Rough Riders (5 page)

Jarvis was in his office on the phone when I
got there, so I walked in and pulled up a seat across from him. He held up his
finger for me to wait and I quirked my brow at him. He got the message.

“Ahem, yes, well I’ll have to get back to you
later on that, I have a very pressing matter that just came up.” He made his
excuses and hung up the phone.

“So, young Mr. Mallory you’re back.” He gave
me this smirk like he knew some shit I didn’t. I hate those fucking looks, they
always mean I have to end up popping a motherfucker, and it was too damn early
in the fucking day.

I didn’t say anything, just kept my eyes on
his, waiting for him to get to the fucking point so I could be on my way. He
started fixing the papers on his desk nervously, and I knew he was about to
piss me the fuck off.

“I’ve been hearing some things last night and this morning.”

“Oh yeah, what’s
that?” He gave me what I like to call the shark grin, and fixed his jacket.

“Heard you had a little run-in with the Potter boy and they’re out for
blood.” Now why the fuck would that make you happy asshole?

“Heard that did you? Well what the fuck does
that have to do with you and I?” I know what his deal was; he thought that
because I was flying solo today that he could play the role with me. He had no
idea that more often than not, my men were there to keep me cool. He wasn’t
looking so cocky now since I’d paired the question with my signature death
glare.

 
“Now
since you want to be so fucking smart I’ve decided to take ten grand off the
agreed upon price.”

“What? You can’t do that we had a deal.”

Fucker wanted to get huffy. “Keep talking and
I’ll take off five-thousand dollar increments, don’t fuck with me asshole. And
tell whoever the fuck is feeding you info that the
Mallorys
aren’t afraid of the Potters, never were, never will be. So if you were
thinking of backing that horse you’re fucked. Now give me the deed to my shit
so I can get the fuck outta here.”

He couldn’t get into his desk fast enough,
stupid fuck; he’d just cost himself ten grand for being an ass. Did he know
Wayne Potter had fucked with what’s mine? He’s lucky I didn’t beat the shit
outta him for bringing that shit up to me, the fuck.

I took the signed papers and passed him the
envelope; just then my phone went off. I was surprised to see Lydia’s number
pop up on the screen. I’d bought her this new top of the line shit with all the
bells and whistles that had set me back a cool hundred grand. She guarded that
shit like it was the
holy-grail
, so I knew it could
only be her calling, which sent me into a tailspin. She was supposed to be in
class at this hour.

“Babe what’s up?” I walked out of his office
without a backward glance.

“Travis hurry, please hurry.”

“What the fuck, where are you?” I could
barely understand her through the hiccoughing tears, but from what little I
could gather, she was hiding out in the girl’s bathroom because some shit had
gone down and her father was there.

“Babe I can’t get to you, I’m calling dad and
Jimmy, hold on okay,
just
stay where you are.” Star
fucking timing; I put her on hold and called dad’s private line.

“Son?”

“Dad I can’t talk, I need a solid,
something’s going on with my girl at school and I’m now leaving Jarvis. I need
you to get there like now…” I rattled that shit off in one breath.

“On it.” He hung up before I could finish.

“Babe, dad’s coming just hang tight. I’ll
probably be right behind him.” She was crying hysterically and freaking me the
fuck out. “Just calm down baby. I’m going to hang up now so I can come to you
faster. I love you okay, whatever this is we’ll handle it no problem.” I could
afford to make that promise because it was true. No matter what, I will always
take care of her.

I hopped on my ride and sped out of the
parking lot. There was always some shit going down in this fucking town. It was
taking me the better part of a month to clean up the school and get rid of Slim
and his shit. Hopefully after this morning’s visit from my crew he wouldn’t be
too much of a problem anymore, but there was still whoever the fuck had
bankrolled him to deal with. I was thinking of getting dad on that, since he
had more connections.

