“And what is it they would have turned up?” Spivey asked.
“Shit. Shit that ain’t wise for a man like me to speak about.”
Spivey nodded. “That’s fair. How long you been out of the club?”
“Year. Maybe year and a half. I told ’em I was too old to carry on with this and that, and they let me walk.”
“They let you?”
Poon nodded. “They weren’t too keen on me leaving in the beginning because with me around, folks assumed things weren’t no different than before.”
“Before what?”
“Before Harley Pike took over.”
Gus jumped in. “Worst thing for the Gray Rise was the day Harley showed up. Didn’t nobody run that club better than Poon.”
Poon waved Gus off. “He brought in money and guns. I didn’t have no way to compete.”
“He brought in a piss-poor attitude is what he brought,” Gus said. “Man didn’t never shut up about politics and such.”
“It is what it is,” Poon said. “I’ve made my peace with it. Had to go through hell to get to that peace, but I’m there now.”
“What sort of hell?” Spivey asked.
“Harley didn’t like no one speaking on the club outside of meetings and whatnot. He caught wind of me complaining about the way things was being run to some fellas at Pep’s, and he sent a couple of his cousins to set me straight. Threatened to bury me in Bitch Cave, is what they did.”
“Bitch Cave?”
“It’s as uninviting as its name implies,” Gus said. “It’s got another name, too. Asshole Cave.”
Spivey reached into his back pocket and retrieved his wallet. “Any women belong to the Gray Rise?”
Poon chuckled. “Depends on what you mean by ‘belong.’ Weren’t no women members, if that’s what you’re asking. But they got women that…provide certain services.”
Spivey felt his heart thump a little harder. He pulled a picture of Mac from his wallet and showed it to Poon. “She one of those women?”
Poon held the photo at arm’s length and squinted to bring it into focus. “Hmm, she kinda looks like that gal, that friend of Luna’s. Harley’s niece. If I remember right, Harley took a shine to her. Married as he is…didn’t never stop him from…wandering.”
Spivey froze as he processed this new information.
“Can’t say he ever wandered with her,” Poon said. “If that’s what you’re worried about. But, truth be told, Harley ain’t never put in any time with a woman he ain’t beddin’.”
Spivey took the photo back from him. “What makes you think I’m worried?”
Poon shrugged. “You’re here. Asking questions. About a gal you got a picture of in your wallet. If you ain’t worried, you’re doing a good impression of a man who is.”
Spivey headed for the door. “I’m just doing my job.”
Chapter 43
“Lottery numbers,” Friar said, hovering over Dani’s shoulder.
“I done told you they ain’t lottery numbers,” Dani said, straining a muscle in her forehead from rolling her eyes.
“What’s the numbers, again?”
She handed him the receipt. “I ain’t telling you again. Read them your own damn self.”
Friar took the receipt from her and read them aloud. “350,220 and 854,092.”
“Is it money?” Dani wondered mostly to herself.
Friar snickered. “Not hardly. Parnell Carson ain’t never had dealings with that kind of money involved.”
“Say those numbers again,” Nola said from the across the room.
Neither Friar nor Dani knew she had been standing there.
Friar looked to Dani before reading the numbers again, as if he was asking her permission.
Dani nodded.
“They’re 350,220 and 854,092.”
Nola pursed her lips and repeated the numbers in a whisper.
“Maybe it’s some kind of math problem,” Friar said.
This time Dani snickered. “Call me crazy, but I’m guessing any kind of math was a problem for Parnell Carson. Can’t see him concerning himself with something like that.”
Nola took the receipt out of Friar’s hand.
Neither Friar nor Dani had realized she was now standing next to them.
“Goddamn,” Friar said. “We need to put a bell on you or something. You don’t make no sound at all when you move about.”
Nola examined the numbers carefully. It didn’t take her long to figure them out. “It’s coordinates.”
Friar snatched the receipt out of her hand. “What’re you going on about? Coordinates?”
Nola groaned. “It’s not 350,220 and 854,092. It’s 35.0220 and 85.4092.”
“Coordinates for what?” Friar asked.
“Bitch Cave,” Dani answered.
Chapter 44
The skyscrapers stretched upward from the damp, paved pathways. The glistening sheen that covered the streets reflected the neon signs of the honky-tonks and dive bars that catered to tourists expecting to find such places in Music City.
Harley sat in the hotel penthouse suite in a chair that cost more than his truck and watched the sparkle of Nashville while he drank a craft beer. He cursed under his breath with each sip.
The rest of the folks in the room looked like they belonged in such a setting. All their clothes were either tailor-made or purchased from a boutique that served patrons who liked paying too much for shit they didn’t need.
The group, mostly men, hadn’t warmed up to Harley yet. It had taken them years to get used to dealing with Bonnie Pike. She’d eventually adapted to their erudite style and found a way to endear herself to them. Harley was cut from a different cloth than his sister. He was harder and less willing to adapt.
A man with slicked-back, salt-and-pepper hair called for everyone to gather around Harley.
Harley felt the wave of money and arrogance surround him like a python wrapping around its prey.
The man spoke. “We’re concerned, Mr. Pike.”
