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Authors: Rain Stickland
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set up.” She got up from the table, grabbing another juice and a big hunk of cheese to take with her.
“Alright, I’m going to go call him and subject him to my own form of grilling. He made it obvious he was interested in the ride, so now he’ll have to pay the price of admission.”
6
C ONFESSIONS AND C OMBUSTION
Mackenzie grabbed her cell, experiencing the same fluttering sensation she had earlier as she dialled Neil’s cell phone.
“Mac?” She laughed.
“Yeah, it’s me. I guess you weren’t expecting anyone else, huh? Are you at home now?”
“Sure am. I take it you’ve finally made it home for the night yourself?” Mac practically groaned in relief now that she really was done for the day and could enjoy this conversation.
“I am, thankfully. It’s been a very long, very trying day. We just got here last night from Hamilton. I didn’t get much sleep because I had to be up early enough to run errands today, and I don’t usually sleep at night. Between the psycho kid with his nefarious intentions, and having to run down to Gravenhurst to get Kirk and Leigh fuelled up, I didn’t manage to get as much done as I intended to.
“The upshot is that we now have four hands to do the work instead of two, so hopefully things will go pretty quick now.” It was weird to her that she could talk to him like this, as a kind of how-was-your-day type deal, but she felt comfortable with him for some reason.
“Fill me in on the details with Gerry. I think if I know what happened I can talk to his dad and maybe calm the situation down. His dad won’t take kindly to that sort of behaviour from his son.”
She’d already told him the highlights, but she filled him in on the rest of the details. It didn’t take long, since it had all happened so fast.
“Hence the quick attachment to your new knife,” he finished for her.
“Yup. It really is a pretty little thing. Doesn’t have the range of a firearm, but it would make an impression if needed.”
“Would I be off the mark if I guessed you were equipped to handle yourself there as well?”
“You’d be right on the mark. I can handle that kind of equipment very well.” It wasn’t until she heard the teasing humming sound from him that she realized what she’d said, and what he had inferred from it aside from firearms.
“Uh, well, that too I suppose,” she said, just to tease him back.
“I’m not sure I should run any further down that line of thought tonight. Might be more than I can handle. It’s the one kind of imagination I’ve got.” Mac laughed softly.
“Okay, I might let you off the hook if you talk about yourself for a little while. You’ve learned a lot about me already, and I hardly know you at all it seems.”
“That’s fair. Well, I’m forty-five. Just the one kid, and you’ve already met Billy. Never married, though I wasn’t afraid of it. More that I was afraid of it with the wrong woman. Worked as a machinist for a number of years, but I didn’t like working for other people.
“Billy started getting into mild trouble at school about eight years ago, and I was fed up with letting his mother get away with not doing any actual parenting. Diane kept getting married over and over, hoping someone would take care of her, instead of taking care of Billy.
“When I told her I wanted full custody, she didn’t even question it. Just told him to pack a bag. Pissed me off, to be frank. No one should be like that with their own kid. She wasn’t like that when we met, but shortly after she had Billy something happened. We lived in Vancouver for a while, and we weren’t in the best neighbourhood. Some thugs broke in while I was at work, and Diane was home with the baby. They trashed everything that wasn’t fit to sell, and stole everything that was.
“What I didn’t find out until later was that they beat her while she was tied up, to force her to tell them where we kept our non-existent
“Alright, I’m going to go call him and subject him to my own form of grilling. He made it obvious he was interested in the ride, so now he’ll have to pay the price of admission.”
6
C ONFESSIONS AND C OMBUSTION
Mackenzie grabbed her cell, experiencing the same fluttering sensation she had earlier as she dialled Neil’s cell phone.
“Mac?” She laughed.
“Yeah, it’s me. I guess you weren’t expecting anyone else, huh? Are you at home now?”
“Sure am. I take it you’ve finally made it home for the night yourself?” Mac practically groaned in relief now that she really was done for the day and could enjoy this conversation.
“I am, thankfully. It’s been a very long, very trying day. We just got here last night from Hamilton. I didn’t get much sleep because I had to be up early enough to run errands today, and I don’t usually sleep at night. Between the psycho kid with his nefarious intentions, and having to run down to Gravenhurst to get Kirk and Leigh fuelled up, I didn’t manage to get as much done as I intended to.
“The upshot is that we now have four hands to do the work instead of two, so hopefully things will go pretty quick now.” It was weird to her that she could talk to him like this, as a kind of how-was-your-day type deal, but she felt comfortable with him for some reason.
“Fill me in on the details with Gerry. I think if I know what happened I can talk to his dad and maybe calm the situation down. His dad won’t take kindly to that sort of behaviour from his son.”
She’d already told him the highlights, but she filled him in on the rest of the details. It didn’t take long, since it had all happened so fast.
“Hence the quick attachment to your new knife,” he finished for her.
“Yup. It really is a pretty little thing. Doesn’t have the range of a firearm, but it would make an impression if needed.”
“Would I be off the mark if I guessed you were equipped to handle yourself there as well?”
“You’d be right on the mark. I can handle that kind of equipment very well.” It wasn’t until she heard the teasing humming sound from him that she realized what she’d said, and what he had inferred from it aside from firearms.
“Uh, well, that too I suppose,” she said, just to tease him back.
“I’m not sure I should run any further down that line of thought tonight. Might be more than I can handle. It’s the one kind of imagination I’ve got.” Mac laughed softly.
“Okay, I might let you off the hook if you talk about yourself for a little while. You’ve learned a lot about me already, and I hardly know you at all it seems.”
“That’s fair. Well, I’m forty-five. Just the one kid, and you’ve already met Billy. Never married, though I wasn’t afraid of it. More that I was afraid of it with the wrong woman. Worked as a machinist for a number of years, but I didn’t like working for other people.
“Billy started getting into mild trouble at school about eight years ago, and I was fed up with letting his mother get away with not doing any actual parenting. Diane kept getting married over and over, hoping someone would take care of her, instead of taking care of Billy.
“When I told her I wanted full custody, she didn’t even question it. Just told him to pack a bag. Pissed me off, to be frank. No one should be like that with their own kid. She wasn’t like that when we met, but shortly after she had Billy something happened. We lived in Vancouver for a while, and we weren’t in the best neighbourhood. Some thugs broke in while I was at work, and Diane was home with the baby. They trashed everything that wasn’t fit to sell, and stole everything that was.
“What I didn’t find out until later was that they beat her while she was tied up, to force her to tell them where we kept our non-existent
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