She turned to her husband. “You can make it happen?”
“For you? Anything.”
She nodded. “Good. I’m going outside with Gen.” She looked at Dozer. “You’re our designated body-guard?”
He smiled. “If your husband approves, yeah.”
Pebbles glanced at Jiminy, looked back at Dozer. “He approves. Hand the asshole over to Duke and come with me. We’ll send Brain back up before we go.”
“Tell Gen I need a kiss before ya’ll leave,” Duke told her, and she smiled and nodded.
Chapter Thirty-Four
“So,” Duke asked, “You and Pebbles had an enjoyable day after your kidnapping adventure?”
“Yeah, I really like her.” Gen let him hold her, glad he wanted to touch her, happy to once again feel safe in his arms. “Can I ask you something?”
“You can ask anything you want, Beautiful. I’ll give you the answers I can, based on our agreement.”
“Pebbles told me to trust her to tell me what I needed to hear, and no more. She said Jiminy had let her decide Mike’s fate, and that he wasn’t going to be killed, but he understood he’d never be welcome in Chattanooga again. Does that mean I still have to worry about him? She assured me I don’t, but… is he on his honor to not come back? Because he’d planned to kill me and then kill himself. Death threats aren’t going to scare him away, Duke.”
Duke pulled back, looked at her a few seconds, and said, “What Pebbles said was accurate. I’ll just add that he’ll be been taken far enough away it’s doubtful he’ll ever find his way back.”
“The cops are going to ask me about him when he comes up missing, aren’t they?”
“Yes.”
“And I’m going to have to lie.”
“Do you want to tell them the truth?”
“Well, no, but I don’t want to have to lie, either.”
He walked her to the sofa, sat down, and pulled her into his lap. “How about saying you haven’t heard from him and have no idea where he is. I think the only actual lie you’ll need to tell is that the last you heard from him is when he knocked on your door and you called nine-one-one. Other than that, you haven’t heard from him since the last time he harassed you, and you don’t know where he is. Both of those statements are true.”
“Not entirely honest, but true.” Gen rearranged herself on his lap and leaned her head into him, her hands loose at his sides. “On a positive note, Pebbles likes the nearly three million dollar home on the Tennessee River. I’m showing it to her and Jiminy together tomorrow morning, and if he likes it, I assume we’ll make an offer.”
Duke sighed. “And that’s the weakest point of this whole thing. If they can point to Jiminy being involved in McPherson’s disappearance, they’ll have a direct link to you. Or, it could work the other way. Someone sees the link from you to him, and goes from there.”
“So I should hand this off to another Realtor?”
Duke shook his head. “No, too late for that. There are records showing you contracted with them to show them houses. Just pointing out it’s the weak link.” He kissed her forehead. “Kind of a moot point anyway, if you and Pebbles are gonna become buds.”
“What’s the deal with you and Jiminy?”
“In a crazy sort of way, Mike may have helped us avoid a turf war. Jiminy and I agreed to a one-year cease-fire. I called a club vote, and then agreed not to expand our no-drugs territory for one year, though we reserve the right to expand our no-hookers-on-corners territory, and a few other things. In exchange, Jiminy will tell his people they’re going to have to live with our no-drugs zone, and he won’t back them in a fight to reclaim it.”
He stroked her hair, kissed the top of her head. “Can we have our conversation now?”
Gen’s heart dropped into her stomach, but she said, “Yeah.”
“Hey, no need for that. I don’t want to smell fear and grief on you. I got enough of that when I walked into that room.”
“Then talk and get it over with, please.”
“You let me hurt you. I’m pissed at you, but the wolf is… Brain was right, he wanted to spank you, punish you and show you this was not acceptable. I needed you to be around a while, show him you weren’t going to run, you were with us, which is why I was so mad when you left this morning.”
God, this morning felt like such a long time ago. Gen sighed and asked, “So, if I piss you both off, I have to figure out how to make it up to both of you?”
“Yeah, Beautiful. Pretty much.”