Survivor's Remorse: Brothers of Ink and Steel (3 page)

CHAPTER THREE

Leo wheeled his Fat Boy around in the middle of the road and returned to
He’s Not Here.
He had seen the old Chevy that Jamie drove around town sitting in the parking lot. It was only ten in the morning, but after spending three days looking at plat maps with the developer of the Grande Heights subdivision, and putting a sharp pencil to his bid, his brain was mush. He had finished his bid late last night and delivered it this morning. He could only do so much pencil pushing before he had to get out of the office—a bedroom in his house, actually—so he was treating himself to a Friday off.

When he started his landscaping business two years ago, the townspeople scoffed. The ranchers mowed their own yards, usually with a tractor, and the local kids took care of the few yards that needed tending around town. But they weren’t scoffing now. He had quickly taken over the landscaping for most of the businesses in town and he was slowly pushing the kids out. Not that he was proud of that, but business was business, and he offered a full service that the local kids couldn’t match. Besides, in the summer and on weekends, some of those kids worked for him and made more money than they had when they were just doing their neighbors’ yards.

As he dismounted, he noted that Jamie’s landscaping was looking a little shaggy. It was time for another trim of the bushes. One of these days he was going to find out what Jamie was doing that made her bushes grow so damn fast. It could be drunks pissing on them for all he knew, though Jamie was pretty good about cutting people off before they became totally shit-faced.

“We’re closed!” Jamie called as the hallway brightened with the opening of the front door.

“It’s me – Leo!”

“Oh, hey, Leo! Come on in,” she said as she stepped out of her office. “Here kinda early, aren’tcha?”

“I saw your truck outside and I thought I would stop in, say hi, and see what was up.”

“Just doing a little paperwork before I leave for El Paso.”

“El Paso? Today?” Leo asked, the confusion evident on his face. “It’s Friday.”

“I know. I’m going to let Rachel open tonight. I’m double checking my inventory before I head out.”

“You’re going on a Friday? Why? Don’t you normally go on Mondays?”

Jamie looked at Leo like he was dense. “Leo… my distributor isn’t Walmart. He’s closed on Memorial Day. Plus I’m opening Monday. Come on in, and bring your pals from the club. One free beer to all military and ex-military personnel. My way of saying thank you to all the men and women in the service.” 

Leo grinned. “Thanks. That’s nice of you.”

“Hey, it’s the least I can do. The only catch is you to drink a toast to Will, my brother.”

“He’s in the Navy, right?”

“Marines.”

“Oh, that’s right. Just don’t tell anybody that Army is toasting a Marine. We’ll never hear the end of it.”

“You have a couple of Marines in Lima 6.”

“Yeah, but I don’t drink a toast to them,” Leo said with a sideways grin. “So you have to go today because…?”

“Because business has been
good
the last two weeks, and this is my week to go. If I don’t go every two weeks or so, I can’t get it all in my van.”

“Oh. I see you have it all planned out.”

“You betcha. You can stay if you want, but I have to get back to work.”

“I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“You’re no bother, but I need to finish this up before I go.”

“Want some help?”

“Sure. You want to count or write?”

“Uh… will I have to count over ten?”

“Probably. Why?”

“Then I better write.”

Jamie giggled. “Silly. Okay. Hang on a minute. I have to finish something in the office, then we’ll inventory. I might even have some crayons back there for you to write with.”

“Perfect!” Leo chuckled.

***

Less than an hour later, the inventory was complete.

“Thanks, Leo! You were a big help.”

“You’re welcome, but why do you even bother to count? It was perfect.”

“Because sometimes I forget to write something down. It pisses me off when I run out of something because I screwed up.”

“Do we have to inventory the food, too?”

“Nah. Tim handles that. We buy local, so we don’t have to manage that so tightly. I can have meat here in a few hours in a rush, for example. It’s not like having to drive the five hours to El Paso for the booze.”

Leo waited quietly while Jamie dialed a number and rattled off her order.

When she returned the handset to the cradle, Leo stood up. “Well, it looks like you are ready to leave. I’ll be going so you can get on your way.”

“Leo, wait a minute. If you have a second, I would like to talk to you. Have a seat.”

He returned to his seat and crossed his legs as he waited for her to continue.

“You doing okay?”

“Fine,” he replied, unsure of where the conversation was going. “I don’t think the developer out at Grande is going to be able to find anyone to undercut my bid. Since I’m local, that gives me the advantage. Why?”

“I don’t mean LG Landscaping. I mean you personally. You seemed a little down Saturday.”

Leo paused for a moment, wondering how much she knew. “No… nothing unusual. Just tired, I guess.”

“Well, funny that you should say that. I was going to talk to you about working too hard. Why do you feel like you have to go out on every intercept? Nobody else does that. Why should you?”

“I just want to do my part, that’s all.”

“All fine, well, and good, but there’s doing your part and doing more than your fair share. If you keep pushing, you are going to burn out. Then who will do my landscaping?”

Leo smiled. “I’m fine. Really.”

