Page 50 of Rascal

“Are we taking bets?” Shane asked, and I laughed.

“Here come two more,” I chuckled. They saw me, did a double take, and headed over. Jonas yanked his identification badge out, and I watched as we started the dance all over again.

By the time we got back to Spearfish and were in Jonas’s car riding home with Shane behind on his Harley, I’d been stopped ten times. Grimes was cussing Jonas out because of all the calls he was getting. His captain was furious, and Jonas pointed out that they’d been warned.

“Where to?” Jonas asked.

“My place, please. King will be waiting.”

“I’m surprised he let you go,” Jonas replied.

“King knows better than to stop me.”

“You’re almost as close as siblings.”

“No, we’re closer. King never once wavered in his belief in me. Not even when everything stacked up and I, myself, doubted my innocence.” I laughed. “King told me to stop thinking I’d had a psychotic break because there was no way that had happened. He was my sanity in a time of insanity. Without King, I’d probably have let those bitches kill me in prison.”

“He’s a good guy.”

“No, King’s the best damn man I’ve ever met.”

“More than Shane?” Jonas asked.

“Yes.” There was no hesitation. King was the greatest.

“Wow. I didn’t expect that answer,” Jonas admitted.

“Why not? I’ve known King since we were babies. We went through everything together. Shane? I knew Shane for five years, and then he threw me away. Shane has nothing on King.

Shane understood back then that my bond with King was unbreakable. He either accepted it or not. Just because King has a dick, it doesn’t mean he wants to poke me with it.”

“That’s a great way of putting it.”

“King adores women, but they have to be batshit crazy, as he loves drama. He also likes a woman to dote on him. And he’s attracted to a round butt. King’s an ass man. The bigger and juicier, the more attractive she is. King doesn’t care if she’s black, white, Mexican, or blue with yellow spots. A juicy butt and drama does it for him,” I replied.

“It’s good you’ve got that relationship.”

“Yeah. I know what uptight white people imagine when they see King. A well-built, muscled, handsome black guy who wears jeans and wife-beaters and a thick gold chain. They think gangbanger. That necklace came from King’s grandfather; it was a sign of him crawling out of poverty. It was handed down to King’s father and then to King. It means something. His tattoos all have meaning, too. They spot his cornrows and think druggie or wannabe rapper. It makes me laugh.”

“He’s on sabbatical, isn’t he?”

“Yes. King took a year off, but he’s dabbling. He can’t sit still for long.”

“I was impressed with his resume.”

“Yeah. He’s a modern-day genius. He’s the guy the government calls when they mess up.” I grinned. King was highly sought after as a computer programmer who fixed broken programmes and was widely regarded as a troubleshooter. If someone got hacked, they called him; if someone’s programme started acting up, King fixed it.

“You’re very proud of him,” Jonas stated.

“Yup. When he graduated and set up on his own, King charged the local businesses a discounted rate because it was home. When King was vocal in defending me, a lot of them dropped him. Then their shit broke.

“They tried getting others in, who couldn’t fix the problem; many referred the companies back to King. Finally, they had to call him in. When they did, King charged them the full rate. They were outraged, and King pointed out he’d been doing discounted work for them until they’d crapped on him. King owed nobody anything and made that very clear. Loyalty once betrayed isn’t easily given. And because they’d gone to hack jobs, the jobs often ended up costing much more!”

“What about you? Will you look for a similar job to your previous one?”

“No. King’s asked me to partner with him and run the office. He’s a nightmare for the admin side of things, whereas I’m a whizz.”

“As long as you don’t fight.”