Soulless (Lawless #2)(21)

CHAPTER TWELVE




Thia


I dropped my bike in front of the hardware store and looked around for Buck’s police cruiser. When I didn’t see it, I popped inside where I found Ted standing behind the counter in his usual attire of overalls, and not much else covering his huge belly. He was polishing something with a dirty rag. When he heard the door chime, he set whatever it was down and came around the counter. “Thia,” he said, with a sympathetic smile. “I was so sorry to hear about your parents. How you holding up?”

“I’m all right, Ted,” I said, appreciative for his concern. Most of the people of Jessep were raging gossips. It’s the small town way. Ted’s always been the first one to ask me about me without joining in on the rumor mill. “You seen Buck around?” I asked, needing to see my friend ASAP.

Or my ex friend.

Or whatever he was.

Ted shook his head. “Not yet today, but sometimes I see him parked behind the diner ’round this time. You could check there.”

“Thanks, Ted.” I spun around to rush back out the door, but Ted stopped me.

“You know, I met your Bear last time he was in here,” Ted said. “He’s a good one. I can tell. We bonded over bike parts and being outcast bikers.” Ted smiled and I could tell it meant a lot to him to meet one of his own. Bear had told me about their conversation and I’d been surprised. I’d known Ted my entire life and in our small town I’d never heard a soul utter a single word about him being an ex member of the Wolf Warriors MC.

“He told me,” I said, offering him a tight-lipped smile.

“Good,” he said, straightening a stack of Auto Trader magazines by the door. “He’s a good kid and I know he didn’t have nothin’ to do with the way your parents went out, but from the look in your eyes I can see you already know that.” It sounded so weird to hear someone call Bear a kid, because to me he was the furthest thing from it.

“I do know that,” I admitted with one hand still on the door handle.

“I’ll tell you the same thing I told him when he came in here. I may be an old man and retired, but my club knows I’m still here, just inactive, and I’ve still got friends in the life. If Buck can’t give you the kind of help I think you’re looking for, then you come see me.” Ted walked toward the register and reached behind the counter. He pulled out a shotgun, resting it high on his shoulder like he was a soldier going to battle. “I can still be pretty persuasive when I need be,” he said. The evil glint in his eye made me instantly believe him. It was like I was seeing Ted for the first time and it made me realize something, if I were being honest.

I liked this Ted.

“Thanks, Ted,” I said. With that, he tipped his hat and put the shotgun away. He went back to his polishing as if Biker Ted had never been there, slipping easily back into the role of Hardware Store Ted.

“You tell him I said hello,” He added, as if I just came in to buy a quart of oil.

I was touched by Ted’s offer, but what I really needed right then was someone who had a connection.

A way in.

There was only one person I knew who could help me. With one last wave to Ted I rushed out the door in search of the only person in Jessep who had such a connection.

And who may or may not hate my guts.

*

I found Buck in his cruiser behind the diner, exactly where Ted had said he would be. He wore mirrored aviator sunglasses, and although I couldn’t see his eyes, I knew they were shut. His head was tilted back against the reclined seat, his mouth wide open as he snored away. The sun reflected off his badge as he breathed in and out, making it look as if it were a light bulb being turned on and off.

“Bucky!” I shouted, slamming my open palm on the roof of the cruiser, startling him back to consciousness. His head connected with the headliner as he jumped up in surprise.

“It’s Deputy Douglas,” he mumbled the familiar correction as he came out of his haze, catching his sunglasses as they fell off his face and rubbing the top of his head. “Thia?” he asked, squinting against the sun.

“The one and only,” I said, leaning up against the cruiser. Buck reached for the handle and I stepped back to let him out, but before he did so he put on his ridiculous wide-brimmed sheriff’s hat that made him look like Deputy Dog from the cartoon we used to watch as kids.

“So, the prodigal daughter returns,” Buck said in his slowest and thickest southern drawl. He hung his sunglasses from the collar of his shirt and assumed a very wide “I’m a police officer” stance, tucking his thumbs into his gun belt. “You know, last time you left I thought I’d never see you again, especially after your boyfriend decided to try and kill me,” he said the word boyfriend like he was waiting for me to correct him, and although I didn’t think that word was accurate enough to describe what we were, I didn’t have time to go over the specifics of our relationship.

“In all fairness Buck, you were being an ass by locking me in that cell, but never mind. There isn’t time for that. I need your help. That’s why I’m here.”

“Oh, now you need my help? We used to be friends, but six months ago I get a call that your parents are dead and that you’re on the run, but I didn’t hear it from you. I had to hear it from the sheriff himself. Then I find out that the guy you ran off with last time is now in jail for murder and you still never came to me. So tell me, Thia, why I should help you now, when my oldest friend couldn’t be bothered to come to me in the first place?” This time he didn’t seem pissed. The sarcasm that he put up when I first banged on the roof had faded away. His shoulders fell. The front he tried so hard to put in place was shattering.