by Brook Wilder
“Dive bars. No clubs, unless you count the strip kind. Mostly hole-in-the-wall type places, the seedier the better.”
Olivia paced as she questioned Preston. The movement made it easier for her to focus and, with each round of questions, they gained more and more clues as to where he could have run off to.
After what felt like hours of sifting through Knox’s ‘colorful’ life, they were able to narrow down were he could be hiding out.
At the top of the list was an old campsite off the highway that Preston and Knox would sneak into whenever they needed a few days away. It was never watched, so sneaking in and out of it was the fairly simple process of hopping a short fence and picking a comfortable tree to sleep under.
There were also several bars within walking distance that were exactly Knox’s cup of tea. Seedy, desperate, violent joints that no self-respecting person would travel into in the light of day. Lucky for them, it was well past midnight.
They double-checked their list for anything they might have missed, but Preston was convinced that, if he couldn’t find Knox at the quarry, they would find him there. They all got just a few hours sleep before heading out the next morning, bright and early.
Olivia just hoped that Preston was right. She had a terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach that they were running out of time.
Chapter 23
Olivia wiped away the bead of sweat that dripped down her forehead, but it was immediately replaced by another. She let her hand drop down to her lap with a sigh of frustration and had to grit her teeth.
She wasn’t frustrated by the heat. At least, not only the heat. Olivia leaned forward and tried to tilt the air vent so that the cool air of the car’s air conditioning would hit her straight on. Okay, part of it was the heat.
But most of her frustration was from something else. Olivia glanced out the window as they drove further down the old road. She looked around, taking in the rundown buildings and ramshackle businesses that lined the street and bit back a caustic comment. Sarcasm wouldn’t help them now.
Preston was in the driver’s seat, since he was the one who claimed to know where they were going. Charlie was sitting in the back seat, scratching incessantly at his bandaged wound, even though Olivia had specifically ordered him to leave the damned thing alone.
Even Bowie was on edge. He had sprawled out on the back seat next to Charlie, taking up most of the remaining space, with his head propped on his paws and a bored look on his furry face.
Preston slowed and Olivia looked forward eagerly as they pulled into yet another seedy bar. She’d lost track of just how many they had visited so far that day. But this time the building was different.
It was painted a dark, slate gray and it didn’t have any windows anywhere in the building. Even the door didn’t have any glass on it; it was just a big slab of steel keeping the hot Texas sun out.
Olivia gave him a sideways look.
“Are you sure about this, Preston?”
She scanned the area nervously. There were several cars parked out front, but beside that there was no sign of life coming from inside.
“Are you sure Knox is even here?”
Preston’s brother hadn’t been at any of the last places that they had checked and she was getting worried that they weren’t going to be able to find him. It didn’t help that the feeling that they were running out of time was getting more and more urgent with each passing hour. They had spent all day driving around, visiting the worst sort of places.
Preston leaned over and patted her thigh in reassurance.
“We’re getting close to him. I know it.”
Preston answered her with more hope in his voice than what was shining in his dark blue eyes.
We better be, she heard him finish under his voice. She didn’t think she was supposed to hear that part and didn’t mention it as she and Preston both got out of the car.
Before Preston had shut the door, he cast a questioning look back at Charlie, who just shrugged.
“This is no place for an impressionable young puppy,” Charlie said, the hint of a mischievous grin curling up one side of his mouth.
Preston snorted, low and loud, and Olivia sent the man a curious look. Finally, leaving Charlie and Bowie in the car with the AC blasting so they wouldn’t melt, Olivia and Preston walked up to the large steel door and walked inside.
Olivia stumbled to a halt just inside the door. She had to blink several times to adjust her eyes to the sudden dimness inside. Then they flew wide open when she realized just what type of club this was. It was a strip club.
The place was bigger than it looked from the outside. It was basically one long, narrow rectangular room with a bar at one end and tables and booths placed around a stage that dominated the floor.
Olivia couldn’t help but watch as a curvy, voluptuous woman in a skin tight bustier and matching black thong swung around on one of the poles and flipped seamlessly into an upside-down splits, still holding herself mid-air.
Impressed, she watched the dancer for another minute, marveling at the strength needed to twirl so effortlessly around the metal pole and the flexibility to pull off some of the more acrobatic moves.
She jolted back to herself as Preston brushed a hand against her arm and leaned close.
“We need to make a sweep of the place. Knox might be here somewhere.”
He looked at Olivia, waiting for her response, but she just nodded. Of course. That’s why they were there, after all.
