Page 51 of Forget That Guy
He’d spent years trying to pass laws that just wouldn’t work for us—trying to make us a bigger city when, in fact, we were anything but. Residents wanted the small-town life. We didn’t mind a tourist or two. We didn’t mind people visiting to see our beautiful land. But we didn’t want their ideals changing our way of life when all they were going to do was leave as fast as they arrived.
And Marcellus was number one in wanting to change that for us.
He’d come from fucking Seattle with his big city views, and his ‘money, money, money’ morals.
He didn’t care about the local baker who donated to the Little League every year. He didn’t care about the mechanic in town that’d been fixing cars for fifty years now. And he certainly didn’t give one flying fuck about a cattle business that would need water to survive.
A hot commodity for the area.
“Well, hello there, Marcellus,” I drawled. “The rest of the board in like I asked?”
They blinked and shifted nervously on their feet.
They knew I ran this town.
They might think they were running it, but it was my club and I that enforced laws around here. Even the sheriff was on our side.
Nothing big happened in the three towns in our area without it being run through us first.
And the fact that they tried to sneak this one in…
“We are.” Marcellus cleared his throat. “What’s this about?”
I ignored him and Knox and headed inside the room where they all met.
They all took their seats on their high chairs surrounded by their podiums and waited for me to talk.
I took a seat in a rolling chair and crossed my arms over my chest and waited.
“Uh, Denver?” Knox asked, shifting uncomfortably. “What’s this about?”
“Why don’t you tell me?”
The door behind me opened, but I didn’t turn around.
I knew who it was.
My club would trickle in one at a time when their schedules allowed.
Whoever had just come in yanked the seat back loudly and sat, stretching his feet out in front of him.
The slow, methodical “click-click” of a toothpick rolling across teeth let me know that it was Odin.
I nearly laughed.
Out of everyone in the entire club that could get here first, it had to be him.
Odin was by far the grumpiest, meanest, and least patient.
He already sounded like he was ready to leave.
The city’s board shifted in front of me even more nervously.
The door banged shut again, then I heard Hux say, “Ow, dammit. What the fuck?”
I looked over my shoulder at him rubbing his elbow as if he’d hit it on the doorframe on his way inside.
“Sorry to interrupt.” He took a seat.
