Trey," Huff offered as Trey went behind the bar to grab his personal bottle of High West American Prairie Reserve. Almost all the booze in the bar was free if it was of the no-call variety as was the beer, but if a member had a taste for his own particular blend, they bought it themselves and kept it behind the bar, knowing full well no other member would touch it without getting permission first.
"How's the kid?" Trey asked carefully, pouring two fingers over the ice in his glass.
Dare recapped Drake's evening which had Trey laughing so hard, he had to put the cut-crystal tumbler back down on the bar.
"Aw, shit. I fucking love first days," Trey exclaimed when he could finally talk. Huff shot his eyes to Dare, a look that Trey caught. "What? Did I miss something?"
"Huff here was just saying the opposite," Dare advised with a smile.
"You gotta be kiddin', amigo. This shit is good. We get to fuck with his head and scare him so bad his little balls will be trying to crawl back up into his body!"
"Yeah, but the mouth on these fucking punks nowadays. Makes a man want to…"
"It's just talk, Huff. That's all they are. Nothing but talk." Dare threw his two cents in.
Trey blinked at the large blonde man over the rim of him glass. "You don't have to be a part, Huff. Know this is hard on you, man, so stay out of it. I've got enough people that can work him."
Huff's eyes were on the remaining inches of his beer.
"I met the folks tonight. Dad's only got one-arm and is completely blind. The mom's got medical issues too, if her blue nail-beds and lack of color in her face are any indication. The only person in that family is a daughter who's trying to handle it all." Trey didn't usually take the time to explain himself to anyone, but Ben had been Huff's younger brother and he knew each one of the young cases HMC took on hit the man hard. There was always the possibility of another kid taking his life before the new knowledge and new way of handling themselves kicked in. "The punk's escalating and about to age out. It's now or never for him. And I think we are just the fuckers to pry his head from his own ass."
Huff seemed to take Trey's words on before he rapped his knuckles on the bar. "I'll steer clear then." Dare and Trey's eyes followed the large man as he lifted himself from the stool, picked up his glass to drain the last bit in it. They exchanged chin lifts before Huff exited.
"That stuff about Sheridan's home life true?" Dare asked after the door closed.
Trey leaned his elbows on the bar and nodded before adding, "unfortunately."
"Shit…" Dare drawled. "Think Silo knows?"
"Why would he? According to him, she's the best he's got on all his crews. Knows her shit, doesn't create drama with the boys and keeps her personal issues to herself. A model em-ploy-yee."
Dare eyed the man across the bar who was his friend, his boss and his brother after catching a tone in his voice. "Seems like one little gal is getting a promotion. Or is there more?"
"Yeah to the promotion part," Trey replied before finishing his own drink. It was the breathed, "we'll see about the rest," which had Dare almost choking on his tequila.
"C'mon, let's go see if we can make numb-nuts piss himself," Trey offered.
"Right behind you, Prez," Dare said with a smile.
He had a feeling things were going to get pretty interesting around the yard over the next six months.
. . . .*
In the course of a given day, I didn't get a whole lot of 'me' time that wasn't spent with my eyes closed, but I'd carved out thirty minutes of each and every workday before the beginning of my shift just for that.
It was a time to think, to sort the 'needed to be done' from the 'should be done' crap. To reacquaint myself with the week's various appointments or to comprise a list of groceries that needed to be fetched before I'd take my tired ass home.
It was a chance to fucking breathe.
All accompanied by the driving beats of old-school 70's rock, a genre I'd stumbled on