“About?” Harley said, cursing his latest sip.
“This woman. This federal agent…We just think the operation has become too risky.”
“Good.”
“Good? How could that possibly be good?”
“Riskier something is, the bigger the return. Didn’t they teach you that in money-making school?”
The man looked to his colleagues before speaking. “We feel too exposed…”
“We took care of the bitch.”
One of the women in attendance groaned. “We could do without the misogyny, Mr. Pike.”
He looked over his shoulder at the woman and winked at her.
The man with the salt-and-pepper hair continued. “We just think a delay would be prudent.”
Harley shook his head. “No delays. I got my men ready to strike. We stay on schedule or I’ll lose them.”
Harley stood and blindly handed his beer bottle to the person standing to his left. “Y’all need to relax. Once this gets done, folks will buy up guns and ammo like it’s World War III, and them stocks you’ve been gobbling up will be worth ten times what you bought ’em for.” With that, he exited the suite.
The woman who had objected to his language was the first to speak after the door closed behind him. “Pig.”
The man with salt-and-pepper hair responded. “He may be a pig, but he’s Nolen’s pig. D.B. doesn’t back something unless there’s a big payoff. We all knew what we were getting into when we invested. There’s no going back.”
Chapter 45
The road they were on didn’t even qualify as a road. It was a thick stretch of vegetation that cut around the base of a heavily wooded mountain. Nola looked at her phone a few times in disbelief. They were still headed toward the coordinates on Parnell’s receipt, which was when she realized even nowhere has coordinates.
Dani hunched over the steering wheel of the cruiser, muscling the vehicle along the path as each root and pothole tried to veer them
off course. She tried to ask Nola a question a dozen times, from the moment they climbed into the car to find Parnell Carson’s GPS coordinates, but she stopped herself each time. The notion hit her the thirteenth time and she quietly asked, “We ever gonna talk?”
“About what?”
Dani hesitated and then simply said, “My daddy…our daddy.”
Nola fixed her eyes on the tangle of woods and mountain in front of her. “Don’t call him that.”
“Fair enough. I suppose it’s on me to tell you not to do anything stupid.”
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Not now, maybe. But you and me? We got stuff to work through, and we’re gonna have to get down to it one of these days.”
Nola didn’t respond.
“I’ll just say this for now. I’ve thought of a hundred different ways to kill that man. Made me hate myself every time the idea came to me ’cause it just meant I gave him a little bit more power over me.”
Nola turned to Dani and stared at her. She drew a deep breath and then, as if the deputy hadn’t started the conversation about their father, asked, as she was bounced to and fro by the rugged terrain, “Tell me again what it is you think we’re gonna find out here?”
Dani decided it wasn’t the time to push her to talk about the subject. She switched topics and dispositions. “Don’t know. Maybe nothing.”
“Could’ve found nothing back at the station.”
Dani brought the cruiser to a sudden stop. “We ran out of road.”
“Yeah,” Nola said, climbing out of the car, “about 200 yards ago.” She followed Dani to the trunk of the cruiser. “According to my phone we’re just about on top of the coordinates anyway.”
Dani pulled a shotgun out of the trunk and handed it to Nola.
“This mean the county got my military records?” Nola asked, checking the weapon’s chamber.
Dani tossed her a box of shells. “No. It means we’re headed to a place called Bitch Cave, and I don’t want to be the only one that’s armed.” They moved to the front of the cruiser. Dani took a deep breath to settle her nerves. Her gut told her they were walking into something big. “I’ll cut straight through.” She tilted her chin to the left. “You loop up that hill and stay hidden. You’ll cover me if there’s trouble.”
Nola headed for the hill. “So much for finding nothing.”
“I’m never that lucky,” Dani said, pushing her way through the heavy underbrush.
She quickly lost track of Nola and found herself surrounded by the chirps of crickets and screeches of various species of birds. The trek was more strenuous than she had anticipated, and she stopped to wipe the sweat from her face with the sleeve of her shirt. Blowing out the exhaustion in one steady breath, she prepared to pull a thicket of branches back when she saw movement up ahead. She crouched and zeroed in on it. It was a man…two men, standing at the foot of a crevasse between two hills. They were armed with assault rifles and talking excitedly. She couldn’t make out what they were saying, but their hand gestures suggested they were arguing about something. She considered her options. Draw her weapon, step into the clearing, and spook two well-armed idiots most likely guarding a place called Bitch Cave, or announce her presence before walking through the underbrush and showing herself, trusting that Nola was in position to provide her with cover.
“Hey!” she yelled after determining the latter was the best course of action.
The two men turned in the direction of her voice.
The bigger of the two jammed the butt of his rifle to his shoulder and hocked up his lungs before spitting a mucus-coated projectile onto the ground. “Who the hell’s out there?”
The smaller man slowly mimicked his partner’s posture.
“I said who’s out there?”
Dani looked to see if she could spot Nola on the hill. She was nowhere to be seen. “I’m Dani Savage. I’m a deputy with the Baptist Flats Sheriff’s Department.”
The two men looked at each other.
“This ain’t Baptist Flats,” the bigger man said.
