by Catie Rhodes
Hannah must have had a moment of clarity while the hag was visiting me. My voice of reason spoke. No, no, no. It’s a trap. King sent that message. The Six Gun Compound was at the ass-end of nowhere. If I ran into an ambush, there’d be nobody to hear me scream. But what if Hannah’s distress cry was real? My gut twisted painfully. I couldn’t just leave her there. This was a risk I had to take. Minutes later, I was dressed again, the ridiculous pajamas folded and the bed made.
“You’re not going to the Six Gun Revolutionaries’ compound.” Rainey held my keys in one fist just out of my reach.
I held out my hand for the keys. She shook her head. I spoke in what I hoped was a reasonable voice. “Even if you’re willing to leave Hannah to die, aren’t you curious about that tape? It might get Jesse out of prison. Don’t you want to be with him?”
Rainey flinched as though I’d slapped her. She put the hand holding my keys behind her back. “You’re acting without thinking or planning. If this is a setup, they’ll kill you.”
Fury at the thought of King trying to kill me licked at the walls of my sanity like flames climbing over a burning house. “I’m not going to live my life under the threat of King Tolliver’s wrath. Hear me?” The black opal came to life on my chest. A breeze fluttered through my hair. The nightstand light began to flicker. “And he’s not going to threaten my friends and live to laugh about it.”
“You’re going to get yourself and everybody you know killed if you don’t slow down and—” My phone’s buzz cut off Rainey’s words. She closed her mouth so hard her teeth clicked together.
“It’s Wade,” she hissed. “He always knows when you need him. Don’t you dare talk to me about unrequited love and leaving Jesse to rot in prison. You’re no better with Wade.”
The anger worked its way up to my face and burned my cheeks. My phone buzzed again. I ignored it and stared into Rainey’s face. Friendships were difficult for her. She didn’t really like people, including me. But she made an effort. I needed to do that too. “What are you suggesting I do? Nothing, like you?” It was the wrong thing to say. I realized it as soon as I’d said it. But there’s no delete key on spoken words. They’re out there for good.
Rainey threw my keys. Hard. They struck my breastbone and fell to the floor. I rubbed at the sore spot, imagining the bruise I’d have in a few hours. Rainey stalked back through her house. Her bedroom door slammed. I wanted to go after her, but she scared me too bad. She could tear me apart without raising a finger. I snatched the keys off the floor and checked my phone.
Wade’s first text message said, “What just happened to you?” The second one was more urgent. “Please answer. I can’t come looking for you right now.”
I tapped out a message to him. “Hannah’s parasite came to visit. Threatened me.”
His message came back a few seconds later. “It’s gone now? I’ll come if you need me.”
King would be mad as an old lady with a pile of expired coupons if Wade came right now. I sucked in a harsh breath and tapped out an answer as quickly as I could. “No. It’s okay. Rainey used a crucifix on it.” The message sent, and I leaned against the wall, breathing hard.
I had made a mistake when Wade and I talked earlier, and now it was eating me alive. Wade needed to know where he stood with King. He was in danger every second I withheld King’s threat on his life. Please don’t let it be too late. I tapped out another message. “We need to talk as soon as possible. But what I tell you needs to be the biggest secret you ever kept in your life.”
The pause lasted so long my mind started making up scenarios where King had snuck up behind Wade and put a gun to the back of his head. Pretty soon my phone would buzz with a picture of Wade’s lifeless body, chunks of brain and bone sprayed out. King’s message would say, “Still think I’m kidding, bitch?” The horrific movie reel ran a nonstop loop, faster and faster, until fear and fury beat like wings inside me.
A text message popped up. “I won’t be home until three in the morning. Check your email for directions. Pull your truck into the shed and put a tarp over it. Go in the house. Leave the lights off.”
I tapped out an okay and checked the time. Three hours to kill. I left Rainey’s house, locked it, drove back to downtown Gaslight City, and circled the block around Bullfrog’s Billiards. Lights blazed from the upstairs loft. Either Tubby Tubman was up there, or someone else was using it. I hoped it was the former because I needed Tubby’s expertise.
