Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 122609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 613(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 409(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 613(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 409(@300wpm)
“Have him call me… I have to go.” He ended the call abruptly, not wishing to engage any further. Now his emotions had been awakened by an ill-placed joke. Irish couldn’t have possibly understood the gravity of her words, and perhaps the timing was bad, too. He’d been in a foul mood for most of the morning. He typically didn’t react to such things, but his dander was already up and the source was incoming.
“Archer!” Billy yelled across the warehouse, a big smile on his face.
“Yeah, what’s up?”
The guy marched over to him. “I haven’t seen you yet today because I was takin’ care of the next Alaska shipment,” Billy explained, half out of breath. He slipped a cigarette out of his front jacket pocket and lit it. “So, what time do you want me over tomorrow to get Honey for her job?”
“I’ve got it. Don’t worry about it.”
Billy’s brows furrowed. “Oh. You’re so busy though, I don’t mind, really. I can squeeze it in.”
“Nah, I got it.”
An awkward hush was born. Billy stood there facing him, holding his cigarette in midair, his lips slightly parted, his expression frozen. The smoke of doubt rose between them.
“Is there somethin’ wrong? All I did was tell ya that she had kind of given me a hard time, but I had it under control.”
“Nothing’s wrong. Should something be wrong, Billy?”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean? ‘Should something be wrong?’ Actually, yeah. There might be somethin’ wrong, Archer.” The man stood a little taller. Took a drag of his cigarette and rested his arm against his side.
“And what’s that?” James nonchalantly looked down at his phone, checking unread text messages.
“That bitch said she owes ya somethin’. What does she owe you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Sounds like she may have been mind-fucking you. She’s good at that. I hope she used lube.”
Billy’s complexion deepened. “Nah, she said you’d want to keep her in pristine condition because she’s gonna do something for you. Sounded legit. Also, when we first met her, you never told me what you wanted her to agree to… the reason me, Tone, and Lou were there in the first place. Ya just said you wanted her to do something for you and she was making things hard… so you wanted us to put some pressure on her.”
Archer shrugged. “Well, that’s a different question altogether, now isn’t it? When you said she stated that she owes me a favor, that’s not true. I do want her to comply with something though… long story short, but I’m brainstorming some things.”
“Like what?” Billy probed.
“’Like what?’ What the fuck?” James laughed mirthlessly. “Like, it’s my own private business. You are on a need-to-know basis.”
“So you’ve got some bitch kidnapped in your house for three or four weeks now, you call me over to handle it, you have me run ’er around town for these gigs she has to do to make it seem like she’s okay, and now all of a sudden, when I do ask a reasonable question, I’m on a need-to-know basis? Are you fucking serious right now?” Billy’s complexion turned blotchy and red as a tomato. Archer jammed his phone in his pocket, wrapped his entire hand around Billy’s fat neck, and squeezed. Not too hard. Not too soft. A gentle warning…
They stared at one another, throwing bows, bullets, and daggers with their eyes…
He released him, roughed up his shirt a bit, and slapped his chest, then laughed softly.
“You’ve been overstepping the boundaries, Billy boy… Watch yourself.”
“I’m just trying to help, Archer. This is crazy. You’re talkin’ crazy.”
“Help? You haven’t been helping, Billy. I don’t like how you’ve been asking me about my phone calls, my private life, showing up at my home unannounced, even before Honey was there. Like you’re trying to catch me in the middle of something… spy on me. You know how I feel about my privacy. It’s a big reason why I am not on any social media, and haven’t been for years. I don’t like how you’ve been going over my head, either, and doing re-routes without running it all past me first.”
“What? That was one time, and you were in Mexico and weren’t—”
“I COULD HAVE BEEN CALLED! DO YOU KNOW WHAT A PHONE IS? That’s the number one rule I tell all the guys! If they run into something, call me! No matter what time of day or night. Do not change a route without telling me. NO EXCEPTIONS. I have traveled practically every inch of this fucking country so I know exactly what to do in these cases. No one understands the land like I do, and that’s why I’m number one in this shit! I get in the trenches. I don’t ask any of you to do something I wouldn’t do, or think I’m too good to do. I know how to do your job, my job, and everyone’s job up in this motherfucker, ten times over! Instead of telling me the situation, you wanted to play boss. Big man in charge. I told you to watch the warehouse while I was gone, Billy, not slip into my shoes.”