Tarot

 

 

After Peyton called in to her work, I told her I needed to go home and change. “Would you like to take a trip with me?”

“To your place? Sure,” she replied, smiling. “As long as we take your motorcycle.”

“Of course. You’d better change into some jeans,” I said, nodding toward the white sundress which showed off her shapely legs, but wasn’t riding material. “You look gorgeous, but it’s safer.”

I couldn’t bear the thought of anything happening to her. One never knew if some asshole was going to cause an accident. It was mind-blowing the amount of people who still didn’t watch out for motorcyclists. Even as loud as my bike was, people just didn’t seem to pay enough attention.

Peyton went back to her bedroom to change and I checked my messages. There was a text from Phoenix reminding me of the meeting at three.

“Shit,” I muttered.

I’d forgotten.

“What is it?” Peyton called out from the other room.

I walked into the bedroom and told her about the club meeting.

She buttoned her jeans up and grabbed a light blue T-shirt from the bed. “Oh. No problem,” she replied, pulling it over her head. “Should I just stay home?”

I watched her get dressed, thinking it was a shame that we had to go anywhere when all I wanted was to get her naked again.

I sighed. “No, I want you with me. After I change, we can grab another bite and then I’ll drop you off on the way to my meeting.”

“Sounds good,” she said, tucking her shirt into her jeans. “I’ll grab a pair of socks, and we can take off.”

“I’ll meet you outside.”

“Okay.”

 

***

 

Thirty minutes later, we were just stepping inside my apartment complex when I bumped into one of my neighbors. It had been awhile since we’d seen each other, so it surprised me when he asked about my night.

“It was excellent,” I said. “By the way, Peyton, this is Chuck. One of my neighbors. Chuck, this is someone you’ll be seeing much more of.” I put my arm around her shoulders. “I hope.”

“Nice to meet you, Chuck,” she said, looking pleased.

He smiled at her. “Likewise. So, when did you two meet?”

“Just a couple of days ago,” she said.

“You must have given him the night off,” he replied.

Puzzled, I asked what he meant  

“Last night when we bumped into each other, you mentioned having a couple of your boys over.”

“Brother, I never spoke to you last night,” I said, frowning. “I was with Peyton all evening.”

Chuck looked confused. “I’m pretty sure we ran into each other last night. You had that white cooler and we even spoke.”

“Sorry. Wasn’t me, man. What’s wrong, lose your glasses?” I joked. Normally, he had them on.

“I don’t need glasses anymore. I had Lasik done a couple of weeks ago,” he said.

“Can you get a refund?” I replied, chuckling. “Cause, seriously, I wasn’t home last night.”

“This is really odd,” replied Chuck, scratching his head. He frowned. “Either you’re pulling my leg or you have a doppelganger.”

Doppelganger.

The hair stood up on the back of my neck.

“Stay here,” I said to Peyton, walking away.

“What’s wrong?” she called.

I glanced back. “Probably nothing. Just go back outside and wait for me by my bike. Please.”

Looking perplexed, she gave Chuck one final glance and then stepped out of the building.

“You need any help?” he called.  

“I’ll be fine,” I replied, wishing I had my blade or gun on me. Something told me that the asshole impersonating me was long gone, however.

My apartment was locked and quiet when I walked in. I looked around, but didn’t notice anything out of place. Still, I knew the asshole had been there. Closing my eyes, I tried to get a sense of what the fucker had been doing and why he’d been there. After a few seconds, an image popped into my head of a rolling, white cooler.

Realizing that he’d hidden something important in that cooler, I opened my eyes and began searching the apartment again. When I opened up the bedroom closet, I noticed right away that my new denim cut was missing.

That pissed the hell out of me.

Furious, I knelt down and started searching through some of the boxes I hadn’t yet unpacked. It was then I found Devon’s safe, hidden in the back, under some clothing.

Fuckers were still trying to pin the burglary on me.

Gritting my teeth, I pulled out my phone and called Phoenix. It went to his voicemail.

“Brother, you’re never going to believe what I found in my closet,” I said. “Devon’s safe. The fuckers had the actual balls to sneak into my place with it. Talk about a gutsy move. Call me.”

As I hung up, Peyton sent me a text, asking if everything was okay. I told her I was fine and to hang tight.