want to hear Janice read him the riot act when the pit bull destroyed a couch or worse if he left her loose, so he took her with him.

He predicted Boomer would still be barking when he got home because the oversized poodle had watched Alex and Snickers leave.

“You better mind me because I’ll have hell to pay when I get back.”

Snickers didn’t care.

He rode his bike into town with the dog running beside him. Lard Have Mercy was pet-friendly, so he’d chosen it for his meeting with Alexei Mikhailov. The server brought out a water bowl for Snickers and a menu.

“There will be one more joining me.”

She returned with another menu, silverware, and a glass of water.

When the front doorbell dinged to announce a new customer, Alex was debating whether he should get the fried chicken or the catfish. He looked up and saw Alexei with one of his thugs. The man must have been scared that Alex had bad intentions.

When they came to the table, Snickers gave a low warning growl.

“What the fuck?!” Alexei cried out as he took a step back.

“You brought your pit bull, so I brought mine,” Alex said with a grin, then turned to the dog. “Quiet.”

Snickers quit growling and laid her head down on her paws.

The two men sat down as the server returned with another setup and took everyone’s drink orders.

“Do you still do stuff?” Alex asked.

Alexei looked around to make sure no one was listening to their conversation.

“When you say ‘stuff’...?”

“You know what I mean,” Alex said, confirming he was talking about something illegal.

“I’m retired.”

“Do you have contacts that aren’t ... retired?” Alex asked.

“Depends.”

Alex typed a message on his phone and slid it across to the Russian. Alexei’s eyes got big, then he noticeably calmed down before scanning the room again.

“I’m not setting you up,” Alex assured him.

“No, I know you’re a standup guy, but I don’t trust anyone.”

“I agree with that philosophy.”