I Love Dialogue from One Night in Daytona Beach by Dellani

Jamie doesn't know many details, but she's aware that Draven is involved in something that he can't talk about. All that he's said is he's doing a favor for a friend and it means getting involved with a skeevy biker gang run by a man named Moose. Needing help, Draven goes to the one person he knows implicitly that he can trust, Agent Charlene Fitzgerald.

The constant rumble of motorcycles was muted here, but still present. It didn't seem that any city in the proximity of Daytona escaped the noise of thousands of motors. The imposing shape of a dark-paned SUV sat on the side the road. Draven's phone buzzed, flashing a text that came from a number he didn't recognize. Since it was a coded message that only Charlene would send, he smiled.

Jamie glanced at it, puzzled. It was a strange image: CKN@@. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's Charlene. Our private code. It stands for Cock ‘n’ balls."

"Do I want to know why?"

"It loses some of the humor if I explain. All of it, in fact."

The lights on the SUV flashed once and it rolled over to them, headlights off. The back door opened, the dome light absent.

They had to take a chance that it was Charlene. They had no other choice.

Draven climbed in first, keeping Jamie back until he was sure. When he saw Charlene's smiling face, and the back of her partner's head, he held out his hand. Jamie jumped quickly in and shut the door. The SUV took off with silent power.

"I know you didn't kill him," Charlene said calmly, after introducing herself to Jamie. "So tell me what happened."

Draven gave her a detailed report. The driver, a huge black man named Bramlett, nodded.

"Now Erickson wants my hide on his wall," Draven said.

"Erickson's an idiot of the first order," Bramlett rumbled. "If we'd had our way, we'd have been handling this, but your friendship is well known."

"We were able to intercept the report," Charlene said. "It looks very bad, Draven."

"I'm aware of that. I screwed up. I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for. Erickson failed to properly protect his asset. You could have been seriously hurt by Moose's men. Did you give the panic phrase?"

"I don't play nice with others," Draven replied. "Yes. Twice."

"Something isn't right. He should have come in with a full team at that point."

"If you ask my opinion," Jamie said, "it sounds like Erickson's an idiot, or seriously incompetent. I'm not ruling out the possibility that he's up to his dick in dirt."

© 2017 Dellani Oakes

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