“No, sir,” Dani replied. “It ain’t. That’s why you ain’t got nothing to be concerned about.”
“You armed?” the bigger man asked.
“I am.”
“Step on out into the open with your hands up.”
Dani fought her way through the tangle of branches and stepped away from the underbrush with her hands raised.
There was a moment of shocked silence when the two men first got a look at her.
“Shit,” the smaller man said. “She ain’t but a little bitty thing.”
The bigger man laughed. “I’ve taken shits bigger than you, darling.”
“Good to know,” Dani said in the process of dropping her hands.
“Up,” the bigger man said. “Up, up, up.”
Dani kept her hands raised.
The bigger man approached. “Now, you small, but you do look delicious, little lady.”
Dani ignored his remark. She made a point not to shift her gaze to Nola’s possible position. “Wha’cha boys doing out here?”
The bigger man stopped five feet from her. “Shooting the shit about this and that.”
“You always shoot the shit slinging assault rifles over your shoulder?”
The bigger man didn’t answer. His eyes traveled from Dani’s feet to her breasts.
“Y’all hunting?”
The bigger man looked over his shoulder at his partner. “I believe this bitch has got some nice titties under this uniform of hers.” He laughed and felt something akin to a sledgehammer hitting him in the jaw as he was in the process of turning back to Dani. The blow from her diminutive fist rocked him back. He stumbled and did a half twirl; his finger tapped the trigger of his assault rifle and three quick rounds left the barrel and struck the smaller man in the head.
Dani quickly dropped to one knee and drew her firearm. “Put the weapon down! Now!”
The bigger man shook off the shock of her punch to his jaw and attempted to train his gun on the little deputy. He was struck by two slugs to the chest before he could flex his finger.
“What the hell?” Nola said, stepping out from behind a tree.
Dani, nerves frayed, fought not to hyperventilate as she watched smoke rise from the barrel of her firearm. “Thanks,” she said, heaving. “Thanks for the cover.” She had never sounded so sarcastic in her life.
Nola reached past the tree and yanked a third man out from behind it. He was sporting a broken nose and wore handcuffs. Nola held up his assault rifle. “I was kind of busy.” She pushed the man down the hill, and he tripped over some deadfall, which resulted in him planting his broken nose into the ground.
Nola shook her head in disgust at his lack of grace. “Serves you right, asshole.”
The man turned his mangled face in her direction. “I’ll fucking kill you, nigger bitch.”
Her response was two quick kicks to the man’s temple to which he responded by losing consciousness.
Nola turned to Dani. “I guess we found something.”
Dani headed up the crevasse. “Not yet, we ain’t.”
Nola quickly uncuffed the third man, wrapped his arm around a branch sticking out of the deadfall, and re-cuffed him. She scrambled up the crevasse after Dani. The odor hit her as Dani disappeared inside the opening of a cave. She only took a second to acknowledge the foul stench before she entered the cave herself. She scanned the darkness until she found the dim light of Dani’s flashlight at a considerable distance away. The whimpering of a woman echoed from beyond the glow. Nola pulled out her phone and used the illumination from the screen to light her way to Dani.
“Everything’s going to be okay,” she heard Dani say.
Nola extended her phone out at arm’s length and felt her heart start to race at the sight of a woman covered in mud and tied to a chair.
Chapter 46
Friar was bitching to himself about Randle not pulling his weight the en
tire time he battled the thick underbrush on his way to meet up with Dani and Nola. The stupid drunk bastard should be making his way through the tangle of shit, not Friar. He had a few choice words for Dani, too. Once again, she had pulled him out of Baptist Flats to investigate something that they had no business investigating. From finding out Dani had hired on a black woman to police lily-white Baptist Flats to stomping through prickly weeds and trees in a place that needed an upgrade to be tolerable, his day had just been chockfull of shit.
When he pushed through the last bit of underbrush and found two dead crackers, his aggravation turned to fear. Before he found the wherewithal to pull his sidearm, Dani whistled down at him from the top of the crevasse. “The threat has been neutralized. You can relax.”
“They ain’t neutralized. They’re dead.”
“Two of them are.”
A man groaned and Friar snapped his head around to see some poor asshole with a busted face trying to twist himself into an upright position.
“Take that fella to my car.”
“Who is he?”
“The fella you’re gonna take to my car,” Dani answered.
“That ain’t no answer,” Friar said, making his way to the handcuffed man. A snap of a tree branch behind him diverted his attention, and he fell to the ground as he attempted to twirl around and investigate the source of the sound.
Gus slipped out into the open and gasped out a “Good Lordy,” at the sight of the carnage.
Dani had her gun drawn. “Identify yourself!”
“Gus,” he said, regretting that he had not worn his clericals. “The preacher. The partway one. We met at your station in Baptist Flats. You come to my lawyer office in Titus Grove.”
Spivey stepped into the clearing behind him. “What’re you doing here?” he asked Dani.
“What’re you and the partway preacher doing here?”
“Looking for a cave.”
“How do you know about the cave?”
“Let’s just say I connected a dot. How do you know about it?”
“I connected a dot, too.”
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