The dubious look of concern on his face almost made her snort. After everything that they had been through, he thought a strip club would offend her delicate sensibilities? Olivia nearly snorted out loud. It didn’t even come close.
“You’re… okay with being in here?” Preston asked as they strode forward, finally giving voice to the concern in his eyes.
This time Olivia really did snort.
“I’m fine Preston. Let’s just find Knox so we can get on with our plan.”
Preston nodded and they both meandered around, trying to look for his brother without drawing too much attention to themselves.
But after twenty minutes, they both had to admit defeat.
“Any luck in the bathrooms?” Olivia asked when Preston made his way back towards her, but she could tell the answer just by the downcast look on his handsome face.
With a sigh of frustration, they turned to leave. Knox wasn’t anywhere to be found at the place.
They were almost to the door when Preston pulled her to a halt.
“Hey, hold on a minute.”
Olivia nodded, watching as he stopped to talk to the bartender, a young, petite woman who had a permanently bored expression on her round face. He asked her if she’d seen Knox there at all.
After a moment, though, she shook her head.
“Sorry, I just got on shift. You’d have to ask the day shift.”
They turned to leave once more, disappointing hitting them both hard, but they were stopped again by an older guy with hair more gray than brown.
“Excuse me!”
Preston and Olivia both drew to a halt, turning around to face the man. He was wearing an oversized Hawaiian shirt and jeans with sandals.
“I overheard you talking back there to Cassandra. You’re looking for that guy, Knox?”
Preston nodded eagerly and the other man went on.
“Yeah, he was here about an hour or so ago.”
“Do you know where he went? It’s important that we find him. Did he say where he was going?”
“Said he was heading to Jewel something or other?” The man looked at them hopefully, “Do that help?”
Preston grinned widely, clapping him on the back.
“It does. It really does.”
The man grinned back and then tilted his head.
“You know, you kind of look like him.”
Preston just rolled his eyes, a grin still on his face.
“You don’t say.”
Olivia h
ad to stifle a laugh of her own as they finally left the strip club and headed towards the car, feeling more hopeful than she had done all day.
They had their first real lead.
Chapter 24
Preston pulled into the parking lot and braked Olivia’s car to a halt. It wasn’t really a parking lot. There was no pavement here. It was just a big flattened piece of land covered in dirt and gravel. It left a cloud of dust in the car’s wake, obscuring the building in front of them for a moment.
Once the dust cloud settled, he was able to get his first good look at Jewel’s Roadhouse in the early evening’s waning sunlight. He wasn’t fucking impressed.
Maybe once it had been a serviceable building, but it had never been anything to whistle at and the years hadn’t been kind. It was a dingy brown box that didn’t do justice to its name at all. There was no jewel to be found here. No diamond in the rough.
Preston grimaced out of the front window at the car and the run down, hole-in-the-wall, diviest of dive bars. This was exactly the type of place Knox would love, the dirtier and seedier the better.
Preston glanced over at Olivia and debated telling her to stay in the car, but he knew that was exactly the right thing to say to get her hackles up. The quiet, fragile Olivia that had haunted him since the hospital was gone and the strong, resilient Olivia sitting in the car next to him wasn’t about to be left behind. He let out a sign.
“Someone should stay in the car with Bowie. We can’t bring him in. Olivia…?”
“I’ll stay in here,” Charlie piped up, unaware, from the back seat. “I like to hang out with the pup. He’s a good dog, isn’t he? Yes, he is. He’s such a good dog.”
Preston had to bite back on the urge to grind his teeth once more as he shot a glare at his friend through the rear-view mirror. Charlie either didn’t see it or just chose to ignore it, but either way, a moment later, he found himself walking up to the rowdy sounding bar with Olivia by his side.
Preston held the door open, ushering Olivia inside, and as soon as they entered he was hit with the smell of stale beer and another, muskier scent that he didn’t want to look at too closely. He was already regretting his decision to bring Olivia inside the dive bar with him, but that feeling tripled as soon as she took another step.
Every single eye in the place seemed to check her out, roving up and down her body in a way that had him seeing red. Preston stepped close to her, blocking as much of her from view as he could, as they made their way up to the worn, scratched bar that ran across the entire length of the place.
Preston quickly scanned the crowds. It was surprisingly packed, considering how early it still was in the evening, but most of the customers looked like regulars, gamblers, and hard drinkers.
He nearly let out a curse when he didn’t see his brother’s familiar face, but after a moment Olivia tugged on his arm.
“There, up at the bar.”
Preston followed the line of her finger and nearly choked on the relief that flowed through him. And then quickly, on the heels of that emotion, came another stronger one that urged him forward. Anger.
