Page 24 of Property of BamBam
“What’s that?”
“Well, he said that someone saw the ranch’s truck pulled off on the side of the road. The thing is, Pokey, no one was in the vicinity, and it was a good ten or fifteen minutes before I even spotted anyone driving behind us.”
“Okay, well, I’m sure that area doesn’t have any cameras considering it’s remote,” he muses. “Do you remember the store you stopped in before y’all got back here?”
I slip my hand into my cut and pull out the receipt that’s been in an inner pocket ever since I brought Livy back and hand it tohim. I guess it’s a good thing I don’t empty my pockets nightly, it only happens when I stop and think about doing it. “Here’s where we stopped. What are you thinking?” I ask.
“Well, a store like this has cameras inside the store, of course, to help prevent shoplifting. But there are cameras outside monitoring the street as well. Let me see if I can access their CCTV and whether or not they have shit stored off site or if it rewrites after so many days,” he replies, his fingers once again flying as he scans the monitors. “Okay, there’s a burgundy pickup truck that seems to have pulled in behind y’all,” he murmurs, almost as if he’s talking to himself. “Let’s see where you came from, shall we?”
I watch, astonished as Pokey backtracks our entry into town, where the truck is behind us. Not so close that I would’ve paid attention to them per se, but close enough it becomes obvious they were following me. I then see where the truck pulled into the shopping center, idling toward the back of the lot while I drop off Mongrel at the front, then head to the area where I parked while waiting for Mongrel to shop.
What makes it even more interesting is the burgundy truck parks and the person heads inside. Pokey hits a few keys and I watch as he leisurely follows Mongrel through the store, occasionally taking pictures of him that he appears to text to someone else. When Mongrel exits the store, the man follows, and Pokey quickly snaps a clear picture of him that he puts on one of the monitors while we both continue to watch.
“Fuck, that’s one of the guys who was with Jasper!” I yell. “Bet he was in the woods on the opposite side from where I picked Livy up that day, then he followed us. No wonder they have an idea about where she’s at.”
“I’ll keep following it as long as there are cameras, and bring all of it to church,” he promises.
“Appreciate it, brother,” I murmur, storming out of his office, my mind on one thing and one thing only.
Livy.
She’s not safe after all, at least not until her piece of shit ex disappears. The only problem is, I’m going to have to let her know, as well as Grace at Hope House, because it could put everyone who’s there in danger.
My anger at the current situation is still simmering as we all arrive in church. Once Rio bangs the gavel, he nods at me to explain what happened earlier at the laundromat. Then Pokey starts talking, which has the mood in the room shifting to something dark and dangerous.
“That fucker and his friends need to disappear,” Abyss states once Pokey’s finished showing everyone what he was able to unearth.
“Which will present a huge problem considering his parents have connections,” Rio advises. “We need to be smart, brothers.”
I honestly don’t care what we do, I just want her safe. “Then we need to come up with a plan that’ll keep Livy and Theo safe,” I state. “And I’ll need to let Grace know that Livy needs to stay inside since there’s a known threat against her in town.” Which will suck, because I think she’s almost to the point where she can have outings with the other women. I just hope when pushcomes to shove, this doesn’t cause her to backslide from what progress she’s made.
“We’ll come up with something that won’t blow back onto the club,” Rio promises. “Does anyone have anything else? My ol’ lady is neck deep in the rodeo preparations, even though it’s still a few months away, and she needs my input or some shit.”
I snicker then say, “Actually, I had an idea and it’s about some of the suggestions we’ve gotten from the laundromat customers. I think we should add a laundry service where we wash, dry, and fold the clothes. We should also offer to launder those huge fucking comforters. Maybe do the clothes by the pound and give a flat rate for the comforters.”
“Buddy won’t want to do that,” Abyss states.
“No, which is why I was thinking we could offer the job to Livy and toss in the apartment that’s above the laundromat as part of her pay package,” I reply. “We’ve got excellent security on all our businesses, so she’d be safe and also able to rebuild her life.”
“You gonna claim her, brother?” Rio asks.
“Kinda too soon to do that, pres, since she’s still recovering from what that piece of shit did to her. But yeah, down the road, that’s my plan. First, though, we have to get rid of the threat to her and Theo.”
“Then let’s work on a plan,” Rio says. “We can’t use her for bait, obviously, but what if one of the club girls dresses like her and walks around town with a stroller?”
“That could work,” I muse. “What happens when we catch them?”
“Then we show them what happens to those who decide to fuck with us,” Abyss retorts. “Maybe they can have a hunting accident?”
I snicker then say, “That might work. What if we did a murder-suicide scenario? I’m sure Pokey could manufacture something that would be credible enough it would hold up against inspection.”
Pokey cracks his knuckles then starts typing on his keyboard. “Look at this,” he says, almost giddy in his excitement. There, on the screen, are signed documents from all three men. Their signatures are legible enough that Pokey can copy and paste them into a suicide note.
“I like it,” Rio muses. “Go ahead and create something, while we work on the rest of the plan.”
CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
