by B. B. Hamel
“I understand that,” she said, nodding.
“Anyway, it’s all history now. Ray is just a memory. I guess we have more important things to worry about.”
Hartley bit her lip and stepped toward me. “What are you going to do after all this is over?”
I shrugged. “Who knows? I’m not thinking that far ahead.”
“I want you to visit my farm. Travis, it’s beautiful. Long rows of peach trees, hedgerows, the chickens and the goats. I can show you the stream and we can skip stones just like these.”
I smiled. “Okay. I can do that. So long as you can make me a peach pie.”
She laughed. “I can do that, believe it or not.”
“Of course you can. You’re a good southern girl.” I turned away from the stream. “Come on. Let’s head back.”
She nodded and we started walking. We didn’t walk fast, and we walked close side by side. We weren’t holding hands, but our fingers brushed each other. I listened to the woods and to the stream receding into the distance as we moved away from it.
We were getting closer and closer to something else, and neither of us wanted to name it. Maybe it was like a magic spell, where if you spoke the name, the thing disappeared.
I didn’t much need to speak about it, though. I was content walking through the woods with Hartley, the best tree climber on her farm. Beautiful fucking Hartley, her long blond hair swaying slightly in the breeze.
19
Hartley
I’d never seen him so open before. Standing next to that stream, skipping stones, I could almost imagine that we were both back in high school together. I wondered if we would have known each other. He was a few years older than me, of course, so in my fantasy we were the same age. But even then, I couldn’t see us knowing each other. Maybe we’d pass each other in the halls, maybe I’d smile or he’d nod, but that would be it.
In that other world, we could be normal people. Maybe Travis’s parents didn’t die, his brother survived the accident, he went on living in Knoxville. Maybe my daddy never took that loan, never put us in the pocket of gangsters.
But we were who we were, and the world shook out the way it did. Still, by that stream, the stream he grew up near, I had suddenly felt deafeningly homesick. I had wanted to see my mom, laugh with my brothers, sit and watch a ball game with my dad. I wanted some sense of normalcy.
Instead, we still had a bunch of people to kill and a lot more danger ahead of us.
Markus wasn’t in sight when we got back to the car. Travis wasn’t interested in going back inside, so we just pulled out and headed back to my apartment. I kept wondering if Markus would get sucked into all of this, but I actually believed him when he said that he was a survivor. You had to be if you were going to live in Knoxville and sell moonshine on the side. Markus would be okay, even if we weren’t. For some reason, I believed that.
We pulled up out front of the dry cleaners as usual and parked the car. Travis went first, like always, and like always he seemed extra watchful, extra careful. We paused outside my apartment door then he burst in ahead of me, his hand on his gun.
I stepped in behind him. Travis paused, his body tense. Sitting in the same spot as before was Culver, smiling calmly, his hands raised in the air.
“Did I surprise you this time?” he asked.
“Maybe you did,” Travis said. “Maybe not, though.”
“Sure. If that’s how you want to play this.” He smiled. “Can I lower my hands?”
“Slow.”
He did so, slowly. He laid his palms flat on the top of the table. “Come, join me again. You can keep your weapon out if you want. But I’ll just remind you that if I get injured, the mafia will not be happy.”
I followed Travis’s lead and sat down at the table. He leaned back in his chair and placed his gun on the table in front of him, the barrel pointing at Culver.
“Good. Very good. So, let’s talk.” Culver just kept smiling his calm and creepy smile.
“What do you want to talk about?”
“The money we gave you. Have you spent it?”
“Not yet,” Travis said. “Still looking for guys.”
“Good. Be careful. But not too careful. You’re on a timeline, remember.”
“I remember.”
“Very good.” He turned to me. “And how are you doing, Miss Hartley?”
“Fine,” I said, feeling nervous, but not as nervous as before.
“You look calm. Do you feel calm?”
“I guess so.”
“Good. I don’t want to make you nervous. Last time we met, you seemed very uncomfortable.”
“I’m not used to being in bars with criminals.”
He laughed. “I suppose that’s probably true.”
“Leave the girl alone,” Travis said.
“Well now, okay, Travis. I’m just being polite.”
“No, you aren’t. You’re here to intimidate us, to make sure we’re staying on track.”
“I can do both.”
“Listen: I’m looking for guys, old squad mates, guys that I trust and that will work well together. Then I’m going to rent a truck. Then we’ll fucking steal the shit.”
“Sounds like a plan. And how long do you think this is going to take?”
“A few more days to get the guys. A few more days past that to plan it all out. I need at least a week, maybe a week and a half.”
“Okay, Travis. You can have one week. If we don’t see results by then, we’re going to have a problem.”
“We won’t have a problem.”
Culver stood and smiled down at me. “One last thing. Hartley, I just want you to know that your family is lovely and your farm is incredible. I really don’t want anything bad to happen to them.” I could tell Travis had tightened up as soon as Culver had started speaking. Culver began to walk toward the door, and I had ice in my veins.