 
Now I have her father and his bullshit
and Potter the asshole; who knew what this new bullshit was about. Her father
was always trying to find ways to get her back, even though he’d all but
disowned her. I’ve been pretty much ignoring his ass since I’d gone and got her
out of his house, so I don’t know what the fuck the idiot was up to now. But if
he fucked with her I’m
gonna
have to lay his ass out.

I called her as soon as I pulled into the
school parking lot. I saw dad’s car so I breathed a little easier. She wasn’t
crying as hard now, just down to sniffles; and I could hear my dad’s voice in
the background reaming somebody out. “Where are you?”

“The principal’s office, this is so
embarrassing.” I hot footed it in there and followed the arrows and shit, not
to mention the raised voices, until I found them. My brother Jimmy was standing
in the doorway with his arms folded and a sour look on his face. Lydia was
sitting on a chair against the wall with dad standing protectively in front of
her, while her father tried getting in his face. Fucker must be ready to die.

The principal, it appeared, was trying to
keep the two men apart. I ignored all of them and went to her. “Hey baby come
here.” I pulled her out of the chair and into my arms, burying her face in my
chest. The men had stopped yelling when I walked in. “What happened
sweetheart?” I whispered the words in her ear and ran my hand up and down her
back soothingly.

“Get your hands off my kid, you’ve done enough.” I barely spared him a
glance as she started to explain.

“The school called him, they think you’re abusing me because of the
black eye. No matter how much I tried to explain they wouldn’t listen, so they
called the cops and he came.”

“Lydia I want you to stop this nonsense at once and come home with me.”

“She’s already told you what happened, but since that’s not enough for
you, or more to the point, since it doesn’t fit your agenda you’ve decided to
embarrass her you fuck. She’s not coming anywhere with you, get that through
your head. And you.” I turned to the principal. “If she told you what the fuck
happened to her why would you put her through this shit?”

He hemmed and hawed all over his face while
keeping a wary eye on dad and Jimmy, who was looking deceptively bored.

“How do we know she’s telling the truth?” Her
dad persisted with his shit. Had he been a decent father to begin with, I
would’ve cut him some slack, but because I knew he was using this as an excuse
I really didn’t give a fuck.

“Let’s get out of here baby you got your
stuff?”

“But I still have to take my last test, I
can’t miss it.”

Shit, I can’t hang around here all day and I
wasn’t about to leave her here alone. “Fine.” I pulled my phone and called my
boys to get over there. They’ll stand watch until I got back from doing what I
had to do. I gave her dad one last glare before walking her out the door and
taking her back to her class.

My boys showed up twenty minutes later and
two of them stood outside the classroom door where she was taking her test. I
kissed her long and hard to the delight of her nosy ass classmates and the
disgruntlement of the teacher. I give a fuck. At least she wasn’t embarrassed
anymore.

“I’ll be back for you later, love you baby.”

“I love you too.” I kissed her hair and
bounced. It never entered my mind to worry about whether or not it was okay for
my boys to hang out in the school corridor, I’m sure if there were any problems
my dad would take care of them. After a quick word with my dad I was off again.
I had to go see what Nate had for me after his bout with Slim.

I got to the warehouse just when the fun was
coming to an end, it’s a good thing the place was so isolated, one of dad’s old
buildings, because the screaming was coming through the broken windowpanes.
Nate had only taken a few guys with him and they were all scattered around the
room watching the show. I guess Nate had worked him over a little before
breaking his legs because he was bruised from head to toe. I had no sympathy
for the fuck, that’s what you get for fucking around with kids in my neck of
the woods.

His eyes were damn near shut as he squinted
around in my direction when my boots scraped against the cement floor. His legs
were at a fucked up angle and he’d puked all over himself, intense pain will do
that to ya. “He
talk
yet?”

“Yep, but you’re not gonna like it.” I gave Nate the ‘what the fuck’
was there ever any doubt that I was not
gonna
like the
answer one way or the other? I pretty much thought that was a given.

