The 'Burg: Hold On Part 101

These included targeting married men with their charms (and unfortunately, since Susie was very attractive, she was successful with this). They gossiped viciously with the few friends they had, spreading that gossip as far and as wide as they could, even if it was all lies. And they threw down easily and frequently whenever the spirit moved them (even to the point of Susie going at it with Vi right in front of Cal, who Susie had f.u.c.ked, a fact she'd shared with Vi right in front of Cal).

Everyone in town hated her.

I only knew her because I'd seen pictures of her in conjunction with reports about Lowe's mayhem and I'd seen her around town here and there.

But in the grand scheme of things in the 'burg, I knew one thing for certain: if your day was filled with happiness and light or it was the worst kind of c.r.a.p, Susie Shepherd could darken it exponentially.

s.h.i.t.

"Your input isn't needed here, Susie," Mia snapped.

"You aren't needed here, Mia," Susie snapped back, then looked at me, throwing out a disgusted hand. "I mean, seriously. Normally? Rude. But it's Christmas." She shook her head. "Some people."

I stared at Susie in shock.

Mia didn't.

She turned fully to her and shared, "I was having a private conversation with Cher."

"You were staking your claim to Merrick. Again. I don't get it, Mia. The man's so over you, it's embarra.s.sing. I mean," she jerked her head to me, "she's all but shacked up with him, in Bobbie's parking lot with a trunk full of Christmas decorations they're gonna put on a tree in his new house and probably f.u.c.k under, and you get in her face." She shook her head and concluded, "It's not embarra.s.sing, it's plain sad."

I watched this all going down with some fascination at the same time I made a mental note to find time to f.u.c.k Merry under our new boho Christmas tree.

"Your opinion is unwanted," Mia shot back.

"Just trying to help a sister save face," Susie said with false concern. "I mean, why you haven't left town yet, I do not know."

"You are asking me that?" Mia retorted.

Susie shrugged. "Yeah. The words did come out of my mouth two seconds ago."

Mia decided she was done, declaring this fact by saying, "Just go away. This is none of your business."

I braced when Susie suddenly took two steps forward, getting right in Mia's s.p.a.ce and face, and hissed, "It is my business." She lifted a hand and jabbed a finger my way. "She's happy. He f.u.c.ked her over, but now she's finally happy and you're in a G.o.dd.a.m.ned parking lot f.u.c.king with that. So it is my business, Mia. Stay out of her face or you'll find mine all up in yours. And, baby girl, get me. Your kitten claws might sting, but you tangle with me, I'll shred you."

Holy f.u.c.k!

Susie was throwing down.

For me.

"So you two are Denny Lowe sisters, is that it?" Mia bit back.

"Yeah," Susie whispered. "Yeah we are. We don't wanna be, but we are. And, just in case you aren't getting this, because we are, you don't f.u.c.k with us."

Whoa.

Susie was totally throwing down.

For me.

I was attempting to process this and how I felt about it when I braced again. This was because Susie's eyes lifted from Mia and she tensed.

Visibly.

Susie visibly tensed and I watched the blood drain clean from her face.

Then she started backing up.

Her mouth moved.

It moved again.

No sound came out.

"What?" I asked.

Her mouth moved, and again, no sound came out.

"Susie, are you okay?"

She looked to me.

Then she screamed, "Run!"

And that was when the gunshots exploded.

Garrett "Pink."

Garrett turned in line at Mimi's Coffee Shop to see Cal behind him, his baby son asleep and strapped to his chest, his little girl in front of him in a stroller, the key fob to Cal's truck half an inch from Angela's face, a clear object of fascination.

"What?" he asked.

"Pink," Cal repeated, looked to Mike at Garrett's side, his eyes f.u.c.king alight with humor.

s.h.i.t.

"And, I hear, some purple," Cal went on.

"What are you talkin' about?" Garrett asked.

"Vi reported in. The ornaments for your tree. Brace, man. Cher's testin' you," Cal told him.

Pink Christmas ornaments.

