Page 33 of Jackal

I was trying to focus on the task at hand, but last night and this morning were still replaying through my head. In all my years, I’d never popped a cherry. My first was a woman who hung around the club before I was even old enough to prospect. She was sweet and bored. She was only a year older than me, but I was sixteen and thought I’d hit the lottery. She was a bunny, and I found out later one of the members told her to show me a good time. Hanging around clubs, you didn’t find a lot of virgins. And in her defense, I looked like a twenty-five year old man at that age.

Something about being Shivana’s first made me feel primitive.I was the only one ever inside of her. And from what she said, the only one to ever watch her break.

But I couldn’t figure her out. She’d been pushy and forward since we met, so I would have never guessed it about her. Once the awkwardness was out of the way last night, I made sure to show her what a real man was. Anyone else would have a hard time comparing to me.

My brow furrowed at that thought. Nobody else would touch her.She is mine.

“Did you see that?” Keys asked.

Knowing damn well I didn’t see shit, I said, “Play it again.”

He brushed his wavy blond hair off his forehead and clicked some buttons, causing the screen to go back a few shots. “There,” he said as he pointed at the screen. “Hard to see because they parked in the dark spot, but if I blow this up,” he mumbled as he clicked away, “I think that’s a couple of them there.”

It was the strip club parking lot. “When was this?” I asked.

“The day before Butch took off.”

We watched as two men walked to the middle of the parking lot, then Butch stepped out of the front entrance, looking around before he trotted toward them. “That mother fucker,” I said under my breath. You could vaguely make out the devil on their cuts. It was the same rocker.

“Looks like some kind of exchange. They talk, then part ways.”

Leaning back, I glanced at all the other screens still playing. “Well, we know Butch is involved with them. The question is how involved.”

“I’ll keep looking through these, and I’m still working on getting a ping on these trackers,” Keys said as he picked up one of the small silver discs, no bigger than a fingernail.

“I’ll let Hawk know. If you find anything else, let us know.” I stood to leave.

“You bet, brother.”

Before I opened the door, I turned back. “Hey, man, why don’t you ever come hang out?”

Keys rubbed his chin. “Hawk keeps me pretty busy with this stuff.”

“You ever want to go fuck up some guys with me, just say the word.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, brother.”

Still unsure of Keys, I headed back out and went to find Hawk and fill him in on the new revelation.

I found him outside, watching a game of horseshoes and tipped my head so he’d step away.

“What’d you find?” he asked as he took a drag off his cigarette.

“Butch was working with them. They were at the strip club meeting him the night before shit went down.”

He took a long drag then flicked the butt hard. “Fucking piece of shit. I knew something was up. Did they pop up anywhere else?”

“Not that we saw, but Keys is still on it. Just wanted to let you know what we found.”

“Any hits on the trackers?” he asked with arms crossed over his chest.

“Keys said he’s not having any luck yet, but he’ll keep checking.”

“We need to find these assholes. The run is tomorrow. We’ll be back late Tuesday. But when we get back, I say we put a few trackers back on and draw them out.”

“Whatever you need, Prez. I’ll find Eagle to let him know.”

Hawk put his hand on my shoulder. “Hey, brother. I know holding the fort down while we’re gone isn’t what you expected to be asked of you, but I hope you know how important it is.” His steely blue eyes pierced into mine. You’d never know he was so young by how much he’d grown this year. He carried the weight of the club on his shoulders, but he did it with pride.

---