Through A Glass, Darkly (The Assassins of Youth MC #1)(42)

Dust Bunny was set to visit me shortly thereafter. He came in, telling me his password was Monte Brough, given him by Pipkin. That was weird. I’d never heard of Monte Brough. For the hell of it, I texted Mahalia that question, and went to sit with Dust Bunny at the small kitchen table.

“Thanks for coming up here and helping with the mine.”

“No problem at all. It’s an honor. A challenging honor. I’ve just been Sax’s assistant for years, going to gem shows with him. Then lately I’ve been working in his new rock shop. But managing a mine? Wow. Beyond my wildest dreams. I read the assay. It said there are indications of platinum?”

“Right. It’s BLM land, and maintenance should’ve been paid to them a week ago.”

We talked mining for awhile, and then I cut to the chase. “Listen, I know you’re not an MC member.”

“No. Sax never asked me to Prospect for The Bare Bones. I don’t really mind, although I do feel out of place sometimes.”

“Well, rumor has it that I was chosen to head up a new Assassins chapter here in Avalanche. Least, that’s what Tim Breakiron was screaming about before I buried him.”

Dust Bunny’s white face went a shade paler. “What? What are you talking about?”

I told him about Breakiron’s rampage. I gave the slightest details about what I was doing in Chiles’ book bindery—plausible denial and all that—but I was up front about how I’d plugged Breakiron. It was obvious it was self-defense, as Dust Bunny could see my stitches through the flimsy fabric of my T-shirt.

“If you’re gonna prospect for us, you need to keep all of this real close to the vest for the time being. I asked Sax if it was all right to steal you away from him.”

Dust Bunny nodded, in awe. “I’m with you, man. Managing—hell, even co-managing—my own mine has been my dream since I was a frigging kid.”

“And another thing. Stop saying ‘frigging.’ You can say ‘f*cking’ now that you’re an MC member. I’ll get you a Prospect cut.”

“Fucking,” echoed Dust Bunny. He had a geology degree like Sax, but I believe his was from an Ivy League university. Sax’s was from the University of Michigan.

“For now you can keep staying at my house, but eventually I’m going to sell my Bullhead City house and use the proceeds to purchase another Avalanche house. Those homes are going for a f*cking song since Chiles took over.”

“A f*cking song,” agreed Dust Bunny.

“This is where I really need you to step up to the plate. Soon—it’s got to be within the next couple of weeks before I get well enough to go back to work—I’m leaving here with a woman and her daughter.”

Dust Bunny grinned. He liked that. “Someone’s thirtieth wife?”

“Fortieth. And I guess I should tell you right now, she’s Allred Lee Chiles’ wife.”

“Fuck,” marveled Dust Bunny. He had all the qualities a good Prospect should have—admiration being top among them. “I heard you were a ladies’ man, but that is acramazing.”

“And don’t say ‘acramazing.’”

“Sorry. So you want me to protect her outside these walls, is that it?”

“Well, hopefully I can protect her. But we need to take one of her sister-wives, and God knows how many of her kids.”

“You said ‘God.’”

“I did? Don’t worry. I’m not converting to Chiles’ brand of Mormonism. Or anything for that matter.”

“You don’t believe in God?”

“I didn’t use to. You’re a man of science. You’d probably say this near death experience I just had was caused by a lack of brain cells firing, or firing in the wrong sequence.”

“Not at all. There’s been scientific evidence that there’s a consciousness that exists separate from our earthly reality. Quantum physics teaches that events don’t occur until conscious beings observe them.”

I snorted. “You’ll get along great with our other Prospect. Hang on.” My phone had just buzzed with a new text.

MAHALIA: Monte Brough went to Texas last week.

Well. That f*cking answered my question. It begged the next question—who the hell would be left to run Cornucopia, to build new buildings and do the grunt work? They seemed to be transferring every man over the age of twenty to Texas. Everyone under that age was just dumped on the side of the road.

“Listen, Dust Bunny. There’s an urgent mine-related thing I need you to do, today if there’s enough daylight left. Can you authorize some deeper digging along the Streaked Wall Bench? Look for areas recently disturbed. It’s been staked off as long as I’ve been there as being played out.”

“What are you looking for?”

“Specifically, gold at two parts per million.”

“That’s mighty specific. You had some tip about this?”

I laughed, thinking about the source of my tip. “Yeah. Let’s just say it came to me when I was in a coma.”

“Cool,” said Dust Bunny, his face all lit up. “You know, the universe wasn’t created in one big bang. It’s a constant process, and it’s constantly being created, one observation at a time.”

I didn’t know what he meant, but I was glad he was taking me at face value. I had to trust him with my next nugget of information. “I want you to look for bodies there, Dust Bunny.”