Did they even make pink Christmas ornaments?

"They do that," Mike muttered.

Garrett turned to his partner. "They do what?"

"Test you," Mike said.

"Now what are you talkin' about?" Garrett asked.

"Pink ornaments. Purple sheets. s.h.i.t for the kitchen you do not need," Cal answered the question he asked Mike. And he wasn't done. "Wait until you get in a discussion about who's gonna pay what bill. Vi gave it her all to unman me with that one, brother. Cher sinks her teeth in you, you give in even a little on that, she'll have your b.a.l.l.s and she'll be payin' your mortgage."

f.u.c.k.

"And toss pillows," Cal kept at it. "So many toss pillows, it's borderline insane. They got some for summer. Then, for some G.o.dforsaken reason, they switch them out for winter. They add some for Halloween. Thanksgiving. Christmas." He shook his head, but his eyes were still full-on amused. "They use this s.h.i.t to test you. See how tight a hold they got on your d.i.c.k."

Garrett stared at him.

Angela whirled her dad's key fob in the air and shouted, "May-May!"

That meant Merry.

He grinned down at her, bending to touch the tip of her nose with his finger. "Hey, sweetheart."

When he straightened away, she twisted to try to see her father. "Want May-May!"

Cal bent over the stroller. "Merry's workin', baby. Today, you got Daddy."

"Daddeeee!" she yelled, a big grin on her pretty face, clearly not too cut up she couldn't have Garrett.

"Just let it go, man," Mike advised to Garrett, and he turned to Mike as Mike moved forward in the line. "And by that, I mean the pink ornaments. Just let her have them."

Cal inclined his head toward Mike. "That's the way. Suck it up. Take the hit. You fight over pink ornaments and purple sheets, she may let go of your d.i.c.k." He grinned. "And you don't want that."

"Cher's got beads acting as a door to her closet," Garrett told Cal.

Cal nodded sagely, still grinning. "Mm-hmm. You're in for it, brother."

"What I'm sayin' is, who gives a s.h.i.t?" Merry asked. "She's it. Got over the wrong one; got my hands on the right one. So if she wants pink ornaments and I got no preference of Christmas ornaments except havin' 'em, then who cares? If it makes her happy..." he trailed off on a shrug.

Cal's brows drew together like he couldn't comprehend what Garrett was saying to him.

Garrett grinned at him as his phone rang.

He pulled it out, looked at the screen, decided tomorrow he was f.u.c.king finally going to go get a new phone, and he took Sully's call.

"Yo, Sul."

"Merry, brother, call just came in. Shots fired. Parking lot at Bobbie's Garden Shoppe."

Garrett froze.

Not because there were shots fired.

Because of the tone in Sully's voice and the fact that Cher was going to Bobbie's that day.

"Sul," he whispered, his insides freezing.

"s.h.i.ts me to say this-s.h.i.ts me-but gotta say it. Calls came in reported the shooter abducted Cher."

He turned sharply and headed to the door.

"You with Colt?" he asked Sully.

"Merry," Mike called.

"We're headed that way," Sully told him. "Colt's a little..." He didn't finish.

He didn't have to.

Garrett knew what Colt was.

He was that too.

Except she was his.

She was Colt's friend.

But Cher was his.

And she'd been abducted.

f.u.c.king abducted.

So what Colt was, Garrett was more of it.

"We're headed that way too," Garrett told him, shoving out the door.

"Merry, dammit, what the f.u.c.k?" Mike clipped.

"You got any more?" Garrett asked Sully.

"Nothin'. Call just came in. Pandemonium at Bobbie's. Got units goin' out there. If I get more before you get there, I'll call," Sully answered.

"Later," Garrett bit off, standing on the driver's side door of their service sedan. He looked to Mike, who was rounding the hood. "Keys," he demanded.

It wasn't his day to drive.

"Garrett, what's goin' on?" Mike asked tersely.

"Shots fired at Bobbie's and preliminary reports say that the shooter took Cher."