Page 29 of It Takes a Thief

The windows blew sideways, just like in those fifties films of the nuclear tests. Splinters that were entire two-by-fours were hurled into the mountainside like knives. The power of the explosion nearly knocked my lid off and curled my lips. The thing that came closest to braining me was the fucking water heater, of all things. Thanks to that hurtling rocket, I had to blaze out of there a few split seconds sooner than I would’ve wished. In my rearview mirror, I saw it crash into a boulder and fold around it like welcoming arms.

I had no idea what happened to the two bikers inside the house. Probably vaporized beyond the point of leaving an arm to thud to the ground. No, there would be no thudding of body parts. I thought this almost wistfully as I carved it out of Happy Fucking Jack, sparking pegs, not passing a single cager in that godforsaken burg.

I stayed at the Citadel until late. There were lots of items to discuss at the table. By some weird kind of osmosis, everyone seemed to know what I’d pulled up on Mormon Mountain. They were silent out of respect for it, so there wasn’t much talk about hitting back at the Cutlasses. No, it was all about the construction debacle of earlier. Predictably, OSHA had shown up, citing everything in sight, putting a stop work notice on the job. Although no one had been injured per se, a couple of cagers had been taken away in the ambulance for anxiety symptoms—shortness of breath and possible heart attack. Then our client, the Department of Transportation, had appeared. Tuzigoot, Greving, and Andre had had major sit-downs with them all day. The mystery dude who had stopped the paving machine from its certain demolition derby was absent. Andre took credit for it instead. There was no conclusion about anything, but we were in a beaucoup amount of trouble.

When the meeting finally adjourned, it was past midnight. For the billionth time, I thanked my lucky stars I’d built my new house nearby. Some guys had to go clear down into Cottonwood to kick off their boots. I was already nestled in the bosom of my family, and I knew I didn’t fucking appreciate it. I didn’t pay them nearly enough attention. It was just… the job… the jobs…

I entered my house with a sense of new beginning. Maddy’s car in the driveway told me she was back from Chinle—whyever the fuck she’d gone there in the first place. Maybe some medical emergency on the Rez, that was all I could figure. Even more remotely, it might’ve had something to do with Ogden Taliwood of our brother club in Lake Havasu. Either way, I barely had bandwidth to call her, much less find out what she was doing. I hadn’t showered in two days, and that was my passionate goal at the moment.

In my office upstairs, I quickly quaffed some serious Glen Fiddich 18-year-old. It went like a burning sword straight to my empty gullet. I felt victorious because I had no need to take any Adderall. The house was deliciously quiet as a monastery, almost buzzing with stillness. I knew my kids were snug in their beds, Maddy languishing between the Egyptian cotton sheets with her hair all fanned out on the mattress. Yeah. I enjoyed just feeling the peace and tranquility, the shouting of my men’s voices in church still lingering in the back of my brain.

But I wasn’t there to work, linger, or peruse anything. I wanted to shower and fall into bed next to my shapely, sensuous, loving old lady. I used one of the guest showers to avoid waking her.

The shower was like manna from heaven, if one believed in heaven. I used both showerheads and for once took time to let them pound my shoulder muscles. Using some unfamiliar shower gel, I spent a few seconds inhaling the eucalyptus scent, letting steam fill my nostrils. This was what I needed. I had just buried a couple of guys for messing up my highway job. I needed to sluice the cordite stink of C-4 from my skin.

As I towel-dried my hair, my cock began to rise. Good. Maddy was often up for a bit of the ol’ wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am. Then I stopped myself. Tonight should be about something different. I couldn’t just raw dog her like a Cro Magnon. Tonight I’ll show her true love.

But when I pushed open our bedroom door, to my surprise Maddy was seated at her vanity mirror talking on the phone. What the fuck? It was two in the morning. What could be so damned important? I lingered by the doorway, eavesdropping. She was wearing this spaghetti-strapped teddy that always drove me insane and a pair of those silk shorts that goes up the crack, and my dick took notice. Stupid dick. Never a logical mind.

