OWNED & UNTAMED (Back Down Devil MC #11) - London Casey Page 0,49

nails digging into my skin, her lips and teeth against my chest, I held Belle. I fucked Belle.

Shit… I loved Belle.

**

I finished off my beer and got up to get another one. I opened the fridge and grabbed two. I twisted the caps off both and slid one across the table to Jim as I sat back down. He still had a quarter of a beer to go.

“Drink up, pussy,” I said.

“Thanks.”

“What’s wrong? You need some pills with your beer?”

He shook his head. “Thanks for that, too. Why don’t you just punch me again.”

“Maybe I will.” I took a drink. “Before that, I need everything.”

“You have the folder, man.”

“Who approached you? When? What did they say? Give me something.”

Jim leaned forward. “Look. I’m not trying to screw anyone over. I’ve got a serious issue with debt here, okay? The medical bills. Credit cards. Just… it’s insane. If I end up going, I don’t want to leave that to Belle. So I thought I could unload a piece of land. I got in touch with someone from Belle’s company. A guy I had a few drinks with here and there. He said he’d put out the info and keep it quiet. Then I got a call from a Mr. Smith.”

“Mr. Smith?” I asked. “How convenient.”

“What? It’s a fucking name. I met him, showed him the land. He offered to help me. Said he’d charge me nothing because of my military experience. A week later he had everything lined up. Some environmental company wanted the land. They were going to preserve it. I figured that would be best for Belle, too. They wanted to test the air, trees, water. I don’t know. Whatever. They offered asking price and things were almost too good to be true. Then Mr. Smith told me there was a small issue and to be patient. Something with a down payment issue. Again, look at me, Duke. Fucking look at me. I wake up half drunk. I drink for the entire day. Half the time I’m spaced out, waiting to die. The other half of the time I’m over there, right in the convoy before it all happened.”

Then there was silence.

Jim killed off his quarter-full beer and went right for the next.

“Okay,” I said. “So you only dealt with this Mr. Smith guy?”

“Yes,” Jim said. “Probably stupid, I know. But things were moving fast. I talked to my lawyer and everything seemed legit to me. I could only think about the cash. Getting that money to pay off some stuff. I don’t want to let Belle down anymore.”

“Jesus Christ,” I said. “The two of us… we really fucked things up. And here I thought blowing up frogs and playing pranks on the neighbors was the worst we’d ever do.”

Jim chuckled. “Hey. You remember old Mr. Anderson?”

“He owned that little corner shop.”

“Yeah.”

“We drove him nuts. Remember the time we filled his garbage cans with water and then waited for him to try and drag them to the curb?”

“He fucking poured water all over himself,” Jim said and smacked the table.

“Then he lifted his fist and muttered something in another language.”

“Yes,” Jim said. “Fuck, yes. That was good.”

“What happened to him?”

“Cancer,” Jim said. “Right after Dad went.”

“Shit. You know, getting older is tough once people start dying.”

Jim reached across the table and grabbed my arm. “We weren’t that old when people started dying, brother.”

We both swallowed hard. We then lifted our beer bottles and nodded to each other.

Silence again.

Then Jim asked, “So how do you feel about my sister?”

I grinned. “Yeah? That’s where you want to go?”

“I owe you a punch to the fucking head for what you did to her. Taking off like that. She ended up with this fucking fake guy, man. He was too good.”

“Too good?”

“All proper and shit. I could never relate to him. He talked to me like I was mentally messed up. Always over the top. But she fell for him hard. He was the distraction from you. I thought for a long time they were going to get married.”

My hand tightened around the beer bottle.

Belle? Married? To anyone but me?

“I don’t want to hear this,” I said.

“Yes you do,” Jim said. “You love the jealousy right now. I know you, man. This guy was good. Great job. Could buy any house he wanted. He encouraged her in nursing school and their first real problem started when she dropped out to be here. I thought about calling you then but I was too messed