“Who the fuck do you think you are?” Boss asked Dani. “You ain’t nothing but a pretty little deputy from a shit flatlands town.”
Dani sneered and calmly said, “I’m the law.”
Blurry-eyed from the pain, he turned his gun on her and fired a shot, missing once again. Just as she returned fire, she noticed Kenny raise his arm and somehow toss a small flame at Boss, hitting him in the leg. Her bullet caught the newly burning man square in the chest, but the spectacle of seeing himself quickly engulfed in flames sent adrenaline surging through Boss’s veins, and he was able to turn and run out into the open field even though he was mortally wounded.
Dani rushed to Kenny’s side and knelt down beside him.
The closeout king squeezed out a gulp of air and said, “Is he got?”
Dani peered out the door and spotted the burning man tripping over the dead pilot and flopping to the ground. “He’s got. Twice.”
Kenny smiled and blacked out.
Chapter 91
When Kenny came to, he was lying in the back of a car with the sirens blaring. He attempted to lift his head to get a look at the driver, but stopped when he felt a sharp pain spread across his rib cage.
Using the rearview mirror, Friar peeked at the injured closeout king, while he guided the cruiser in and out of traffic “You stirring?”
Kenny coughed and wheezed in pain. “Barely.”
“You’re alive. Come out luckier than others back there.”
Kenny heard someone moaning from the passenger seat. Cringing, he asked, “Who’s that?”
“State fella,” Friar said with a laugh. “Got his nose blown sideways.”
“Where’s…Step?”
“Back yonder. He stayed behind with Dani and that state police lady.”
“The girl…Sarah?”
“Randle’s got her. Taking her home to her momma.”
“Where you taking me? Jail?”
“Jail? Hell no. Taking you to the nearest hospital. Get you patched up. The state boy, too. Can’t say I got much faith they’ll be able to do nothing for him but rip his nose the rest of the way off.”
Armstrong’s partner groaned out a “Fuck you.”
“Damn, man,” Friar said. “I thought you was asleep.”
“How the fuck am I supposed to sleep? My fucking face is on fire.”
“Boss…” Kenny gasped and coughed, which sent waves of pain through his entire body.
“Burnt to a crisp. Ain’t nobody doing shit for him.”
A smile crept across Kenny’s face. “You in good with Dani?”
“Savage?”
“That’d be the one.”
“I don’t know if I’m in good with her. I know’d her a good while. Why?”
Kenny barked in pain as he shifted in the backseat. “I need someone to talk me up with her.”
“Wha’cha mean, talk you up?”
Kenny let out a short rattled pant. “Romantically.”
Friar hesitated. “Well, no offense, but I don’t know nothing about you, romantically speaking or otherwise for that matter.”
“No,” Kenny started but stopped when the pain was too much. He gritted his teeth.
“But you can talk your own self up. She said she’d be coming to the hospital once she gets done what she needs to get done.”
“She did?”
“Hell yeah, son. She called you a hero.”
“She did?”
Friar chuckled. “I don’t know you well enough to lie to you.”
Kenny leaned up and looked at the deputy’s pale face in the rearview mirror to see if he could detect any deception in his eyes. When he was satisfied there was none to be found, he eased back down in the seat, finding it a little easier to deal with the pain.
Chapter 92
Step stood in front of the filing cabinets, holding Nellie’s file and staring at the drawer that had held it. He wanted to tear the place apart with his bare hands. He wanted to drag Harley down through the tunnels and cram the contents of the cabinets down his throat. He wanted to lie on the metal table, close his eyes, and never open them again.
Dani watched him, silently, stealing the sadness leaking out of him. She knew him as a killer, a man with no regard for human life, yet now she saw him as a man filled with sorrow for the loss of life, a life he valued more than his own. She mistakenly thought it was for the girl called Bones, not knowing his daughter’s legacy was that of a piece of blackmail kept in a filing cabinet.