Preston stalked towards his wayward brother, clapping him on the shoulder and just barely resisting the gut instinct to let his fist fly towards the shit-eating grin that Knox sent him.
“Pres! Brother! What the hell are you doing here? What a coincidence?” Knox said, his words slightly slurred, Preston guessed, from the half-emptied tumbler of whiskey sitting on the bar top in front of him.
Preston curled his hands into fists and leaned close to his brother so he wouldn’t be overheard. This was definitely the type of place other crew members would hang out and the last thing he needed was for Capone to find them before he was ready. That wasn’t part of his plan.
“It’s not a coincidence, Knox. We’ve been searching all over the fucking state of Texas for you. Luckily, I know the kind of places you frequent.”
Olivia grimaced around her in distaste and Preston was surprised to find himself biting back a sudden grin. She hadn’t been nearly as offended by the strip club as she was by the dirty condition of this bar. He didn’t blame her. The bottom of Preston’s boot stuck to the floor and he had to pry it loose to step closer to Knox.
“Listen to me Knox,” Preston growled low under his breath.
Knox’s eye’s widened blearily, finally picking up on the seriousness in his brother’s voice.
“Do you have any fucking idea what’s been going on since you left the trailer? After you disappeared, Capone and his thugs tried to burn us alive.”
Knox swallowed hard.
“I circled back around the next day and saw the charred remains. That was a nice trailer too. They didn’t have to go and burn it.”
Preston shook his head in disbelief.
“Knox, we were inside that trailer when they set it on fire!”
“Well, you both came out okay. It was the trailer that got destroyed, wasn’t it?”
Knox took another gulp of whiskey and Preston grabbed the glass from his hand, ignoring the sour look his brother shot him.
“Enough of this shit, Knox.” Preston had to stop himself from shouting the words, fighting to keep a tight hold on his temper. “After you disappeared, I thought we would be safe. I thought Capone would think we were dead and leave it at that, but he didn’t. When you didn’t turn up, he started some crazy rumor that Olivia and I killed you. He went after family then.”
Preston paused, casting a sideways glance at Olivia, but she was holding up okay next to him.
“They murdered Olivia’s friend, the only other person she was close to in the area. They…” He had to swallow hard before he could continue. “They are going after my daughter next, Knox.”
“They won’t fucking find her.”
“No, they won’t. And that’s because you are going to help me,” Preston said fiercely.
Knox gave him a confused look that grew more and more concerned as he went on.
“We are going to set up a meeting with the gang, the whole crew, not just Capone and his inner circle of flunkies. We are going to prove to them that Capone lied and that your still alive. They’ll have no choice but to drop the issue.”
Knox’s expression grew from worried to downright terrified.
“I… I don’t think that’s a good idea, Pres. Shit, you know how Arthur is. The guy’s insane. Remember what he did to that crew member that was caught stealing a beer from him? And that was just a beer! He lost three fingers!”
Preston reached out and tried to reassure him, but Knox was in a full-blown panic now.
“I can’t do it, Preston. I’m sorry brother, I just… I can’t face him. He’s crazy, Pres. You know that. We don’t know what he’ll do. He could shoot us all on sight.”
“We don’t have a choice, Knox. What if he finds my little girl? What do you think he’s going to do to her?”
Knox’s face twisted, conflicted. Finally, after long moment of tense silence, he finally let out a sigh of resignation.
“Capone is out for blood, Preston. If he feels slighted, he won’t stop until he’s gotten revenge or he’s dead.”
“I know,” Preston said simply.
It was just the truth. A truth he’d known since the beginning, despite how much he’d hoped otherwise. He still hoped he was wrong.
Finally, Knox nodded. He tossed back the rest of the whiskey and then followed them back out to the parking lot with the look of a man on his way to the gallows. Preston tried to shake the thought from his mind, but it was lodged there, immovable. He just prayed he was wrong about that too.
One by one, they got back into the car, Olivia and Preston up front, and Knox squeezing into the back seat with Charlie, Bowie sitting in between them.
Preston turned around and meet Charlie’s waiting gaze.
“You sure you want to do this?” Charlie asked.
“No,” Knox groaned.
“Yes,” Preston answered at the same time. He shot Knox a
narrow eyed look. “Yes, I’m sure. We’re out of options here. Call your contact, set up a meeting with the crew.”
Charlie nodded, pulling out his phone and dialing a number, before holding the phone to his ear. There were a few monosyllabic words accompanied by several grunts and, after a few minutes, Charlie hung up the call. His expression was dead serious.
“Well?” Preston asked impatiently, unable to wait any longer.
