Page 48 of Existential
I twist my body to face him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Brothers don’t normally ask after a woman outside the club unless it’s serious.”
“Is that so?” I cock an eyebrow at him.
“Yep. If it’s totally platonic, then best you make that clear next time you see him.”
“Yeah, well,” I say, “the likelihood of me returning to Fort Worth is pretty darn slim. Even if I could, I don’t think I’d want to.”
He brings the truck to a stop at an intersection, checking both ways before he continues. “You’re a real mystery, Dagne, you know?”
“I get that feeling, yeah.”
He shrugs. “So open up a little, loosen up and let us in. We ain’t all that bad.”
Why? It’s obvious that I don’t belong. “Even if I wanted to, Dog, it’s been made real clear to me that I’m not welcome in your club long term.”
“Yeah?” he scoffs. “By who? The property?”
“I still don’t get why you call the single women that.” The boy’s club mentality still gets me.
“They ain’t exactly single. They’re just not claimed.”
“Claimed? What the fuck is this? The eighteen hundreds?”
He laughs, a full on raucous belly rumble. “No, lady. It’s just the way it is; the way it’s always been.”
Goes to show how much I have to learn if I really do want to hang around. Therein lies the problem though? Can I stick it out? One week without Hooch and I’ve already got itchy feet.
The only thing that’s kept me rooted, is that kiss.
My fingers linger near my mouth as I turn back to the window, the memory as fresh as if it were yesterday. I can’t pinpoint what it is about the man that has me so captivated, other than the definite feeling he wasn’t always this way.
“How much do you know about Hooch?” I ask, turning my head to catch Dog’s reaction.
“A little.” He eyes me cautiously. “What did he say to you?”
“That he used to be the joker. What changed?”
“Family did.”
I nod, pulling my legs up onto the seat beside me. “He mentioned something about problems growing up.”
“No way, lady. That wasn’t the problem. Losing his old man, and sister last year almost killed him.”
“Both of them? He only told me about the hit on Mel.”
“Happened the same day,” he levels. “Look, I don’t feel comfortable tellin’ you everything, so I’ll just tell you what you can find in the papers anyway. His oldest sister, the middle child of the family, supposedly got murdered.” He glances across as though to make sure I’m catching on.
“Mel.”
“Right. But you know what happened there; she was put into hiding. Anyway, some shit went down with the guy who took credit for it, Carlos Redmond, and Hooch’s old man and baby sister met the reaper before the week was out. They held a service for Judas, that’s his dad, and Dana, his sister, but without bodies it was a bit weird.” He sighs, hands gripping the wheel tight. “From what I overheard, he didn’t take that too well. Went on a bender and spent the better part of a month wasted off his face on coke and booze.”
“I can see how that would be hard.” Makes my problems trivial in comparison, and yet he didn’t chastise me in the slightest when I let him get a peek at my history. “What about his mom?”
“Nobody’s seen that bitch for years. I ain’t ever met her, but the stories about her from the old boys aren’t all that high in the praise department.”
“He didn’t say much about her, really.”