5
Bullfrog’s stank like stale urine and was so dim I had to stand in the doorway for several seconds to get my bearings. The main room held ten pool tables, each with a separate light fixture hanging over it. Dirt gritted between my feet and the hundred-year-old floorboards. I wove my way through the pool tables, nodding to the people I recognized, and stopped at the bar.
Bullfrog, pock-faced and potbellied, narrowed his piggy eyes. “Tub ain’t expecting you.”
“I need him.” I slid onto a barstool and rested my elbows on the bar. “Call him. Now.”
“You don’t tell me what to do, lil’ bit. I’ll drag you in that back room, find ways to make you scream.” He spread his thin lips in a sick grin.
I recoiled. Bullfrog was Tubby’s second cousin. He did things Tubby himself didn’t want to do. Nasty things. Tubby once told me Bullfrog enjoyed those things. The phone behind the bar, an old-fashioned red one with push buttons, began to ring. Bullfrog made no move to answer. He stood still, glacial eyes boring into mine. The phone stopped ringing and started again.
Slowly, as though he had all the time in the world, Bullfrog picked up the phone and held it to his ear without speaking. “Yep. It’s her.” He listened again. “Nope. She’s alone.” Bullfrog listened for a few seconds, slammed the phone back in its cradle, and turned his cold stare back on me. “Tub’ll be down shortly.” He stalked off.
I hunched on my barstool. The back of my neck throbbed with a stress-ache. Tubby might or might not help me. It depended on what he thought was in it for him. But I knew nobody else who could figure out a way to get out of this mess. I massaged the back of my neck and thought about ordering a shot of tequila, but I didn’t drink and was afraid it might make me drunk. Peri Jean Mace. The last of the hard drinkers. Not.
Long, skinny fingers closed over my forearm. I jerked out of my thoughts to find Tubby standing next to me. He smiled and drew me into a hug. I told myself I let him do it because he’d get angry if I refused, but I leaned my head on his shoulder and wrapped my arms around his waist. He moved between my legs and tightened his grip. My body responded right away, idiotic horniness running amok. Warning bells went off in my head. I’d sworn off alley-catting. The mornings after killed any satisfaction I got from them. That included a re-run with Tubby. I pushed him away.
“Wanna go up to the loft?” He gestured at the ceiling.
I searched his blue eyes for lust or trickery and saw nothing but a guy I’d known since I was barely out of diapers. I nodded and got off the stool. Tubby put his arm around me.
Bullfrog spoke from a few feet away. “Dozen more just like her that’s a lot less trouble.”
Tubby waved off his cousin and led me through the storeroom and up the creaking stairs. Someone had painted the wall red since my last visit.
Tubby caught me looking at it. “We had an incident. Red seemed like the right color to redecorate with.”
Imagining blood and worse on the wall, I hurried to the closed door at the top of the stairs. Getting a glimpse of what might have happened here did not appeal. I twisted the doorknob. Locked, of course. Tubby’d never leave it unsecured, not even for ten minutes. He pissed off too many people. Tubby unlocked the door and held it open.
“No crazy teenager waiting in here to scratch my eyeballs out of my head?” I smiled but stepped cautiously into the loft. Tubby’s taste in companions scared me.
He barked a hollow laugh. “Naw. Might be getting old. Those little girls got boring.”
He closed an
d locked the door, brushing around me to hurry into the little kitchenette. He came out holding up a white cloth. The smell of disinfectant burned my nose. He wiped off the leather recliner and motioned to it with a smile. “I remembered what you like.”
I nodded my thanks and sat down. Tubby dragged a wooden, straight-backed chair over and sat in front of me. He dug his skinny elbows into his knees and squinted. “You go see Hannah?”
I nodded, mouth trembling as I fought tears. I swiped at my filling eyes with the back of my hand.
Tubby put one hand on my shoulder. “Hey, hey. You seen worse’n that.”
I sniffled and swiped my hand across my nose. “That ain’t all of it neither.” My speech patterns degraded every time I got around Tubby. I told him what I saw sitting on Hannah’s shoulder.
His face paled enough for me to see a spray of freckles on the bridge of his nose and a few sunspots at his hairline. “What is it?”
