Page 41 of Devil's Work: Dark

I lift my fist and ram it in his gut. He folds forward on impact. His face loses its color like he’s about to puke. Since I’m a sadistic son of a bitch, that gets a laugh. “You don’t think about my woman. She’s a nun to you, got it?”

“Got it,” he coughs out.

“Good. I’ll be back.”

The run to Walmart takes about an hour and a half out of my life. Some bitch follows me around the store trying her ‘Are you following me?’ and ‘What a crazy coincidence?’ lines while trying to pick me up. Before Rae, I might’ve fucked her. Kind of a butter face, but a rockin’ bod. The last time she finds me in the aisle picking out a bag for carrying the suits and towels and shit.

“Going swimming?” she asks. Her eyes are hooded, like she’s mentally undressing me. For some reason, I’m trying not to be an asshole today. Maybe because it’s been such a good day.

“Yeah. Taking my woman and the kids to a friend’s cookout.”

“Your… woman?” she asks. I smile, nodding. “And kids?”

“Damn straight. Five and a year and a half.” I reach into my pocket, pulling out my wallet. “Wanna see their pictures?” I don’t have any pictures of the kids, but I knew it would get her to back the hell off. Men who are willing to cheat don’t show off pictures of the family to my knowledge.

“That’s fine,” she says. “I’m running late. But you have fun swimming.” Then she backs up with the cart, spins it around, and takes off in the opposite direction.

Back at the trailer, Bungee helps me empty the truck bed by carrying the cooler while I get the rest of the bags. When we open the door, Ty and Lacy are dancing around the living room like little maniacs while Rae claps to the beat of some little kid song playing from the television.

“Dark!” Ty shouts.

“Dark!” Baby Girl copies her brother. She wobbles over to me, burying her face against my leg. She steps up on my feet and I walk like Frankenstein while she giggles. Rae stands, coming toward me. She kisses me then plucks Lace up.

“Thanks for staying with us,” she says to Bungee, who keeps his gaze high, like he’s looking intently at her ear.

“No problem, Rae. Anytime.”

Anytime? I think he’s getting a littletoocomfortable. “I’m home, man. That means you leave.”

“Dark,” Rae admonishes me. I lift my eyebrow, challenging her to say more. “He’s just being nice,” she says, softer.

“Rae,” I admonish right back.

She pushes up on her tiptoes to press a kiss on my cheek. “What am I going to do with you?” she asks.

“Oh, I’ve got plenty of ideas.”

“Dark,” Ty says, interrupting us.

“Yeah, bud?”

“This is a lot of ice.” He’s straining to hold up the ten-pound bag I bought for the cooler.

“It sure is. Let’s dump that in the cooler for the salads, then we can get going.” Ty helps me rip open the plastic bag and together, we dump the ice in. He follows me to the kitchen, where I set the smaller bowl, the one with the corn dip, into his hands. I carry the pasta salad. We get them situated in the cooler. While we’re doing that, Rae packs the towels and all our suits, including my new one, inside the new tote I bought.

She picks up Lacy, the diaper bag, and the tote, handing off the grocery bag with the tortilla chips to Ty. “This is an important job, bud. Don’t crush the chips.”

“I won’t, Mumma.” The kid’s chest puffs. “I’m a good guarder like Dark.”

Shit.He really likes me. It feels good to have a cool little guy like Ty looking up to me.

I heft the cooler and we head out to my truck. There’s an old minivan coming up the drive as we’re leaving. I look over to Rae. “It’s Miss Mable’s grandkids. They’re in town again. She doesn’t get to see them often. Not since her daughter moved them up closer to Cincinnati right about the time we moved here. They’ll spend a couple of days down here, so she won’t be available to watch Ty and Lacy.”

Not the best news I’ve ever gotten, but not the worst, either. We’ll just have to keep our faces pressed to the mattress again when we fuck. We hit the road toward town, then before turning onto the road that would take us through the downtown, we turn to head back up into the mountains. It takes us only ten minutes to reach the compound. Winky’s on guard duty. He smiles this goofy grin at my woman as we pass through the gate.

Is this the kind of shit I’m always going to have to deal with? Prospects jonesing for my woman? I’d hate to have to kill anyone, but I suppose one prospect’s sacrifice will be enough to dissuade the others. The thought makes me laugh.

“What?” Rae asks.

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