Shep pointed through the windshield. “Take the next right. We’re gonna—”
“Pffft,” Tenny interrupted from the back seat. “Just put the address in the GPS. He’s not stupid.”
A glance in the rearview proved that Tenny sat slumped across the center of the seat, bent over his phone, but his gaze flashed up to meet Shep’s in the mirror, and it bristled with a clear threat.
Leave Reese alone. Got it.
“Alright.” Shep had to look the address up on his phone before he punched it in. Then he settled in for an awkward ride.
It was silent the first few blocks, save the expensive purring of the engine. Then Reese said, “This is Cass’s friend’s house we’re going to?”
“Yeah,” Shep said, and then, not knowing how much they knew, gave them the quick and dirty on the whole situation.
Tenny hummed thoughtfully as they crossed the bridge. He’d put his phone away and sat up to peer between the front bucket seats. “Tell me again why you haven’t offed this little wanker?”
“Believe me, I want to so bad I can taste it,” Shep said, letting his bitterness and frustration bleed through. “But the friend’s a civilian, and so’s the little rich shit who raped her, so the girls went to the cops, and now…”
“Now if something happens to him, everyone’s going to point to the Dogs,” Tenny said. He tsked. “What were you thinking? Flying colors while you slapped him around.”
Shep stiffened in his seat. He hadn’t included his little pistol-whipping transgression in his version of events.
Tenny chuckled. “What, you thought Raven would leave that part out?”
“I hoped she would.”
“No such luck. Idiot.”
Shep sighed. “Yeah, okay, I deserve that one.”
It was quiet a beat, tires hissing over pavement. Then, with an edge of grudging respect, Tenny said, “No. I’d have sent a message, too. But,” he stressed, after. “I would have done it with a ski mask and without my cut. Idiot.”
“He doesn’t usually mean it when he says idiot,” Reese offered.
“Pipe down, you,” Tenny said. “I mean it.”
Only Tenny gets to call Reese an idiot, you understand.
Actually, in my mind, Shep and Tenny end up being pretty fast friends. Or partners in social crimes, more like. The whole Brood is fairly strapped-down and self-contained; if they don't have a barbed quip at the ready, they keep quiet (the boys, anyway). But Shep just opens his mouth and Says Stuff, damn the consequences.
I have this persistent scenario in mind: someone gets married (Tommy; I think it has to be Tommy, poor dude) and when the officiant gets to the "if anyone objects" part, some stranger in the back stands up and declares his love for the bride. Chaos ensues. Shep is delighted, and there's not enough dirty looks, pokes in the ribs, or high heels grinding down on toes to keep him and Tenny quiet. They keep feeding off one another, while Raven threatens murder, and both their long-suffering spouses look at one another and shrug, both of them secretly delighted in turn by Tenny and Shep's bond in their joint effort to give Tommy absolute hell.
Tenny: "It's just as well, Tom. None of us had given you 'the talk' yet, and this way you won't embarrass yourself on the wedding night."
Shep: "If it helps, she didn't have a great ass."
Raven's no longer forming words she's so angry.
Michelle's mainlining Tommy the good whiskey.
(Please note, this is NOT a book I'm going to write, just a snippet! I'm happy with where all things Dogs leave off, and will only pick the series back up if a publisher throws an advance at my head)
If you haven't read Beware of Dog yet, find it here:
I love the snippet - and will read anything you want to want to write about any Dogs. You have given me so much pleasure with your books.
ReplyDeleteThis really WOULD make a great book or novella! As a die-hard fan of Tenny and Reece, as well as anything Lean Dog, I need/want to know what happens to Tommy. After all, he sparked my interest in A Taste of Candy.
ReplyDelete