Chalk by Lily J. Adams
Epilogue
Chalk
Since the engagement, Lucy and I were experiencing a deeper kind of love. It seemed to bond us together in a way I never imagined. We were a team now. My family had become part of my purpose and I was loving it. I wondered if she might turn into a bridezilla, but she did the exact opposite. She became even more fun in the wedding preparation stage. I didn’t want her to feel like she was alone in the wedding planning, so I joined in.
“Chalk, what do you think about the cake? We have a few tastings to go to later today. We have red velvet with cream cheese frosting, devil’s chocolate cake with hazelnut and chocolate frosting or lemon and butter cake with orange cream cheese frosting.”
I stared at Lucy sitting on the couch with her pencil, chewing on the end of it. She looked so happy, she was smiling and glowing.
That’s all I wanted to do. Make her happy. “Ahh, baby, to be honest every single one of them sounds good. I want to eat them all. Can we do that? Jesus. I can’t pick. I tell you what I’m looking forward to the taste testing. You’re going to ruin my six-pack though,” I grinned as I flicked the TV channels.
Sarah was away at her friend’s house and wasn’t due back until we finished with the tasting that afternoon.
Lucy flashed me a saucy look. “I can help you work off the cake a little later. Don’t worry about it.” She touched my belly.
I felt a spark surge through me. “I like the sound of that,” I told her as I dropped the remote, and leaned over the folder she was holding. Lucy had a pair of lips that were supple, soft and perfectly shaped to attach to my mouth. I tugged on her top lip a little as I looked into her warm, brown eyes. My hand found its way to her face, stroking the side of it. I tugged at her earlobe with my teeth and she moaned a little. I unleashed a flurry of kisses over her face and ended with a kiss on her parted lips. Finally after a long breathless moment, I let her come up for air.
“We are supposed to be wedding planning. You’re not helping me with this!” She giggled.
“This is all part of the fun. All that talk of cakes made me think of your delicious lips is all.” I chuckled.
She quickly kissed the side of my face and slid her folder back on her lap. “Why don’t we go with the cupcake route and build a little tower of cakes? That way, everybody can have a taste of whatever cake they want? What do you think?”
“Hmm, that’s not a bad idea. I would have to see what it looks like. Does sound good though,” I added. “What else do we have on the list to do? This is not as half as bad as I thought it would be,” I smiled.
Lucy gave me a sideways glance. “Why would you think it would be bad?” she asked, snuffling into her hand.
I played with her hair as she looked at the seating chart that she had in front of her. “I thought you might end up being high strung. I wasn’t sure, but it’s been a lot of fun to organize,” I admitted while bracing myself for a slap at my candidness.
“You know what?” she asked in a contemplative tone.
“What, baby?”
“I thought I might have been too, but I feel relaxed. We have enough time to organize everything and we don’t have too many people. It’s going to be a small wedding and I’m happy with that. I don’t want too much stress,” she said in a cheerful tone. “Oh my god, check this out. Take a look at the flower dress that Sarah could wear to be the flower girl. She would be so adorable in it! It has these pastel flowers with lemon and pink on it. I think it’s perfect for her. What do you think?”
I took a look at the dress and it was perfect. “This is cute for her. I like it. The price is good too. We can do it.”
Lucy paused for a minute. “Are you worried about the cost? Because I do know some people that make something similar.”
“No, we have our budget, but we have some wiggle room too. The pool competition is going so well and we’re making money at Wheelz. Cash flow is good. You don’t have to worry. I got money saved for a rainy day.”
“Okay, I don’t need everything, I just want to marry you when it comes down to it,” she said.
I gently slid the book aside and pulled her into my lap. Lucy put her arms around my neck as I looked into her eyes. “You can have whatever you want. Get that dress you want. I know you can’t show it to me, but get that dress because that’s the one for you. It’s your day, really. I want to walk down the aisle with you as much as you do. I want you to have whatever you want on the day. You tell me the cost, and we’ll work out the money. It’s not like you’re being unreasonable. If you were, I would tell you.”
“You’re sweet when you wanna be,” she said as she tapped my nose with her finger.
I laughed as I looked at her. “Sweet, when I wanna be. Ha!”
A cute giggle left her lips. “Yep. You’re a grump in the morning before coffee. I forgot about that. Hey, switching topics, have you heard any more from Angie? Has she been getting any more threats from Rocky?”
Even if I did try to reassure her about Rocky, I knew she was smart enough not to be convinced. The Devil Riders and the Road Warriors were still very much a threat to our existence. It wasn’t as if I got so comfortable that I didn’t look outside every now and then. I remained strapped every step of the way.
