Chapter 17: Chapter 17

“I think I’ll track him down and kill him.”

“Tucker.” A thread of warning worked its way into Blake’s voice. Sitting across from his friend, he could see the wild streak in his eyes.

“Fine, I’ll maim him then. A bullet to the kneecaps will definitely make me feel a little better. Plus,” Tucker said brightly, “less mess to clean up.” He kicked his booted feet up on the edge of Blake’s desk, looking mighty pleased with himself.

“You can’t go around shooting people because they were an asshole to your girlfriend,” he told him while shuffling papers around on his desk to make more room for their takeout cartons. Tucker had brought Chinese for lunch, which should have been his first clue that the man was there for more than just a friendly chat—Blake loved Chinese. As soon as the forkful of lo mein was in his mouth, Tucker started talking, and he hadn’t shut up since.

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Tucker deadpanned.

“Riiiiight.” That’s what he’d been insisting on for the last hour, but Blake had known Tucker a long time, and he might not have ever seen his friend in love before, but he knew all the signs, and Tucker was displaying all of them: possessiveness, protectiveness, inability to speak a single sentence without mentioning the woman’s name. And it’d all started with finding out she’d had a boyfriend in the past and the guy was a dick. He wanted to say, duh, he’s an ex for a reason, but there was no reasoning with a lunatic.

“She’s not,” Tucker defended, his voice a little on the high side.

“Is that why you’ve spent the last several nights with her?”

“We’re just hanging out. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Maybe not for normal people.”

Tucker shot him a dirty look. “Are you calling me abnormal? Because I think you are, and I want you to know that I am deeply offended.”

Ignoring his attempt at a joke, Blake pressed on. He felt a sick sort of satisfaction in teasing his old pal. Call it just desserts for all those times he called him pussy-whipped. “When was the last time you had a woman spend the night? And Bambi doesn’t count. You fucked around on her all the time.”

“I only did that twice, and she knew about it. Eventually,” he added, no sign of shame anywhere in sight. “Talia is different. She’s good people.”

“Come on, man, she’s more than that, and you know it. I just spent my morning listening to you plot out the demise of her ex-husband for being an asshole more than a year ago, and from the way you’re talking, I bet you’ve already tracked down the sorry sonofabitch and planned the quickest route to his doorstep.”

Tucker looked away, sheepish. “Twelve hours and forty-seven minutes, assuming traffic is light, and there’re no detours. But,” he was quick to defend, “that’s only into the city. I couldn’t find him specifically. Yet.”

“You see! It’s just like you said, she’s different. You like her. More than like her. You’re fal—”

“Say it and, president or not, I will slap the fillings right out of your mouth,” Tucker warned, his eyes dancing with fire.

Shock soared through Blake’s system, igniting his fight or flight responses. Unfortunately for Tucker, he always erred on the fight portion. Fortunately for Tucker, he knew how to control himself.

“That’s your one pass,” he said with deadly calm. “But mark my words, you ever threaten me again, I’ll lay your ass out in front of God and everyone, you feel me?” Friends or not, that level of disrespect would not be tolerated within the club. He let something like that slide, and it would create a damaging ripple effect that would be hard, if not impossible, to repair.

Tucker lifted a hand, relenting. “Sorry, bro. Didn’t mean to come off like that, but you know me. I’m not about that love shit. Liking and loving someone is two totally different things.”

“I’m not going to pretend I know what your damage is when it comes to relationships, nor am I going to pry, but can I offer some words of wisdom here?”

“Shoot.”

“After Jodi, I thought I was done with relationships too. The last thing I wanted was to be tied down with someone who’d end up fucking me over in the long run, but I was wrong. Finding Gabby was the best thing to ever happen to me.”

“And I get that. I see what’s she’s done for you and Ash, how much she’d brought into your lives. She’s a great woman. But Talia and I are just having fun. It’s just sex for us.”

Blake outright laughed at that, mostly because he could see that Tucker believed his own words. “Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, bro.”

Tucker managed to scowl and frown at the same time, but before he could say much else, the door to the trailer whipped open and a man in a hardhat bounded inside. One of Blake’s men, a construction worker that’d been with his company since the beginning, spoke frantically.

“Boss, we have a situation in platform twenty.”

Every muscle in Blake’s body went rigid. He sat up, dread filling him. “What kind of situation?”

“A fire. It broke out in the basement. Fire crews are already on their way, but it’s spreading fast.”

Blake shared a look with Tucker. A moment later, they were up and out of their seats and running out the door.

***

At the end of the day, it was lucky that there were no human casualties. That’s what Blake kept telling himself, because if he allowed the anger simmering in his gut to take over, he would fly off the deep end and hurt someone.

An entire building, gone. He stood in front of the smoldering pile of rubble, the scent of char and chemicals burning the inside of his nose and lungs, gnashing his teeth to keep from yelling.

Months of work, gone. Millions of dollars, up in smoke. There was nothing left of the stretch of real estate overlooking the water, and it would take months before the insurance company would clear it so rebuilding could begin.

The fire inspector still had to investigate, but off the record, he confided that his instincts suspected arson. So did Blake’s. No fire he’d ever seen raged that hot or that fast and with total destruction without a little help.

“I want whoever is responsible for this found. Yesterday.”

“Well,” Tucker said from beside him, “I don’t own a time machine, but I’ll do my best to track whoever it is down. They couldn’t have gone far. Are you sure it wasn’t one of the new guys?”

Blake shook his head. He’d already considered that, but anyone new to the job came with years of experience in the field and were vetted by the temp agency on top of a thorough background check on his end before signing them on. Every man and woman on-site had family ties to the area, something to lose. He was confident that none of them had anything to do with it.

“Then what about someone with a grudge. Someone who might have it in for you?”

Tearing his gaze away from the pile of debris, Blake’s eyebrow perked up. “Do you really need to ask?” They both knew that Ricky Cruiz was still a major player in their lives. His main motivation: money.

“Yeah, you’re right. Nothing has come up on my radar, but I’ll look again. The man’s a cockroach. There’s just no telling where he might be hiding.”

“My guess, somewhere close. I don’t know, but lately, I feel like someone’s watching me. Gabby’s noticed it too.”

“I’ll check into it.” Tucker’s expression was grave. “You know, I sent that missive out weeks ago, but Cruiz never bit. What if it’s not about the money anymore?”

“You mean revenge?”

“Exactly. I’m wondering if we were so busy watching the cash that we left the back door open, and he slipped inside without our notice.”

“If that’s the case,” Blake growled, “I’m going to murder him when I get my hands on him.”

“You and me both, bro.”

The seed planted in his brain, Blake started thinking of Gabby and Ash. They were at the school, completely open. Even though he’d put a prospect on them, suddenly it wasn’t enough. “I need to take off.”

Tucker read his expression and agreed. “Yeah, me too.”

Blake didn’t have to ask. The first thing his friend would do once he left the property was track down his woman and make sure she was okay. Because that’s what you did when you loved someone.

They grabbed hands and pulled each other in for a hug and slap on the back, then went off in opposite directions, Blake to his truck and Tucker to his motorcycle. As Tucker rode off, Blake watched him fade into the distance, shaking his head. The man didn’t realize it yet, but he was completely gone for that woman.