He caught her staring at him. “What?”
“Nothing,” Dani said, sounding guilty.
“That ain’t a nothing look you’re giving me.”
“It’s just that…”
“You worried about our deal.”
“No…”
“Because you ain’t gotta worry. I’ll hold to it.”
“I know.” She scrambled to get out of an uncomfortable conversation. “It’s just that I can’t believe…There’s so many files, so many names…so many little girls.”
He gripped his daughter’s file tighter. “So many.”
Armstrong stepped away from one of the cabinet drawers, flipping through a file. “This is unbelievable. It’s a gold mine. Do you know how many people are going to go away for this shit?”
Step laughed. “Zero.”
She smirked. “Zero? What’re you talking about? We have all the evidence we need to bury these assholes…”
“The problem is there ain’t no one to turn this evidence over to. These files are connected to judges, lawmen, politicians, you name it. High up as you can go, too. This shit ain’t gonna bury no one.”
Dani scanned the drawers and eyed the manila folders. “He’s right. There’s nothing that connects them to the Pikes, and even if there were, there’s no one to take these files to.”
“What about the media?” Armstrong asked, protesting their premise. “They’ll run down every fucker in these files and splash their names all over the place.”
Step shook his head. “No they won’t.”
“Why won’t they?”
“Because the Pikes wouldn’t leave that kind of loophole. We ain’t but skimmed through a handful of these things. We dive deeper, we’ll find media folks in here, too.”
“You can’t know that,” Armstrong said.
“I can because I know Harley.”
“So, he’s some super genius criminal?”
“No,” Step said looking down at Nellie’s folder. “He’s just an evil fucker who knows how to cover his bases.”
“So, you’re proposing we do nothing?” Armstrong asked.
“Far from it,” Step said. “We got names. We practically got addresses.” He pointed to the armored truck. “We got stacks of cash that stretch to the ceiling.”
“So?”
“Go after them ourselves?” Dani asked. “Find the girls? Is that what you’re saying?”
“The ones that are alive. Won’t be many, most likely, but the folks that bought and paid for the girls and whoever else is involved, we can take them down one by one. Using the best way I know how.” He held up his gun.
Armstrong opened a file and said, “This says the buyer is in Venezuela.”
He nodded. “Venezuela, Cuba, Chile, Peru, Philippines, China, a couple of Middle Eastern shitholes.”
Armstrong fought to keep from rolling her eyes. “And we’re just gonna fly into these places like spies?”
“We are not. I am.” He turned to Dani. “That is if I can get out of a deal I made.”
Dani stared at him before asking, “Why?’
“Why?” Step asked furrowing his brow. “You stand here, in front of these files, with all these names, and you need a reason why?”
“You’re asking me to let you get away with murder, so yeah, I need to know why.”
He hesitated before handing Nellie’s file to Dani. “ ’Cause I got a stake in this.”
Dani opened the folder and quickly connected the dots.
“Turns out my wife owed a debt. You let me out of our deal, and I’m gonna do some collecting of my own.”
Dani didn’t respond immediately. She scanned the document and did a double take on a note scribbled in the right-hand corner of the top page. She read it to herself. Refund approved by Athaliah. Inventory defective. She turned the name Athaliah over in her head. Thanks to her father and her schooling, she knew the name too well.
Step whistled to get her attention. “You gonna hold me to our deal?”
Dani handed the file back to him still contemplating the name Athaliah. “You’re out of the deal on one condition.”
“And that is?”
“I help.”
“Are y’all forgetting about the other police officer in the room?” Armstrong asked. “Y’all are talking like my say don’t mean a thing.”
Step turned to her. “I had a deal with Deputy Savage. You wanna arrest me, you’re gonna have to earn it.”
“Son,” Armstrong said with a twitch in her lip, “don’t tempt me. I’ll bust your ass down to dust before you have your next shitty idea.”
Step smiled at her threat.
“But as it turns out, I got a stake in this, too.”