My upbeat energy with the wedding talk wavered a little. “No Rocky, so far. She’s working on the siblings of the deceased, and she’s gonna be at Wheelz tomorrow for pool night. You can talk to her then. Now that Rocky has come after her, between her and Mia they are both plotting revenge. I believe she’ll get it too.”
Fascination flashed over Lucy’s face. “I can’t wait to talk to her about it. I wanna know more. I think he was truly trying to scare me when he came to my apartment – if it was him. All fingers point to it being Rocky. He was close to you when you were playing pool,” she remarked.
“Close?” My eyebrows inched up a notch.
“I mean that he was talking to you the most at the club. Did you ever see him follow you from the club ever when you left?” she probed.
I watched her warily, trying to see if she was worried about it or whether she was just curious. From her expression it seemed she was just curious. “No, never. Most of the time, he left before I finished. I would here until late. I had to pack up, collect the winnings, dish out the prizes, that type of thing. He wasn’t a threat in that way, so I thought. Not that I’m naive to think he wouldn’t harass any one of us. He can’t do too much because he’s being looked at. There’s a cloud hanging over him now, with this murder trial and him getting off. Angie brought awareness to him, and he retaliated, which makes me think he had something to do with it.”
Lucy frowned. “I’m worried for her, if she keeps snooping then maybe, she’ll be hit again. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but she’s actually not a bad person.”
I raised my eyebrows in total shock. “I know she helped you move the stuff, but I didn’t know you felt that way.” The tables were turned, now she and Angie were good with one another and I felt strange about things.
“I got to know her in the hospital and hear some of her stories. She’s been through a lot. I can see why she has that tough outer shell, for her job.”
“This is the turnaround of the century,” I exclaimed as I ran my knuckles down her arm.
“I know. You’re not the only one that’s surprised. I wanted to hate Angie until the end of time, but yeah, things change in life,” she added in a wistful tone.
“You’re amazing, you know that? We were getting better and better together. Both of us fit together like the best riding gloves.”
“I know, isn’t it the best?” Lucy said as she turned up her chin. “Now, let’s get back to this seating chart…”
Two security guards built like brick houses stood at the door of the Wheelz bar, one with a bald head and the other with a buzz cut, reminding me of the military was on the other side, both standing at roughly the same height, 6’4”. Both of them were wearing all black.
Lucy and I were on my bike, and as I dismounted, I counted at least ten people entering Wheelz over the course of 60 seconds. I helped my lady off the bike before I slipped my helmet off. “Wheelz is packed right now. Can you hear all that noise? I swear we have twice as many people coming here since that article came out.” I ran my hand over the top of my hair as I gazed up at the violet sky. It looked like a muggy rain was set to hit us and I wanted to get inside before the full downpour occurred.
“I can. I definitely think it’s pumping now. That’s a good thing, right? You have enough room for all the new people?” she asked. She looked like a real biker chick with her dark, wavy locks, leather pants and tight tank top, accentuating her curves.
I gave her a look of admiration as I took her hand. I was proud to have her on my arm. “I think we do, hard to say. If it keeps increasing like this, we might have a problem.” We walked to the entrance and I gave both the security guards the head nod.
They knew who I was and they let me move forward.
As we entered, I saw people at every pool table.
Harper was already on deck writing the competitors on the board and sorting them out into tables. She’d been a great help with the competition, and better yet, she really enjoyed doing it.
Every seat at the bar was taken, a party buzz was in the air and all the conversations were mingled in with the music.
Mia and Angie were deep in conversation at one of the tables with their drinks.
Bear was nursing a beer and watching over the crowd from afar.
Holding Lucy’s hand, I walked over to him. “Hey, Bear, what’s going on man?”
He grinned back at me. Bear was a big guy, solid and not one to mess with. An ex-military gun. I’d seen him in action and most people pretty much left Bear alone. But he was a friendly guy until you messed with his crew or his loved ones. “Hot up in here isn’t it? Look at this shit! People everywhere. This is a good thing.” He acknowledged Lucy and dipped his head. “Hi Lucy, how are you?”
She smiled back at him. “I’m doing good. It’s rocking in here. I like it. Great atmosphere,” she said, having to raise her voice a little bit over the music.
“Sure is,” Bear replied.
Mia and Angie came drifting over from the corner. Those two were like peas in a pod.
I still felt surprised they hadn’t formed some sort of work contract together. I sensed that was probably next for them.
“Hey guys!” Mia sang out. “Lucy, Chalk, you wanna drink?” she asked.
