Page 117 of Burning for You

Jesse takes a deep breath. Putting one hand on my shoulder, he takes over my phone and makes a call. He greets his old mate-slash-enemy, “Giro, it’s me.”

About half an hour later, a black truck comes. Giro steps out. It looks like he’s come alone.

“My God! Is it you, Jeans? You’ve fucking grown up!” Giro says, walking leisurely toward us.

“Where is she?” I say, meeting him.

Jesse shields me. “Giro, if you want something from me, it’s time to do so. What will it take?”

“You know those Yankees?”

“Where is she?” I say.

Giro says, “Well, they paid me handsomely to take a woman.”

“If you even touched her…” I say.

“What, Jeans?” Giro says. “That woman is a damn fine vixen, but know this—my guys are mercenaries, but they ain’t no rapists. Tell ’im, Jesse.”

Jesse glances at me.

Giro doesn’t seem to want to linger on the subject. He continues, “I don’t know about my clients, though. They looked horny enough to me.”

“Where did they take her, Giro?” Jesse says.

Giro remains silent.

“Come on, man. Name a price,” Jesse insists.

“You. I want you back,” Giro says adamantly.

I don’t want my brother to rejoin the disastrous gang, but I need to know where Carolyn is.

“You know I like to negotiate.” Jesse takes a step closer to Giro. “You can have the ranch.”

Giro raises his brow. “Come again?”

“The ranch is yours. Tell me where she is.”

The ranch is Jesse’s. If it was mine, I wouldn’t hesitate to give it up for Carolyn. But seeing my brother do this, it breaks me.

“That ranch is worth chicken shit,” Giro mocks.

Jesse places his hand on Giro’s shoulder, close to his neck. “You hurt her, you hurt her baby.”

I haven’t confirmed Carolyn’s pregnancy with my brother. So far as he knows, it’s only rumors. I’m not sure what he’s thinking.

Perhaps feeling my agitation, Jesse passes me a glance of ‘shut up.’

The two men stare at each other for a long time.

Then the head of the Pit Vipers says, “If I find you’re fucking with me, I’ll cut your dick off and put it on the grill.”

“It’d be the juiciest goddamn dick you’d ever had in your mouth.”

Giro tosses a bitter smirk. “Fifty miles southeast of Diamond Lake.”

“You’d better pull your men, or I’m gonna kill them,” Jesse says.