Page 64 of Truck

Taking out my phone, I send a text message to Coin.

Rory: You can remove my guest login, Coin. Everything is A-OK, and I have no suggestions to make. Great job! You are running a tight ship with these businesses.

Coin: Thanks, Rory. I’m relieved that there are no issues. Both Keys and I have completed online courses, and it looks like they were worth doing.

Rory: They sure were because I have nothing to improve on with this business, or the gas station.

Coin: Thanks again, Rory.

Clearing away the table, which I’ve been using as a desk, I look around the house and wonder what we’ll do with it once we move into the house Truck is having built. Maybe rent it out? Or do I sell? I’m not going to make any rash decisions. Okay, now I have a few minutes spare I’m going next door to check on Martin and Cory. They have become good friends, and even when I move I’ll still call and take them shopping and to any appointments they may have.

TRUCK

Icannot stop grinning to myself. I’m one lucky fucker to have found Rory and got to her before one of the other brothers did. I know some of the brothers are ready to settle down, have a family, and eventually enjoy some peace after all the shit we’ve gone through in our lives.

Rum and I are more than happy Rory has given us the all clear on the business financials, and I know Rum is more relieved than I am. Let’s be honest he has been more manager than I have so far.

Walking into the office, I take a seat next to Rum and lean toward the monitor. The monitor has six separate camera feeds running. “What are you looking for?” I ask as my eyes flick from one of the feeds to another.

“Bull said he’d seen someone on his camera feed but couldn’t make out what was going on. But he has had nothing go missing or messed with. I’m running through the timeline he gave me for the back of the gas station. Our feeds show a different angle to his cameras. Maybe we will have picked something up?” Rum hasn’t taken his eyes from the screen and is also scanning one feed after another.

“There! What’s that?” I ask, and we both lean in further to take a better look. “It’s a woman,” I utter softly as I watch her push herself underneath one of the recovery trucks.

“What is she doing?” Rum mutters, also shocked at what we are seeing.

“Hiding. It looks like she’s hiding,” Rum flicks the feed to run a little faster, and we watch as she stays underneath the truck for two hours. We also see a man walk around the yard, sticking to the shadows the best he can. “He’s looking for the woman, Truck.”

“Yeah, I’m going to speak to the brothers and tell them to watch this and keep their eyes and ears peeled. Then if they see this fucker here after that woman hides they do what is necessary,” I grit my teeth as I say this and know if I’m here I’ll beat the crap out of the asshole. “It’s fuckin’ obvious she’s hiding from him, and he’s got a beat down coming, Rum.”

“I’ll speak to Bull and update him on what we found. I’ll get Keys to send this portion of the feed over to him so he can show everyone in the recovery yard what we’ve found. I hope she is okay, Truck,” Rum sighs as he picks up the cell phone he has sitting on the side of his desk.

Walking out to the front of the station, I look around for Echo, who was wiping down the pumps this morning as part of our daily chores. “Echo!” I shout, and as he looks up, I wave him over to me.

“What’s up?”

“When you get back to the house tell Xero to watch the feed on the back of the station for a woman. She was hiding under one of the trucks, and an asshole was seen shortly after trying to find her. Well, that’s what it looked like, anyway. If any of us see her and this fucker, we'll sort him out. I’ll not watch a woman being hunted like she’s some kind of prey to any asshole.”

“I’ll tell Xero when I get back to the house tonight. I’ll make sure he knows before he starts his night shift. Dice went into town to get lunch because Ian is busy at the clubhouse this morning. Either of us can tell him when he gets back. None of us would watch a woman being hunted or abused.”

Cracking his knuckles, Echo looks like he’d enjoy the job of straightening the fucker out. “You look as eager to find the fucker as I feel.” I give a snort of laughter which has Echo grinning at me.

Dice is informed when he comes back with lunch, and we check the feed again, so Dice and Echo are fully aware of what happened. Bull is snorting like a bull and sounds like he’s going to hunt this asshole down until Joker tells him to calm his tits, which has all of us laughing, of course.

“Who is watching the counter?” Rum asks after a few minutes, and we all jump to our feet shocked that we dropped the ball. Dice runs out of the office, and we hear him loudly saying, “Sorry, we had a problem in the back. I’ll get that rung up for you now. Anything else?”

We naturally burst out laughing at the way Dice quickly spoke to whoever the customer was, but no shouting occurred, so it seems Dice quickly got the customer served.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you, Truck. Briony is here. She’s cleaning the showers, and we are timing it to see how long it will take. It’ll be longer this first time because they have stood empty for a long time. But you know when we checked the showers worked,” Rum chuckles and continues. “I expected them not to work after all this time, but…”

“Excuse me.”

We all turn and see Briony standing at the entrance to the office soaking wet, and I mean dripping from the top of her head to her trainers.

“What the hell happened?” Rum near enough shouts as he jumps to his feet.

“Well, it seems the showers have running water, but after a few minutes of warm water coming through a pipe burst and here we are,” Briony states so calmly that I don’t stop the smirk that crosses my face. Seeing it, Briony laughs. “Yeah, it was a shock, but at least it wasn’t freezing cold water. But I can’t turn the water shut off valve, so water is still flowing. Can someone look, please?”

Echo struts over and does not bother about getting wet as he throws his arm around Briony’s shoulders. “Come on, babe. I’ll take a look at it.”