Duke(98)
Pebbles’ head turned to Gen. “You lied to him?”
“Oh yeah. I lied all over the place, trying to figure out how to stall. As soon as he took the battery out of my phone, I knew Duke would come, I just needed to stall him.”
Duke’s hand landed on her back and he said, “Yeah, when our control room saw her phone drop out of the network, and we couldn’t reach her, we used the GPS on her car to see where she was. We drove a club vehicle so he wouldn’t hear the bikes approaching.”
Pebbles had her phone to her ear and she said, “Honeybunch? I’m fine, not a scratch on me, and I hate that this happened the one time you let me go out without a guard, but we kind of had a situation.”
“No, honey, seriously, I’m fine. A bunch of bikers came to our rescue. Gen’s ex-boyfriend was a cop, and he used the surveillance feeds on us to find out which houses we’d be viewing. So, he was after her, but only knew where to lay in wait because of our surveillance.”
“Yeah, he’s here, I’m pretty sure he’s Gen’s boyfriend. I’ll let ya’ll figure out what you want to do from here, okay?”
“Yeah, but he put me in a hog-tie, so if I get a request then I want one of his shoulder’s dislocated. It can go right back in if you want, it doesn’t have to stay out.” She paused a second and said, “I love you, too, Honeybunch. Here’s Duke.”
* * * *
Duke took the phone from Pebbles and said, “Your wife is safe, and we’ll make sure she stays safe until we can hand her over to your custody. I didn’t create the mess. I’m just trying to clean it up.”
“How did you know they were in trouble? Or where to find them?”
“Our control room monitors Gen’s phone, and I have a tracker in her car. He pulled the battery from her phone, and when her cellphone went offline we came to her car to check on her.”
“He’s a cop?”
“Suspended for putting audio and video inside her house without a warrant. Hasn’t gone to trial yet, but he’ll be off the force once it does. She has a restraining order against him, but we all know how well those work.”
“Tricky. You want it to go to trial, or do you want him to go away?”
“I’d prefer the latter, but you’re right about it being tricky.”
Jiminy sighed. “You and I need a sit down about your business practices, but for now we need to be able to work together. With me?”
“Yeah, I’m with you.” He looked up, saw Gen and Pebbles talking, and said, “Our women seem to be bonding, though. Fair warning.”
Jiminy laughed. “Why am I not surprised? Okay. I’m on my way to you now, based on your cellphone coordinates. We’ll find his vehicle and I’ll have one of my guys drive it to a local chop shop, with a warning the parts need to move far away, and the body scrapped. I’ll get it to a shop run by one of your enemies, so it won’t be tied back to you if it’s found local. I want to dislocate his shoulder while Pebbles watches, then if we can agree on someone who can escort them the rest of the day, my guess is my wife’ll want to finish viewing the properties, if your woman’s up to it.”
Duke looked up and asked, “Ma’am? Your husband seems to think you’ll want to go back to viewing properties once we finish up here?”
Pebbles looked to Gen. “Are you up to it, Sweets? I really want to see the one on the river.”
“I need a change of clothes and then I’m up for just about anything.” Gen’s gaze went to Duke, wondering if he’d be okay with her plan, and he smiled at her before speaking into the phone.
“Yeah, Dozer can stick with them the rest of the day. You’ll meet him when you get here.”
“I have some safety pins in my purse,” Pebbles told Gen. “Let’s go to the bathroom and see what kind of repair we can work.”
Gen smiled at Duke and asked, “Can someone go out to my car and get the royal blue scarf out of my trunk? Please?”
Duke shook his head as he retrieved her keys from her purse. “I’ll go, that way I’ll be outside waiting for Davidson when he gets here.”
Dozer growled, “Brain, get the prisoner so I can stand behind Duke.”
Realizing it wouldn’t be a bad thing to have one of his enforcers standing behind him, he didn’t argue with his men.
Jiminy pulled up in a black BMW seven-sixty, someone who was likely ex-special forces in the passenger seat. The two men got out and Duke stepped forward and offered his hand to Jiminy, saying, “I’m Duke. Gen sent me out to get a scarf from her trunk. Your woman is assisting her with clothing repair. McPherson got a little rough with Gen.”