“Who did the check?” I asked, my voice low with anger.
“Live,” Rhash grunted and I flipped open my phone, using my thumb on the keypad to scroll down my phonebook to Lively.
I heard Rhash hitting buttons on his own phone, I knew connecting with Knight.
We’d hit the client’s house and found a for sale sign in the front yard. When we’d gone in, there was nothing there. Not a stick of furniture. Totally cleared out.
This gave me a bad feeling. This was not your random ass**le that got off on paying for sex and roughing up women.
Stolen credit cards. False addresses.
This was bad.
The phone rang four times in my ear before I connected.
“Pip, what the f**k? It’s after four in the morning,” Live muttered sleepily in my ear, using the shortened version of the nickname that the boys gave me. Pipsqueak.
The guys jacked around all the time. We were always f**king with each other, playing jokes, giving each other shit. It was just the way. Pipsqueak and Pip were not the nicknames for badass bitches like me who could kick ass but what did I care? It was ironic and it sure as f**k could be worse. I knew this because one of Knight’s men was nicknamed Tiny, this wasn’t ironic and it didn’t refer to his stature. He hated it but he put up with it because if he didn’t it would mean he not only had a small dick but also no balls, which would have been worse.
And anyway, he had a secret that I knew because one of his women shared. This was, his dick might be small but that didn’t mean he didn’t know what to do with his tongue and fingers. The way it was described, he made up for it in a big way.
I didn’t delay in sharing what the f**k to Live.
“Serena was worked over tonight. Client paid for the hotel in cash, gave a fake name and a stolen credit card. Right now I’m standing in his living room with Rhash and it’s empty. By empty I mean there’s no furniture and there’s a for sale sign in the yard.”
“Fuck,” he whispered.
“Baby, it’s late. What the hell?” I heard in the background and knew this was Live’s woman, Amy. She sounded sleepy and snippy. I’d never heard her sounding sleepy. I frequently heard her sounding snippy.
Incidentally, she was not one of the guys’ women that I liked unreservedly or at all. She was a ball buster. I didn’t like women like her who happily accepted the dresses, shoes, jewelry and free cover to get into Knight’s club, Slade, from her man. Amy didn’t have any problems bitching about everything under the sun, including the fact Live had to work for the money it took to buy her dresses, shoes and jewelry.
“Yeah, f**k,” I agreed, ignoring Amy which was my usual tactic for dealing with her. “You do the full check?” I asked.
“Fuck yeah, I did. ‘Course I did,” Live told me, insulted. “There was furniture there when I checked him out, all through the house. There sure as f**k wasn’t a for sale sign in the yard.”
“Baby, what… the… hell?” Amy snapped sounding less sleepy but definitely more snippy.
“Give me a minute, darlin’,” Live replied to Amy then to me, “How bad’s Serena?”
“Fat lip, swollen eye, could be worse but that isn’t the point,” I answered.
“Yeah,” he agreed.
I heard Rhash’s phone snap closed so my eyes went to him through the dark.
“Knight says meeting. Now. Slade. Get his ass in there, Sylvie,” he rumbled then didn’t wait for me to respond. He stalked to the door.
I went back to the phone. “You hear that?”
“On my way,” Live muttered.
“What?” I heard Amy ask, her voice going shrill. “Now?”
“Later,” I said into the phone then snapped it shut quickly in a successful effort to avoid hearing Live get his balls busted. I hoped she excelled at giving head or tasted like pure honey to be worth that shit.
I followed Rhash out the backdoor. We’d picked the lock and I made certain it was secure again before I moved around the house. As I approached my car, I watched Rhash give me a finger flick through the window as he drove away in his black Nissan Z.
I hit the sidewalk and was moving around the hood of my Corvette when I noted the big Ford Expedition motoring down the street the opposite direction from Rhash. My eyes locked on it, taking in the Arizona plates then moving up to the cab.