“I can’t believe you’ve never seen the shopping channel. No, no, don’t buy anything!” She was laughing melodiously, tinkly-like. I hadn’t heard her so lighthearted in a long time. “Well, you don’t need a pill pro because you don’t take any pills, right? Right. And a spin mop wouldn’t be useful in your hogan. Oh wait, now that sounds like it might be something, a solar-powered light. You could get a bunch of those decorative ones that light up at night for your front walkway. You don’t have a walkway? How do you get to your hogan?”

Your hogan? She was obviously talking to some sort of bow-bender such as myself. She was getting all giggly over some other John Redcorn who lived in a fucking mud hut?

“I really want those aluminized socks that keep your feet warm at thirty-five below. Those would work for you, too. Doesn’t it snow in Canyon de Chelly?”

Holy shit! She was talking to a serious bow-bender! Only a few heavy-duty Navajo and Hopi, I believed, were allowed to live inside the canyon floor. Jealousy started kindling in the pit of my stomach. Lately I’d been wondering whether I had an ulcer from worry. Then I remembered the Glen Fiddich eating a hole in my empty gut.

But still. She was snickering and wriggling her bare shoulders like a high schooler. I should know—we went to high school together.

“You know what? When you come work for us, I’ll hook you up with a bunch of basketballers. Our brother Duji—well, not a blood brother but, you know, a motorcycle brother—his son plays in a league.”

When you come work for us! Without thinking, I leaped into action. I saw myself come into view in the mirror, the soft O of Maddy’s mouth telling me she saw—the burnished skin she always loved, the dark trim bush around the root of my jutting cock—all things she couldn’t ignore, I knew.

But she also couldn’t drop the phone. So I toyed with her.

Practically resting my heavy cock on her shoulder, I bent to give her cheek butterfly kisses. Her eyelids drooped. I heard the asinine guy’s whiny voice gushing something absurd like, “Oh Madison, would you? I like this new ‘take charge’ side of myself. Last time I played on a team, I was often taunted for my weedy frame. Did you know that if you keep bellowing your own name like the Elephant Man, it makes your tormentor recognize your humanity?”

Brushing my mouth across my beloved’s cheekbone, I teased her. I ran my hands like feathers up and down her arms. I breathed into the ear that wasn’t plastered to the phone.

“Madison,” I said, barely audible, before nipping the shell of her ear.

Her voice was faltering. “Galileo,” she breathed, strangely. Why were they discussing scientists? I brought my hands slowly, lasciviously, up over her ribcage to cup her stupendous boobs. I knew she was proud of her rack. Even without a bra like this, they sat up, nipples perky. “It hurts me that you were tormented so in school.”

“Oh, not just school!” the guy said, chipper. “Without a dad, the foster system got ahold of us and we were passed around the Rez. I slept in a box for one full year.”

“Oh my God,” Maddy whispered when I rotated my palms over her erect nipples. I curved my torso over her shoulders and brushed my lips against hers. Her face was tilted up, offering herself to me. “Well, I’m not going to let it happen to you again. How old are you?”

“Twenty-seven!” proclaimed the guy, as if it weren’t the dead of night. He must’ve been tweaking, wherever he was. Maybe some psych patient Maddy was trying to talk off a cliff. But he sure did sound happy about his situation. “Ogden and I had different dads, so we were often sent to different group homes. But eventually we found our way back to our mom, helping her with the herd.”

Maddy breathed, “I want to see you frolicking, not bent over your crook.”

Now I came fully around to her side. She was eyeball-to-dick, and the view wasn’t lost on her. Even after all these years, she had a pure hunger for my cock, but tonight wouldn’t be about that.

The last thing I heard the guy say was, “I frolicked once when I was nine. It just wasn’t my style.”

Soundlessly, I dropped to my knees.

I looked up at Maddy, asking for permission. But all I got was that round-eyed expression of awe. Like a hound dog, I scented her delicious pussy aroma, and my nostrils twitched.