Page 30 of Shelter for Tanna

“Ain’t no way we can hit all them places again this soon. They’ll figure out what we’re doin’. So we gotta get all that shit back.” As the tow truck pulled away, Wayne turned the key in the ignition, but nothing happened. “Aww, shit! Fucker won’t start!”

“It’s a piece of shit too,” Beau grumbled.

“Well, at least DimSum let us borrow it. We ain’t got no other way to get around. Beggers can’t be choosers, asshole. That’s what my mama says.”

“Yo momma likes her a piece of this,” Beau said and grabbed his crotch, leering and laughing.

“Shut the fuck up, asshole. We got bigger problems than you drooling over my mama.”

“I ain’t drooling over your big ol’ fat, greasy mama, you little shit,” Beau snapped.

“I said. Shut. The. Fuck. Up. We gotta figure this out. I was gonna follow that truck, but now I can’t.” He tried the ignition three more times before the tin can of a car finally roared to life, if it could be called a roar. It was more like the purr of a two-week-old kitten with hiccups, but that was beside the point. At least it ran, unlike his own car, the one that had disappeared down the interstate.

When they pulled up in front of the little house, a muscular Asian man sat on a lawn chair on the porch. “Good thing you brought that back,” Quyen called out to them. “I’d hate to have to chase you down and kick your asses.”

“Now look, DimSum, we ain’t gonna?”

“Why the hell do you call me DimSum, you stupid redneck?” the taller man asked.

“Because you’re fucking Chinese, dude,” Beau said, shrugging.

“Dimsum is Japanese. And I’m not fucking Chinese. I’m half Vietnamese. Do you know how offensive that is? You stupid white peckers are all alike. Did you get your shit out of the car?” When neither Beau nor Wayne answered, he barked, “Well?”

Beau bowed his head. “Naw. When we got there, a fucking wrecker was dragging it away.”

He shook his thick head of black hair. “Look, you promised me product by the end of the week and you’d better deliver. Find that shit and get that ice made. My customers won’t wait forever, and if I have to go elsewhere, you know what’s going to happen.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Wayne answered as a tremor ran through his body. Quyen wasn’t kidding around. He and the rest of the guys in his gang would kill them both if they couldn’t deliver. He had to find that car. “We’ll get it. Don’t worry.”

“Oh, I’m not worried, but you’d better be.” Quyen took his seat again and sat there for a few seconds before he yelled, “Go! What are you waiting for!”

“Yeah, yeah, okay!” Beau shouted and took off, Wayne right on his heels. It was ten blocks to Beau’s house, and it was the only place they had to sit down and work out how they were going to get that car back. Even if they couldn’t get the car, they needed the contents of the trunk. That would be enough.

But first, they had to find it.

* * *

They were sitting around in the lounge watching some action adventure movie when Braden’s phone rang. One glance told him he definitely wanted to answer it. “Hey, man, how are ya?”

“I’m good! What’s up with you?” Dean“Crash” Christopherson was Sparky’s cousin. He’d come to visit the relatives once and all the guys went out to play pool. Braden was surprised to find that Crash was a firefighter just like his cousin, and that one simple evening had launched a friendship that was important to both of them. Crash lived in SanAntonio, but they tried to stay in touch as often as possible, and they shared each other’s lives through social media and video chats.

Braden grinned to himself. “Are you sitting down?”

“Good lord, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you were about to tell me you’ve met somebody.” When Braden didn’t respond, Dean laughed. “Oh my god! You’ve met somebody!”

“Yeah, I’ve been keeping it quiet, but there’s no point. This isn’t going to end, so everybody might as well know about it.”

“Tell me all about her!”

“So I was at an accident scene and…” Braden took ten minutes to tell Dean about Tanna, the kids, and the way they’d bonded almost immediately. “I’ll tell ya, man, I’m so gone. I mean, really gone over this girl.”

“Sounds like it! Wow. Guess I’d better cancel my plans then.”

“What plans?”

Dean chuckled. “I was planning to come see you!”

“No way! That’s great! I’d love that!”

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