Page 51 of Brett and Rowdy
He winced but shrugged. “Well, one way or the other, we got to figure this out.” Brett thought about it for half a second, then he texted Dan.
Wanna go fishing?
The return text was quick.
Not today, man. I hear the fishing’s bad around here right now. Maybe later.
Sure, no problem.
“Yeah, something’s up. We need intel.” He called Crystal, pushing a fork into Rowdy’s hand. “Hey, girl, I need a favor.”
“Anything. What do you need?”
He did adore that girl. “Go drive by Ashley and Dan’s place and tell me who’s outside?”
“Oh, this is exciting. No problem.”
He forced himself to take a bite of his food. Cold congealed gravy was foul. “Eat your breakfast, Rowdy.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“Eat it. I made it.”
“Right.” Rowdy nodded once, like he was waiting for a gate to open at the rodeo, but he dug in.
“What do you think’s going on?” Crystal asked, and he shrugged, though that was silly when he was on the phone.
“There was a fight at the reunion last night.” That was fair. Simple.
She snorted. “That’s not what I heard. I heard there was an attack on a teacher before the reunion started.”
“Oh yeah? Well, that’s a shame. Poor teacher.”
“Fuck that.” She snorted and lit a cigarette, the snap of the lighter familiar. “Coach Avery, he was always a fucker. He had a hell of a reputation for seducing kids back when he was you know, attractive, before he became a paunchy old fuck. Rumor is he had some kind of come-to-Jesus meeting with the universe and stopped being hot and started being… whatever he is now.”
“Cool, are you in your car yet?”
“Yep, I’m driving. I figured I’d just stay on the phone with you while I’m looking for you. Be honest, did you and Rowdy kick somebody’s ass?”
“I had nothing to do with it.” Which was one hundred percent true.
“Oh, cool.” There was a little bit of chatting while she drove and they ate. It took about fifteen minutes to get from Crystal’s lower-middle-class neighborhood to Ash and Danny’s hoity-toity place, but when she got in, he heard her whistle. “You got cops here, my friend.”
“All right, all right, cool. How many?”
“Just the one.”
“Just the one.” Rowdy blew out a hard breath. “You see Madison’s truck and trailer all packed up there?”
“No. There’s an Escalade and a little sports car. No truck. No trailer.” Crystal sounded just about as confused as he felt.
Right about then, Rowdy’s phone rang. “Maddie, what is going on?”
“Daddy, Daddy, the police came!” She sounded like she was in a panic. “They say you hurt a guy. Daddy Dan got a call from one of his friends at the sheriff’s office, and so he had me pack up your stuff and my stuff and the critters’ stuff and get the hell out of Dodge. I don’t know where to go!”
“Okay. Don’t panic, baby girl. Sunshine’s loaded in the trailer, right?” Rowdy made a throat-slicing motion, and he nodded.
“Yes, sir.”
