Page 22 of Deuce

I laughed.“No, he’s not a plumber.And there is nothing wrong with the plumbing.Mine or the shower stall’s.”I took a sip of my coffee, wondering just how much to tell her.

Everything.I needed to tell her everything.Almost everything.We’d been friends since grade school, and I trusted her to keep it to herself.I proceeded to recount the activities of the previous night, including the fact that Deuce had slept on the sofa.

Janet stared at me, her expression turning to horror as I described being drugged, then shoved in the van and my subsequent escape.

“You were drugged?And kidnapped?”Her voice escalated to a squeak.

I nodded.“Yeah, I was.By the way, get off that damn dating app.”

“Doing it now!Crap.That’s unbelievable.Did you report it?”

“No.You know how I feel about cops, and they always blame the woman.”

I watched silently as she picked up her phone, her hands shaking as she pulled up the app and deleted her profile.

Putting the phone back down, she frowned.“So, two guys on motorcycles, with gang symbols on their vests, just happened to be behind the van that you were kidnapped in.And now you have one of them in your house.And another couple outside making sure no one finds you.Don’t you find that a bit suspicious?How do you know they aren’t part of George’s crew?”

I hesitated.Janet was my best friend, but Deuce had possibly killed someone to save me.“He’s not.I’m sure.”

Janet looked skeptical.“How?Just because he screwed your brains out this morning doesn’t make him a good guy.”

“Janet!You can’t think I’m that naive.”

“I hope not.I took one look at the pair of you and knew what was going on.So how can you be so sure he’s a good guy?”

I sighed.Did I mention she was like a dog with a bone?“Fine.We had sex.But I know he’s not part of the bunch that tried to kidnap me because he and his buddy got into a gunfight with the guys in the van, and he might have killed one of them.”

Her brows shot up.“Might have?”

She wasn’t going to let this drop.“I don’t know.I didn’t see what happened.I heard gunshots, but I was too scared to look.”

This was probably the first time I’d seen Janet speechless.I had no idea if the guy was dead or not.When I’d come up out of the ditch he’d been gone, so maybe not.He could have got into the van.There was blood on the road, but he could have just been wounded.Bodies don’t evaporate like on some kind of sci-fi show on TV, and it was hard to imagine the other guy dragging a dead body into the van with him if he was trying to get away.

“Maybe you should call your dad.”Janet dropped the happy party-girl persona.“Or go up to his homestead for a while.This sounds deadly scary.What if those guys come looking for you?”

“Deuce has a couple of his buddies watching the house, and he’s going to be back later.I don’t want Dad involved in this.You know how he is.He’d probably kill George in broad daylight on Main Street if he thought the guy was going to hurt me.I don’t want him to land in jail just because he cares about me.”

Janet let out a long sigh.“You’re right.He’s the definition of an overprotective parent.”

“Besides, I have a taser and a can of bear spray.I’m not totally helpless.”

“Maybe you should reconsider keeping a gun in the house.”Janet held up a hand to forestall my objections.“Can’t hurt.You don’t actually have to shoot anyone.”

“Not a chance.”We’d had this argument before.My dad had taught me to shoot when I was a kid, and I was good.I could hit a moving target at a hundred feet, more if I had a rifle with a scope instead of a handgun.But there was a huge difference between shooting a piece of paper and shooting a person.I wasn’t sure I could do it, so it seemed safer not to take the chance of having someone reverse the tables and take the gun from me.Taser and bear spray, though, I was good with.They were nasty but not deadly.

“Your new boy toy has a gun.”

“And he has a concealed carry permit for it.”

“Interesting.”She looked intrigued.

“How so?”

“If this club of his was a one-percenter, I doubt he’d bother to get a license.”

I frowned.“What’s a one-percenter?”

“A motorcycle club that operates outside the law.Most clubs don’t although there’s a lot of gray area.”

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