Chapter 185: Decoy
*It’s my choice, not yours. Deal with it. – Havi*
“What’s going on?” Toad asked sitting back down and pulling out his whiskey.
“The decoy for Nessie was shot at last night, morning for us.” Came the answer as Werewolf grabbed sodas out of the mini fridge.
“Is she okay?” the president asked as he poured whiskey into two travel mugs.
“They missed and she was Israeli special forces, I’ll let you guess what Havi had to say about them.” They tapped their mugs together in cheers and both took deep drinks.
“Havi? I think I met her a few years back.” Toad said topping off his drink.
“She was here for another job. Her and Dom did not get along. At all.”
“Yeah. I remember all that now. It was before Whip. Who was she with then?” Toad leaned back in his chair and propped his boots on the corner of the desk. “Tammy? Tommy? Hell, tits or dick?”
“Tits, I think. Tory?” he imitated his presidents pose from the couch. “Pretty sure it started with a T. Tiffany?”
“Pipes get with you about the plumbing company? Theresa?”
“Yes. Tia? He’s presenting at church after Christmas.”
“Priscilla really wants to prospect. Especially, since you’ve let Camille. Was it Tina?”
“I think I’ll put it before the club in May. Terri?”
They went through other business while still trying to remember the name of Doms sub. The whiskey level dropped and the names got more outrageous.
Zee knocked on the door around noon with a couple of lunches. Reusable bento lunch boxes held a ham sandwich, separate bags of lettuce, tomato and pickles, along with mayonnaise and mustard packets and a slice of cheese. Also in the bento style box were chips, apple slices, baby carrots and two cookies. On her way out, she snagged the nearly empty whiskey bottle.
“Sorry, I’m not dealing with Nessie upset over you boys being drunk.”
“Are all the lunches like this?” Werewolf asked as they both spread their lunches out on the desk.
“You’ve never been here for lunch?” Toad asked and when the other man said no, he took Werewolf down to Nessie’s Kitchen.
“Was something wrong?” Zee asked concerned.
“No, Werewolf has never been here for lunch. Will you give him a tour?”
“Yeah. We’ll start in the kitchen; I need to check on James.” She smiled at them both before leading the way into the kitchen. “Nessie, I didn’t know you were back.”
Nessie stood at the center workstation using an apple slicer. “Aye, we just got back. Just grabbing some lunch.”
She placed the apple slices on a plate and threw away the trash. Smiling, she handed the slicer back to James. “There’s another box in the produce cooler that needs to be sliced, peeled and shredded. Zee, we’re doing apple cake with an apple sauce glaze tonight. Will yeh start the apple sauce?”
“Yes, ma’am. We sliced the last of the brown sugar ham today. And we’re nearly out of pepper pastrami.” Zee told her.
Nessie nodded and grabbed the two plates of fruits and vegetables with sandwiches and headed for her office.
When she pushed open the door, she started laughing at Knuckles. He sat in the chair in front of her desk with all three cats meowing angrily at him.
“Please don’t eat me in my sleep.” Knuckles told the cats as the door closed behind Nessie.
Werewolf laughed. “Is he wanting to go to days for Nessie or her little devils?”
“They are a package deal at this point. All five of them.” Zee grinned. “Produce is delivered daily. So are eggs and milk. Meats are delivered Mondays and Thursdays. Breads not made here come every other day. We also have weekly grocery deliveries and anything else we send a prospect to get.”
When they went back into the dining hall, it was filled with brothers, wives and high school kids. “Juniors and seniors at Roosevelt are allowed to leave campus for lunch. A lot of them come here now.”
“How much money do we lose on the kitchen?” Werewolf asked Toad.
“We turn a profit.” He answered. “Hot meals for today’s lunch are leftovers from yesterday. They are in microwavable bento boxes. They’re the funny boxes with compartments and can be stacked. I had to ask.” Toad explained at Werewolf’s look of confusion.
“Hot bento are five dollars, sandwich and chips are three, cold bento, like what I brought you, are four and the line is ten.” Zee explained further. “Kids seven and under are not charged. Smaller boxes have about half the food and are half the price.”
Her younger brother, Repeat, walked by tugging her hair as he went. Rolling her eyes at the nineteen-year-old man, she added “Some should be charged double, if not triple.”
“What’s on the line?” Werewolf asked.
“We always have the salad bar. Breakfast it’s more fruit than anything. Last night we had baked chicken, broccoli rice, steamed vegetables and rolls. And soup was loaded baked potato. If you want a hot bento, you have to order it and everything else goes on the line for lunch.” Zee told him.
“Boxed lunches that the guys can grab in the morning are six and it includes a bottle drink. For the most part, you can’t beat the price at any of the fast-food places. And, they put their order in the day before.” She pointed to the book sitting on the table by the cash box.
Zee motioned for them to follow her and she went to the table by the far door. Handing a blank order form to Werewolf, she flirtatiously smiled at Chance as he entered.
“Nope. Keeping my oysters.” He told her. “You work tonight?”
Repeat put an arm around his sister’s shoulders. “Keep going.”
Grumbling to himself Chance walked towards the line. Repeat kissed her head and then headed out, followed by Pagan and some of the other brothers from the fab shop.
She smiled after her brother and then looked back at Toad and Werewolf. “I’m starting to think that he believes my kids came in Amazon boxes. But he’s been great since my husband left. Not sure how many bachelors would move out of a clubhouse like this, get a house and move in their older sister and her three kids. But my baby brother did. Helped me get a job. Got my car fixed. My teenage brother is a better dad than my soon to be ex-husband.”
“Glad to hear he’s a good guy. Chance-"
She laughed cutting off Werewolf. “Is fun to flirt with, but I doubt he wants anything to do with a single mom of three.”
“He loves single moms.” Werewolf corrected. “You have proof that you put out.”
“Well, I’ll keep that in mind. Is he really as bad as everyone says?”
“If not worse.” Toad said dryly.
“What are your plans for Christmas?” Werewolf asked.
“It’s going to be whatever Repeat can afford and what we get through Angel Tree. I had saved a little bit of money that I used on black Friday.” She shrugged. “Thankfully, they’re little and hopefully won’t remember it.”
The two men looked at each other knowing that once it was put before the brothers, the kids would have one of the best Christmases ever.
