A Leap in the Dark (The Assassins of Youth MC Book 2)(16)
Something struck me, but I didn’t have time to ponder it. “Well you were f*cking soliciting my house and getting your rocks off, Pratt, so I’d say that makes us even. Wouldn’t want your million-year-old town council to find out about that, would you?”
He was on his feet, arms twirling like a ballerina. A very beefy, lumpy, uncoordinated ballerina. “Who are they gonna believe, Rockwell? Me or some uneducated ass peddler? Besides. I think I’ll be getting me some of that long, juicy cock every day from here on in. Don’t forget. I’m your master.”
“Don’t count on it, pervert. The sight of you makes me ill. Now get the f*ck out of my establishment.”
He took a few wobbly steps toward me. He held his smashed hat like a discus thrower. “Oh, I’m counting on it, slave. I’m f*cking counting on swallowing your meaty sword a few dozen more times before you cry uncle. Because if you don’t, I’m going to make sure Deloy Pingree doesn’t see the inside of that dental school.”
And he reached between my legs and gave my cock a squeeze.
I think I was in such shock, I did nothing. The overwhelming thought was how did he find out about Deloy’s dental school? Then Gideon came in—there was still a little bell attached to the door, old-time style—and he gave the exiting mayor a giant shoulder bump. The mayor crashed into the doorjamb and the two men growled at each other, but soon the pervert was toddling on his way, slamming on his hat that now resembled a boater. I stood speechless when he hopped on what looked like a hoverboard and wheeled off down the sidewalk.
“What the f*ck was that idiot doing in here?”
I figured it was best to be honest. I had done nothing wrong. “He came to threaten me about my business. Said I’d never get it off the ground unless I let him suck my wiener.”
“Fuck that!” spewed Gideon. “You know, that guy’s been trying to run this town like a f*cking dictator for years. The f*cking town council has the same seven members that existed when it was formed in 1985, can you f*cking believe it? They claim it’s evidence of everyone’s satisfaction! Well, you know what? We’re gonna have a sit-down soon and choose our own f*cking candidate.”
“That’s actually a good idea. Sounds like you’ve got a lot of people coming around to your way of thinking.”
“Damn straight we do! Levon, we don’t give a shit that you run a whorehouse in Bountiful. You think we’re shining examples of so-called upstanding morality? No, but if those f*cking polygs are any example of upstanding, we don’t want it.”
I sneered. “They’re the worst examples of hypocrites. That guy beat me within an inch of my life, then comes up to Bountiful to blow me.”
Gideon sputtered with indignation. And I hadn’t even told him about the threat to Deloy. “That’s it. That’s f*cking it. I’m scheduling a sit-down—sorry you can’t come, brother, but that’s how it is—to decide who our candidate will be. Elections were in November but primaries are in June. We need someone with a clean background, so that rules out most of us. I’m sorry all this shit is happening to you, man. Makes Avalanche look like a pathetic, twisted place. And that’s the last image we want to project. Listen, I’ve got to get up to the Altar of Sacrifice Mine.”
I frowned. “But it’s dark. Don’t you close it down at night?”
“Yeah. But Dust Bunny just called. He’s got two unclaimed, unidentified bodies up there. I’m bringing Dingo, as one of the most recent apostates, to see if he can’t ID the decrepit things. It’s the story of a biker’s life, man. I’ve got to run. But get with Linda here if you think you want this space for your studio.”
I didn’t offer Deloy’s services, as a recent Cornucopia apostate. If Ladell Pratt was really going to go after Deloy, expose him and smear his name into the mud, the poor kid was already looking forward to enough crap. He didn’t need to look into the caved-in mummy’s face of yet another guy who used to beat him up or run him out of town on a rail. I didn’t even know what the bodies were from. A mining accident, I assumed.
I could’ve turned tail and run. I could’ve gone back to my safe house in Bountiful, high above the city. But the more I thought about Ladell Pratt’s threats, the more determined I was to join Gideon in taking him down.
Flannery O’Connor wrote that people don’t realize the cost of religion. They think belief is a giant electric blanket, when it’s really the cross to bear. That’s been my mantra for fifteen years now, and Ladell Pratt was just proving it to me. I believed he’d really take down an innocent, idealistic guy like Deloy Pingree just to exert his superiority over us. It’s much harder to have faith in moments like that than it is to throw up your hands and declare yourself an atheist. To make a leap of faith in the dark means we have to work in a realm of complete doubt and skepticism. We just need to plow ahead, not knowing.
I was a rough and tumble * who could be hard as flint when it came to business dealings. I wasn’t going to let some abusive, roly-poly lush scare me out of town. If Gideon’s man won the primaries next summer, we’d be fighting a downhill battle. In the meantime, I wasn’t caving. I’d already sent two Lost Boys to Brigham Young University with profits from Liberty Temple. I was a businessman in my own right back in Bountiful. I could always tell anyone who was curious that our business was strictly an escort and stripper service.