“Is that right?” Step asked, sounding suspicious.
“She does,” Dani said, picking a file out of a drawer. She opened it and found the name Athaliah again.
“And I’m inclined to get on board with your idea, but we got one problem,” Armstrong said. “The Pikes are still out there.”
“The way I figure we ain’t gotta concern ourselves with all the Pikes,” Step said. “We take Harley out and the rest of the family will bust apart. They’ll go sideways on each other trying to take control of things for themselves. All but Bonnie. My guess is she’ll be glad to be rid of the burden of Pike business. She’s got her churches to look after.”
“Churches?” Dani asked.
Step nodded. “It’s odd I know, but she’s a Bible thumper. She ain’t got but a passing interest in Pike business. Don’t make her an angel, but she’s nothing to concern ourselves with.”
Dani fixated on the name Athaliah. She mumbled to herself, “Get a preacher drunk.”
“What’s that?” Step asked.
“Jephthah,” Dani said. “She’s called on me to discuss the story of Jephthah.”
“You hit your head somewheres along the way? You ain’t making a lick of sense,” Step said.
She ignored him. “She. The church’s benefactor was a woman. That’s what Pastor Tom said.”
“What are you trying to say, Dani?” Armstrong asked.
Dani grabbed a random file and opened it on the table. She scanned through the top document and found what she was looking for. Pointing at the name Athaliah, she said, “There. This name, Athaliah, it’s all over these files. It’s from Second Kings in the Bible.”
Armstrong picked up the file and studied the document.
“She was this ruthless woman,” Dani said. “A queen. The only woman to ever rule over Judah.”
“What’re you trying to say?” Step asked.
“I’m saying you’ve got the order of things wrong. Harley isn’t the head of the Pike family. Bonnie is.”
Step held back a chuckle. “And you know this because?”
“Because,” Dani said, “I got a gut feeling. Look, I interviewed a preacher in Baptist Flats about missing girls in the mountains, and he mentioned a woman, a benefactor of a church…”
“You forgetting I work for the Pikes?” Step asked.
“No…”
“I know who’s who and what’s what when it comes to the Pikes. And I’m telling you Harley is at the top. Near every order I ever got come straight from him.”
“Near?” Armstrong ask.
“Bonnie’s filled in once, but not on her own accord. Harley’s off on business. She didn’t do nothing but hand over files. She ain’t never give me an order she come up with. It’s always passed down from Harley.”
“You sure about that?” Armstrong asked. “Because I’ve never met Harley. I’ve only dealt with Bonnie. She always dangles Harley out there like a carrot to string me along, but for a woman who’s just got a passing interest in Pike business, she sure does insert herself into a lot of it.”
“So, you think Dani’s gut feeling is proof that Bonnie’s really in charge?”
Armstrong shook her head. “I ain’t saying that. I’m just saying we need to consider her point before we make a move. We take out the wrong Pike, we’re exposing ourselves to a mess of trouble. Assuming I’m on board with this crazy plan of yours.”
“I’m telling you Bonnie ain’t the one to take out. I ain’t never seen her outside of her restaurant but once, and that was when I had a meeting with her at one of her churches, a meeting that Harley set up.”
“How do you know Harley set it up?” Dani asked.
“Because—” Step stopped short when he realized that he only knew Harley set up the meeting because Bonnie told him Harley had set it up. “Okay, so how do you explain the meetings with Harley at the Biscuit Shack? The orders come out of his mouth. I was there every time they did.”
Armstrong furrowed her brow. “At the Biscuit Shack?”
“The one in Rock Hollow.”
“Bonnie’s Biscuit Shack?” Armstrong asked. “Was she present at these meetings?”
Step considered her question. “Not exactly. She was there, but she was sitting at her spot at the counter. Hardly ever moved off it.” His mind replayed a number of those meetings. He zeroed in on Harley’s face. His eyes. Did they shift to Bonnie during the meeting? Was she more a part of the meetings than Step had realized? He shook the image. “This is crazy. I would’ve known…”
“Like you knew about these files?” Armstrong asked.