“It’s
Potter
.”

Okay, I wasn’t expecting that. I didn’t see Wayne Potter having the
brains for something like this, so yeah, that one threw me.

“The father?”

“Nope, the son. I
took the liberty of recording for later because I don’t think he’s in any
condition to talk anymore. What do you want me to do with him?”

“How did he become
involved with Potter?”

“Potter approached him, apparently he was a client before he became his
backer or whatever the fuck he thinks he is.”

“Huh! Drop him off in front of emergency. And you, as soon as they’re
finished patching you up, get the fuck outta
here,
if
you ever see my face again it’ll be the last thing you see. He
tell
you if there’re any other assholes running around
here?”

“Just him and the
kids he recruited.”

“Fine then, get him outta here.”

Nate passed me the little recording device he’d used and I left the
same way I came. The school kids had already been rounded up and dealt with in
one way or the other. I’d got Sam, the ringleader suspended for a couple weeks,
not so much because of the drug thing, though that was bad enough, but he was a
kid so I was willing to give him a second chance. No I went after him because
he’d been giving my girl a hard time before I came on the scene. The little
fuck was lucky I didn’t break his neck. Now all I had to do was deal with
Wayne, kill two birds with one stone.

He wasn’t on the street, and neither were his
boys. I checked the wharf first but that place was ghost. I guess the ass was
still hiding out at his house like a little girl with a broken arm. He lived at
home still so that might be a little tricky. I totally expected him to show up
later with my money though, so I’ll give it some time.

It was almost time for school to be out by
the time I was through combing the streets looking for his ass. My guys were
still where I left them, only the ones outside were surrounded by teenage girls
and looking like they had flop sweat. Ever since Lydia and I had hooked up, her
little friends had become groupies.

 
I
wasn’t getting involved in that shit one way or the other, the men could fend
for themselves, though they looked scared out their fucking minds. They knew
what my girl was like, so they probably wanted to avoid that fucking headache.
They’ve had to be there when I was putting out her fires here of late, so they
knew teenage girls could get into more than their fair share of shit.

“Anything happen while I was gone?” I approached Scottie who was
closest to the door.

“Nah boss, the
others are still inside, I think your old man squared it with the principal
because no one said anything to us.”

“What about her old
man, he give you guys any shit?”

“Nope, your old man
took care of that too.”

“Huh!”

I headed in to go get her just as she was coming out of the room with
the rest of the hoodlums. She wasn’t looking too hot and I thought her eye must
be
giving her trouble. She barely gave me a lift of
her lips when she saw me, which wasn’t like my girl at all.

“What’s the matter
baby, you sick?”

“It’s nothing Travis
let’s just go home I need to lay down.”

“Is it your eye?”

“Uh-uh I just need to get some sleep that’s all.” Why was she acting
all shy and shit?

I didn’t question her any farther since she
didn’t seem like she wanted to talk. On the way back she was clingy and her
body felt warm. If she got sick from that fucker socking her in the eye he was
a dead man.

I took her home and she ran up stairs and
straight to the shower. I didn’t think anything of it, just shrugged the shit
off. I had some things to take care of in my home office anyway since I’d spent
most of the day dealing with her shit. When she still hadn’t come back down
half an hour later I went in search of her. She never did too well after
dealing with her old man, so I was thinking that might be what was wrong with
her.

My heart almost stopped when I heard her crying and rolling around on
the bed. “Baby, what the fuck?”

“No don’t touch me
Travis I’ll be good in a little bit, just let me rest for a minute.”

What the fuck, don’t
touch me? I ignored her and kicked off my shoes so I could lay down behind her
and pull her into my arms. Her body was hot to the touch and she was groaning
like she’d been shot. I asked her what the fuck was wrong but she kept giving
me shit until I yelled at her. I was
gonna
need
reinforcements for this shit, this was totally out of my league.