Page 51 of Property of Baffle
“He killed himself, Nell.At first, I thought it was my fault for taking Angel there and confronting him with how was set up by Gianna.How my mom died because he believed his mistress’s lies and not the woman he supposedly loved.I blamed myself.”
“You don’t now?”I asked in a whisper-quiet voice.
“I think he’d been planning his end for quite a while.”When I nodded, he turned my face so he could look down in my eyes.“You believe that?”I gave another nod.“Why?”
“When I talked to Crutch earlier, around the time you pulled in to go see Angel, he mentioned that Sticky told him not to come back a few months ago and removed him from the approved visitor’s list.”I took a breath and gave him the rest.“I’m fairly certain Crutch thought the same, that Sticky was planning on his exit from this world.”
Rick nodded and then leaned in and kissed me.“That’s what I love about you.One of the things,” he corrected.“You’ve never sugarcoated the things everyone else would gloss over.Never even knew Crutch still went to visit my dad.We didn’t talk about it.”
“I don’t think he meant to keep it a secret from you,” I quickly interjected on Crutch’s behalf because the man had been a solid, standup kind of guy since I first showed up at the club with my new husband.
“No, I know that.I think he was trying to spare me, but if I had known, I might have caved and gone to see my dad sooner.Maybe he would have told me about my sister if I’d ever shown up.”
“You can’t change the past, Love.”
He smiled down at me as the endearment settled in.“I like that.”
“Then I’ll use it more.”
“Thank you for finally coming back home, sweetheart.”
“My heart never left here.”I reached over and tapped his chest where is heart was.“I’m so sorry about your dad and the horrible turn your parent’s story took.You have your sister now.You have the truth.You have me.Always, Rick.Don’t ever forget that.
“Never, sweetheart.Couldn’t possibly forget anything about you.”
Epilogue
Baffle
Six Months Later
My wife wasup to something and Brady Morton seemed to be her co-conspirator.I had a decent idea of what they might be up to, so I didn’t ask any questions or bring attention to it because I didn’t want to ruin the surprise my woman was cooking up for my club.
A white, refrigerated box truck pulled up near the spot where my wife and her partner in crime were dropping a covered pallet with the forklift we finally managed to go retrieve from her old studio.Rather than selling her old studio space, she chose to rent it out.That meant we had to clear everything from the property in Flagstaff and bring anything that was salvageable back to Violence for her.I was working on getting a new space built on the club’s property that would be all hers and wouldn’t interfere with the Morton’s business, since Brady, Josh, and Sammy would be opening back up to the public soon.
Grunt came out to stand with me and the bastard rubbed his hands together.“Is that what I think it is?”he asked.I grinned, but didn’t confirm.“Have you seen it?”
“You know as well as I do that my wife has had her bay in Brady’s garage locked down tighter than a nun’s legs.You would think being married to the woman, I’d have some privileges everyone else doesn’t, but she wanted to surprise me along with the rest of your sorry asses.”
“Knew I loved your wife for a reason.She doesn’t play favorites,” he joked.
“Fuck off.”
“What’s the deal with the box truck?”
“Not sure.Part of the plan, I guess.”We watched as Nell moved to greet whoever had just hopped down out of the truck.It couldn’t have been a man, or if it was then they were tiny, because the person was invisible over the hood of the truck.Granted, even my wife was almost lost behind the thing.I moved a little closer to try to see who she was speaking to and Grunt must have come around with me.As soon as we were able to see the two women, he sucked in a shocked breath.
“Holy shit,” he murmured and then looked around in a panic, as if a bomb was about to go off.Before I could ask any questions, he called out to the blonde.“Cassidy Billups, what the hell are you doing here, girl?”
The woman startled and then her wide, light-colored eyes settled on us and she smiled brightly at Grunt.“Jasper?”
I snickered because no one, and I mean no one, used Grunt’s given name.He elbowed me in the ribs and took off to go give the woman a hug.“Long time, no see, Cassy.”
“It’s good to see you, too,” the woman countered as she pulled out of the hug.She glanced around nervously.“I was just explaining everything to Nell.I can pull around near the kitchen to offload everything, and then get the hell out of here.She can call when you’re done and I’ll see if I can get my brother to come out and retrieve all my dishes and equipment so that I don’t have to come back.”
“That’s silly,” Nell interjected, but Grunt nodded as though it might be a good idea.I felt like I was missing something.“You worked hard on all of this and you were telling me that you wanted to see the unveiling.”
“I didn’t realize that it would be here, though.”