“Wade called it a hag.” I took out my cigarettes and tried to light one. My hand shook so hard Tubby had to guide it. He set an ashtray in my lap. I exhaled a jet of smoke. “That still ain’t all.” I told him about King’s threats to pretty much everybody I knew and loved.
Tubby shook his head and lit his own cigarette. “You in deep, girl.” He stared at the window, and I thought for a second he might invite me to get the fuck out of his safe place. “I know you, you want to save ’em all, even get old Jesse Mace out of prison. Be the hero one mo’ time.”
It wasn’t about being the hero. I wanted to see my friends safe, my uncle out of prison. And I wanted to force alligator shit down King Tolliver’s wrinkled old gullet.
Tubby watched me. Whatever he saw made his lips crimp into an almost smile. “You pissed, ain’t you? No, no. You insulted.” Tubby watched me through eyes slitted against the smoke. “And you gonna go up against King, irregardless how dangerous it is.”
I didn’t dare tell him there was no such word as irregardless. Instead I nodded.
“And you want old Tub to help you.” He winked at me. “For old time’s sake?”
Good question. I shrugged. Tubby had no real reason to help me. But I somehow felt sure he would.
He nodded slowly. “Back in high school, you and Chase was my only friends.”
I hunched my shoulders. I hadn’t been a great friend to Tubby, hadn’t even liked him very much back then. I still wasn’t sure how much I liked him.
“Chase is dead.” He spoke almost to himself, eyes cast downward. “You all I got now.”
Tubby’s confession made me sad. Other than Benny Longstreet, he was probably the richest man in Burns County. But he was lonely and adrift, just like me. A spark of kinship burned between me and Tubby. I couldn’t ask him to help, risk getting him hurt or killed. I pushed myself out of the recliner. It squealed out a protest. “I’m sorry I came here. People are going to get killed over this, and you don’t need to be in the middle of it.”
Tubby pulled my arm until I sat in the chair again. Cigarette clamped in his teeth, he mumbled something I didn’t quite catch.
“What?” I leaned close enough to see the beginnings of crow’s feet around his eyes.
“I said, ‘If I’m too chicken to go to war with those cocksuckers, it’s time for me to retire.’ You know I got business with them. Them motorcycle fellas is fucking me. Ol’ Tub’s piece of the pie been getting littler and littler. I can either bend over and take it nice and polite, or I can rip their dicks off for ’em.” Tubby pushed a hank of his blondish waves behind one ear and gave me a firm nod. With the magnanimity of a king offering his ring to kiss, he said, “I’ll strategize with you.”
Anybody else might have laughed at this. I appreciated it. Tubby didn’t look like much, sitting there in a wife beater with tattoos snaking up and down his arms, but he knew how people worked.
He sat back in his chair and smoked his cigarette until it burned his fingers. He stubbed it out with a hard jab. “Your challenge ain’t getting just Hannah out of there. It’s getting her out of there plus keeping Wade and Jesse safe. Rainey Bruce, too, but you can just tell her to get out of town.”
I already knew that, but I also knew he'd get to the good stuff soon enough. I watched him think.
“They got to get to Jesse from within the prison. Unless the Six Guns got a member in there, that’s pretty much contract work.” Tubby raised his eyes to mine. “I’ll reach out to somebody I know. Get your uncle the protection he needs.”
My mouth dropped open, and I closed it with a pop. “You’d do that?”
His lips quirked, and a smile spread over his face. He raised his eyebrows.
“What do you want?” My body tensed.
“Way I see it, you owe me ’bout three big favors.” I started to speak, but he held his hand up for me to let him continue. “And this’un here, me helping you save the folks you love, is huge. Prob’ly counts for at least two more.”
A few months ago, I’d have sat there like I had a mouth full of shit and was afraid of dribbling it on my white shirt. Not now. “Bullshit. You just told me you’re ready to exterminate the Six Guns. If we succeed, you might be able to slide back on top of whatever dance y’all are doing.”
Tubby laughed and clapped his skinny hands together. He finally caught his breath enough to say, “You have really come into your own. I am proud to know you.” He clapped me on the shoulder. “Okay. Here’s what I want. When this is all said and done, I want us to go on a date. All debts cleared in exchange.”