Jamie watched him smile. It looked a little forced to her. “You know, if something is bothering you, you can always talk to your bartender. And if not your bartender, you can certainly talk to your friend.”

“It’s nothing, Jamie. Ghosts from the past, that’s all.”

“Ghosts?”

“Yeah. Regrets. Lost friends. That sort of thing. Nothing to worry about.”

“You’re sure that’s all it is? Saturday, when you were in here, all you did was stare into your beer. I thought I was going to have to put on some Hank Williams. You were dragging the whole place down,” Jamie said, but her smile softened the bite of her words.

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to be a party-pooper.”

“Not to worry. You can’t be the life of the party every night. But think about it, okay? I have a pretty good idea what you guys do on these intercepts and it has to be tough. When it gets to be too much, take a step back, okay? You don’t have to carry the load by yourself.”

“Yes, mother,” he said with a grin.

“If you’re calling me old, I’m going to come around this desk and kick your ass.”

His grin widened as he held up his hands in surrender. “I wouldn’t dream of calling you old. It would be too embarrassing to have to explain to the rest of the club how Jamie Boyles kicked my ass.” Leo rose to his feet.

She smiled as she came to her own feet and walked him out. “Okay. So long as you are not. But seriously, Leo, think about what I said, okay?”

“I will, Jamie. Thank you for your concern, but I’m fine.”

“Okay. Just don’t let the past get you down. That’s done with, right?”

“Yeah, I guess. Have a safe trip, okay?”

“Planning on it. If I have an accident with all that booze in the back, I would never be able to convince the cops I wasn’t drinking and driving.”

***

By four o’clock, Jamie was approaching El Paso. The long drive had given her plenty of time to think. She wondered how Will would do when he hung up the uniform. His third tour was up and he was mustering out. She wondered if he would have trouble adjusting to life outside the military. She knew a lot of guys did, and that is why they sometimes tended to gravitate to the motorcycle clubs. It was something she admired about Lima 6. They took the guys in and helped ease them into civilian life by giving them that feeling of belonging.

As she approached the north side of town, she exited Interstate 10 and a few minutes later, her van creeped to a stop in the
Glazer’s
parking lot. As expected, her order was ready and waiting. It took less than thirty minutes for her to be loaded, Jamie ticking off her order as it went into the van. Satisfied she had everything she ordered, she signed her bill and crawled back behind the wheel. Her van groaned under the weight of over a ton of adult beverages as she turned south on I-10. She made a couple more stops while she was in town, picking up a few items she needed for her business, did some shopping for herself, and had a nice dinner. Vallecito is a nice little town, but it wasn’t exactly the pinnacle of shopping and dining.

Just before nine, Jamie pulled into the Hampton Inn in Van Horn Texas. She had thought about pushing on to home, but she was tired and driving down 118 in the dark didn’t appeal to her much.

After she settled into her room, Jamie pulled her laptop out of its case and checked her email. She felt her heart leap when she saw one from her brother. Quickly scanning the email she grew hot with excitement. Will would be home in less than a month! She hadn’t seen him in almost a year and she was looking forward to having her big brother back.

Excited as she was, she once again wondered how it would be for him when he returned to civilian life and worked a nine-to-five job. She hoped he would be able to cope better than Leo seemed to. As much as she admired what Lima 6 did, she wasn’t sure she wanted Will mixed up with them. More than one member of the club had lost their life on the intercepts. It would be just like him to want to join in and help protect the community, though. That’s why he joined the Marines in the first place – to serve.

She pushed the dark thoughts aside. Will would be fine. He had always been as tough as old shoe leather. But it still wouldn’t hurt to introduce him to Leo, to give Will someone to talk to if he needed a little help easing back into the real world. Deciding she had a plan, Jamie rose from the desk and walked into the bath where she started the shower and stripped off her clothes. She needed to wash the day, and the road, off before she turned in.

As she shampooed her hair, she thought of Leo again. She didn’t know what it was about that guy. When he smiled,
really
smiled, his entire face lit up. But he did it so infrequently, it was almost sad. If something was bothering him, she didn’t know why he didn’t talk to one of the Lima 6 guys. Maybe they could help. Hell, if he would just tell her what was wrong, maybe
she
could help.

Jamie snorted. She would like to help him alright. Leo was a good looking guy, sun-kissed and well built. And when he actually
smiled...
he could melt a woman’s heart. As she soaped her body she thought about helping him… helping him bang the shit out of her. Maybe that is all he needed… to get laid. She could
definitely
help him with that. She has had the low level hots for him for several months now… since even before her breakup with Josh. He looked like they were about the same age, mid-to-late twenties, and he also looked like he knew how to please a woman.

As she rinsed, her hand found her secret place. As she lightly stroked, she felt a spreading warmth and a heaviness in her loins. It had been a couple of months since she had anything between her legs that didn’t run on batteries, and she imagined what Leo could do there. A shudder passed through her. She thought about stopping, but the image of Leo walking into the bathroom, his cock already hard as he stepped into the shower and took her into his embrace while the water poured over them was too powerful of a fantasy to ignore.