“Nah, I’m going over there anyway,” I said as I pointed to the bar. “I wanna see Ink for a minute. You guys chat and I’ll be back. Hey, Angie.”
She gave me a small smile in return. There seemed to be no hard feelings between us. Her and Lucy even seemed to be friends now.
I traveled over to the bar and saw I wouldn’t have a chance to get into a conversation with Ink, he was running from one side of the bar to the other. He had Chloe – one of the new trainees – behind the bar as well. Both of them were preoccupied.
Bones, Smoke and Hawk were at the other end.
I waved to them and walked over. “This looks like the place to be. What’s going on?”
Hawk greeted me first, “Hey, good to see you Chalk.”
“We were talking about the bidding situation at the casino,” Smoke mentioned, giving me a head nod.
“Hey Chalk,” Bones said, holding his fist for me to dap.
“Why? What’s the latest with it?” I asked him.
Bones replied, “We found out from John Boyer that the Road Warriors and the Devil Riders have teamed up and put in a $10,000 bid above our bid on the place. It’s getting out of hand. We gotta talk to Numbers first about how far we wanna go with it.”
Hawk gave me a one sided grin. “If I had my way, I would just knock them off so they couldn’t even bid.”
“That sounds like a good idea.” I mumbled as I finally caught the attention of Ink. “Both of those clubs are getting on my nerves.”
Ink gave me the thumbs up over the bar with a drink signal. I gave him the thumbs up as well.
“We are running close to the mark or so we thought, Bones claimed. “With the increased business, we might be all right and have extra buying power. We have to make a decision in the next couple of weeks whether we are going to match the offer or take it up a notch. If we do take it up a notch, it has to be substantial.”
“I thought we were going to creep it up bit by bit?” I challenged.
“We were, until both clubs got together collectively and hit us with a $10,000 increase,” Bones added with a touch of irony.
Ink rolled down to our end of the bar. “Hey Brothers. Chalk, here are your drinks, my man. See you later on. You starting soon?”
“Yep! Catch you later,” I called out as I grabbed the two beers. “You’ll keep us up to date I’m sure,” I said to Bones.
“Yup, sure will. We’ll know more soon. Stay tuned for the meeting.”
I headed back to the girls then handed a beer to Lucy. “So, both of you ladies look like you’re up to no good. Tell me about the cases and papers you’re working on,” I said as I took a sip of the golden ale in my hand.
Mia and Angie raised their eyebrows at one another.
“We are up to something,” Mia replied. “Angie is going to check into the siblings of the deceased in the river to see if she can uncover some background. I’m convinced that Rocky did it, but that might not be true.”
Bear strolled over with his beer to the table. “You guys are talking about a case, I can tell,” he observed in his deep voice.
“Yes, we are.” Mia nodded. “We were talking about the Mississippi River murder case that hasn’t been solved. I’m working with Angie on the siblings surrounding the case. A deep dive, if you will. I’m hoping as part of that process, we might discover some evidence that will lead to possibly reopening the case.” She drained the last of her beer.
“Wow. Who are you planning on interviewing, Angie?” Bear asked.
“She’s young, her name is Delphia White. I don’t have her address or anything yet. I think she works around the area,” Angie said with her voice raised over the music.
“Delphia, Delphia. That name rings a bell. I don’t know why. Delphia…” Bear’s eyes flicked open as if a lightbulb had just gone on.
“What is it?” I asked him.
“Delphia is such a unique name. I wouldn’t forget that. She works at the local gas station off Claremont street. She’s really sweet. Long brown hair and long legs. Yeah, I fill up there a lot. I’ve spoken to her.”
The way Bear described her legs made me look at him a little closer, but his face was neutral. Hmm. If I didn’t know any better…
Angie raised her eyebrows. “You know her? Wow. What’s the gas station called?” she inquired in an excited tone.
“It’s called Holbeck Gas. It’s not a big one, but it has good mid-week prices. Gas is too freaking expensive. Gotta go where the bargains are,” Bear claimed with a grin. “She doesn’t seem to be too affected from what I see. She’s always smiling and she’s there all the time. There’s never been a day that I haven’t seen her in there. Too young to be having workaholic tendencies if you ask me.”
“Must be traumatic for her. I wonder how she’s doing,” Lucy lamented with a sigh.
“I guess, I’m going to find out soon,” Angie confirmed with conviction in her eyes. “Thanks Bear, that saves me some time. There’s something strange about this case and I’m going to get to the bottom of it. Rocky isn’t going to get away with shit.”
To some degree…he’d already gotten away with murder.
THE END
