Man of Steel(17)

I slept for five solid and then rolled out of bed around one. It was a little late to be getting started but it was the best I could do. Lily was nowhere to be found, there was a note on the fridge saying that she’d gone on some errands. I got dressed and headed for my first place ‘The Golden Goose to take care of some paperwork.

The place was doing okay for the lunch hour. Even with the economy in the toilet I hadn’t really felt the pinch because cops always needed to eat, and since they seemed to see my place as a second home or some shit that meant business stayed flowing.

“Hey Ryan what’s been going on today?” I caught up with my day manager on the line in the kitchen helping the guys get the food out in time. That’s the kinda shit I like to see, I’ve had to get rid of a few assholes who thought management meant hanging out at the front of the house on their phone or hitting on my wait staff.

“It’s been steady all afternoon boss, there’s some kind of convention or something in town because there’s a lot of out of town business types in house.” The noise back here was a far cry from the quiet of the dining room that I’d just walked through.

When I first opened this place, I was thinking more along the lines of a small bar and grill, but Lily had had other ideas when she came along. She claimed that we could do more with the location, so we’d built on an extension and expanded the place.

My girl for all that she was a kick ass doctor had a great head for business. She did a lot of the hiring for my places, maybe that’s why most of my staff was either single mothers, or down on their luck housewives trying to make ends meet in this fucked up world. It was fun watching some buxom blonde trying to land a spot in one of my joints.

Lily was ever professional, but I knew that no matter how qualified that person might be there was no way she was getting in. Not that she hired unattractive women, far from it. But she wasn’t taking any chances and I didn’t blame her. Best to avoid bullshit from the get, though I did give her a hard time about it in jest.

Now I was glad I’d gone with her suggestions not only with this place but the others as well. My last place was more family-oriented though The Goose would do in a pinch. But my last place was bought with Holly in mind. The second one most respectable citizens steered clear of. Only a few adventurous souls dared cross those doors, them or the bunny hoppers that were drawn to men of a certain ilk. That’s where my boys hung out, as well as some of the MCs from the surrounding areas.

All in all the three places kept in the black and my bank was set for a while at least, but who knows how that shit would go. One of Deanna’s issues was that when we were together she had to live on a cop’s salary, and though that hadn’t been so bad, it was nothing compared to what I made now.

It burned her the fuck up that there was no way for her to get her hands on my money. That everything I had was in Holly and Lily’s names. That’s one of the first things I’d done when we split, took her name off of every insurance policy I had. Where she was getting health insurance from these days I didn’t know and didn’t really care. But I wasn’t about to leave her ass as the beneficiary on my life insurance. I don’t trust her ass as far as I can see her.





“I’ll be in the office if anyone needs me.” I headed down the stairs in the back, which led to my basement office. I’d had the place fitted out with all the creature comforts, never mind it was in the midst of storage and freezers and shit. It was the only place that made sense for an office the size I preferred and as luck would have it there was a private entrance leading from the outside, where my boys could come and go if they didn’t want to be seen, which was more often than not. They tend to be a secretive bunch.

The numbers from the night before looked good business was running on point, which was always a good thing. I guess Ryan was right about a business convention being in town, because the night manager had made a note of unusually high traffic for a weeknight the night before. I hadn’t been aware of anything going down in the area but that was nothing strange. Since hanging up my cop clothes there was a lot I wasn’t privy to these days though some of my old pals kept me pretty much in the loop. On the other hand I knew pretty much about every crime that was going down within a hundred mile radius before the brass did. It’s a strange fucking world.

I did some ordering and restocking for the coming weeks, went through payroll and dealt with any issues that needed it. If something needed tending to whichever manager that had been there at the time would leave me a note, unless it was serious enough that they needed me on hand, then I’d get a call to come down.