Step was starting to really dislike the state police officer. “This ain’t the same thing. I was in the church with the woman. She was putting the sermon together for the preacher. She even called herself…exalted something or another.”
Dani looked at him wide-eyed. “ ‘The Lord is exalted’?”
“That,” Step said. “She said, ‘I am the Lord is exalted.’ She’s a crazy Bible thumper. She ain’t head of the Pike family.”
“Athaliah,” Dani said almost in a daze, “means ‘the Lord is exalted.’ Bonnie told you she was Athaliah without telling you. She told you she is in charge.”
Step stood silently for a moment. Eventually, he said, “Someday I’ll educate you on the truth of things.”
“What does that mean?” Armstrong asked.
Step looked at his daughter’s file. “It means Bonnie’s responsible for what happened to my baby girl, and Ima make her pay.”
“Hold on, now,” Armstrong said. “You ain’t convinced me of nothing yet. I gotta think this whole thing through.”
Step growled. “What’s to think about? We got money. We got guns. We got targets. You and me, we got us motivation. You can do all the thinking you want, but it’s just gonna bring you around to the same place. These folks in these files are due closeouts. Ain’t nobody gonna do it right but us.”
“What I’m concerned with is the how of it. We’re talking faraway lands, most ain’t known as friendly vacation spots, neither,” Armstrong said.
“You get me in. I’ll take care of the rest.”
“What makes you think I can get you into these places?”
“You’re with the state police. You’ve got connections.”
She looked away.
“You saying you ain’t got connections?”
Exasperated, she said, “I have connections, it’s just…”
“What?”
“I’m just not wild about being partners with you.”
“You ain’t partners with me.” He pointed to the file cabinets. “These girls are your partners. As far as me, I ain’t much in this world, but I can close folks out like I was born to do it. The shitsacks involved in taking the
se girls, they need closing out like nobody I’ve ever come across before. You work this thing stateside with your law enforcement connections, and I’ll make sure these fuckers get what’s coming to them.”
“Wait a minute,” Dani said. “How’d I get left out of this?”
“You ain’t gonna have time for this,” Step said.
“I’ll make time.”
“Won’t be none to be made. Once Bonnie’s gone, the shit she’s been holding back is going to stink up these mountains and come flooding down on your little town. You’re gonna have your hands full. Unless you wanna leave that uncle of yours high and dry.”
“So, you’re saying I’m to walk away from this?”
“I’m saying you’re to deal with Bonnie’s mess from the other end. We’re bound to meet up at some time or another.”
“He’s got a point,” Armstrong said. “You try to help us, you’re gonna be pulled in all sorts of directions worrying about Otis and Baptist Flats.”
“So, you’re jumping in on this?” Dani asked.
Armstrong placed her hands on her hips and dropped her chin to her chest. She went over every reason why she should laugh in Step’s face and tell him to fuck off. There were too many girls, too many assholes to run down. They could never pull it off. The whole thing was one big fight with a windmill. She thought of a million reasons not to do it and only one reason to do it. She cleared her throat. “I am, but my sister’s file is first.”
Step stared at her for a long time before saying, “Fine, as long as you keep your heart out of it. Don’t need your emotions getting in the way.”
Confused, she asked, “How am I supposed to do that?”
“Don’t fool yourself into thinking she’s alive,” he replied.
She nodded and then said, “I gave up on that notion a long time ago.”
Step moved to leave, but stopped when Dani ordered him to. “I’ve got a Bonnie to kill.”
“I know,” Dani said. “But I don’t think you’ve considered everything.”
“What’s left to consider?”
Dani motioned toward the filing cabinets. “Other people’ve got a stake in this just as much as you.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying I got a plan so justice is done.”
Savage Reckoning Page 29