A yes ran through my head, got approval, and rushed to my lips. I held it back. True, things had changed between Tubby and me since he’d helped find the Mace Treasure. We’d grown past the boy and girl who’d shared an abortive romance in their early twenties. For the first time since the day I asked him not to call anymore all those years ago, he felt like a friend.
Dating Tubby might have a few perks. I missed the company of a man, but I didn’t miss the meaningless encounters. Even so, my loneliness had gotten so big I could practically dress it up and send it to school. Buy cute lunch boxes. Pay for piano lessons. But I didn’t want to go boyfriend hunting because my heart belonged to Wade.
An occasional date with Tubby might be the answer. Any relationship we developed would have to just be sometimes. His illegal enterprise was rooted in Burns County, and I never planned on moving back here. And Tubby himself? He might want me, but he’d never love me. He was too calculating and selfish. I remembered the physical side of the relationship we shared in our twenties. Talk about fireworks.
The biggest bonus? Going out with Tubby might give Wade a dose of cold water to the face. Tubby would make sure Wade knew. He might see himself losing me and change his mind.
That I wanted to use Tubby to make Wade jealous told me all I needed to know. Shit might be fine for a teenager, but I knew better. It had the potential to blow us all to smithereens. I shook my head. “I can’t. It’s Wade.”
Tubby’s eyes dulled with disappointment. He slouched and turned away from me. “He don’t want you.” His fair complexion reddened. “I seen him hanging all over a dozen different women since you been gone.”
“I know. But it doesn’t change how I feel,” I said, cheeks flaming. The admission of Wade’s womanizing made me feel just as miserable as Tubby looked. “I think I got a better idea than going on a date.”
Tubby faced me again, interested. He nodded at a closed door I knew led to a bed he kept up here.
I shook my head. “Tub, I've known you all my life. I’d rather be your friend than your sometimes booty call.” I thought Tubby and I had already renewed our friendship, but he liked for everything to be a deal signed on some imaginary dotted line. So I’d make it that way for him. “So let’s do this. Never mention me owing you again. Let’s really be friends.”
Tubby bit his lower lip and squinted at the floor. His eyes moved back and forth as he thought it over. It would have been so much easier to go on a date with him and then blow him off.
But Tubby, weird as he was, qualified as my friend. I wanted to treat him like a friend instead of using him. “What’s in it for me?” he said to the dirty floor.
“If you’re my friend, I will do anything for you. Look at what I’m doing right now for Hannah.” I paused to let the words sink in. “There's no way I’d do this if she didn’t mean the world to me.”
Tubby began shaking his head before I finished talking. “You come up here, and I tell you I’m done with the crazy bitches. Then I tell you I want us to go out. What do you think I’m talking about?” He stared into my eyes, and his meaning hit home. Tubby thought he was ready to settle with one woman. Me. He thought I meant the world to him, and this was his way to celebrate it.
Highlights of a life with Tubby flashed through my mind’s eye. The good would be very good. The bad would be like a vacation on the outer banks of the River Styx. Life with Tubby would never be boring, but it would often be heartbreaking. Then one day, we’d both have enough and go our separate ways. Never talk again.
Had someone asked if losing Tubby mattered before I sat down in this room, I’d have said no. But now I knew different. The permanent loss of him would cut me deep.
Tubby knew me, had known me all my life. He’d shared some of the good stuff and had carried me through some of the bad stuff. When the ordeal with my ex-husband blew up, Tubby pulled me out of the smoking rubble and helped me find the will to go on. I owed him more than a half-assed attempt at a relationship we both knew would fail.
I curled my fingers through his and squeezed. “Did you know I never even see Chase’s ghost? He’s lost to me, and it hurts so much. I don’t want that with you.”
“Who says it has to end that way?” His words came too quick and with too little conviction. The words of a man used to winning who saw a victory slipping from his grasp. I rarely noticed Tubby’s eye color, but right then I took in the brilliant cornflower irises, looked past the craftiness and down into Tubby’s fears. He didn’t want to be alone. Who does?