“So do make sure Travis stays on track. Otherwise, I’ll have the boys I left down there cut every throat they find and burn down the whole fucking farm.” He smiled sadistically. “Good luck, you two.” He opened the door and was gone.
“Son of a bitch,” Travis growled.
“Did you hear what he said?”
“I heard the bastard.”
“Travis.” I stared at him in horror. “He said he has guys at my farm. My family is in danger.”
“Damn that fucking bastard.”
I sat there in total shock. I knew that my family was likely not safe, but they seemed so far away. The farm was only three hours away by car, at most, but it felt like it was across the country.
I had never imagined the mafia would actually go straight for them. I’d thought I was enough. The whole reason I came here was so that I could help my family, not make things worse for them. But every move I made seemed to put them in more and more danger.
“He’s bluffing,” Travis said, staring at me. “Listen to me, Hartley. He’s bluffing.”
“What if he’s not?”
“He is. The mafia doesn’t care about this enough to put that much manpower into this.”
As he spoke, though, I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was lying to me. This had already gone further than I ever thought possible, further than I ever imagined. I was so damn angry with myself for letting it get this far.
Travis stood up and stalked across the room. I watched him go.
“What are we going to do?” I asked him. “He wants results soon.”
“I’ll figure something out.”
I stood up. “Travis, my family. We have to go help them.”
“No.” He walked back toward me. “The best thing we can do for them right now is to follow through with the plan. We have to win, Hartley. We’re going to win.”
“How can you say that? It’s just the two of us. Janey and them, they don’t care about us. It’s just us versus the whole mafia.”
“I’m not just some asshole,” Travis said. “I’ve gotten us this far. I’ll tak
e us all the way.”
“I can’t,” I said softly. “I can’t, knowing they’re not safe.”
He came close to me and reached out, but I turned away.
His voice was flat. “If you want to keep them safe, we have to win.”
“Yeah,” I said softly. “Yeah. I guess so.” I walked toward my bedroom. “I need some time to calm down.”
“You do that. This shit, it’s going to be okay.”
I gave him a look. He seemed haunted, gaunt and angry. I opened my bedroom door, stepped inside, and shut it softly behind me.
20
Travis
Culver was getting to her. I couldn’t blame her, since that man was creepy as fuck, but his threat was just so heavy-handed and obvious. Still, she fell for it with absolutely no effort.
Culver tossing around threats seemed pretty desperate, though. So far, he’d basically ignored Hartley or treated her like window dressing. He hadn’t bothered to try intimidating her, since he knew he probably could no matter what.
What did it mean now that he was pressing Hartley and trying to rush us? I guessed that the mafia was getting impatient and wanted their shipment back. Possibly there were some internal issues too, but I couldn’t exactly know that up front.
That could be good, though. The more disorganized and desperate they were, the more likely they were to make mistakes. I didn’t need mistakes, though. All I needed was for them to trust me and let me do my thing, and I knew I could trap them.
Hartley was strong. She was afraid and worried for her family, but she was strong as hell. I knew she wouldn’t do something rash just because that Culver piece of shit intimidated her. She had to be past that. She had to trust me.
Either way, I was going to need to get some backup, even if it was just for show. Fortunately, I had a whole squad of talented and loyal men that I could call on at any given moment. And I happened to know for a fact that they were all fucking free.
I got out my phone and dialed the first number. Gage answered on the second ring.
“Hey, boss,” he said.
I cringed at that. “Not the boss,” I said.
“Whatever. What do you need?”
“Are you busy?”
“Not exactly. I planned on drinking too much and bringing some piece of ass back to my place, but I can be persuaded to postpone that.”
I laughed. That was typical Gage. Tall and broad, he was our hand-to-hand combat expert, and he was damn good with stealth maneuvers. He loved to drink and fuck, like most of the SEALs I knew.
“Listen, I got a job I need help with.”
“This one paying?”
“Maybe, but probably not. Depends on how it goes.”
“Do I get to shoot someone?”
I grinned. “That’s likely.”
“Well shit, boss, I’m bored as hell out here. Where are you?”
“Knoxville, Georgia. I’ll send you coordinates.”
“Roger that. When do you need me?”
“As soon as possible. On your way, can you swing by and grab Flynn?”
“Sure I can. You talk to him yet?”
“Not yet.”
He laughed. “I’d do that first.”
“Why?”
“Flynn is—well, I’ll let you find that out yourself. Just call him.”
“All right. I’ll let you know.”
“Adios, boss.”
I hung up and shook my head. I hated getting my squad mates involved in this shit, but I didn’t have any other choice. They were the only men I trusted in this whole world. The fact that this thing wasn’t exactly legal, though, might not sit well with all of them, which was why I was looking up Flynn and Gage. Of the squad, they had the loosest morals, or at least they wouldn’t mind what I was doing so long as I was helping someone.
I called up Flynn. His number rang and rang, and I was getting ready to hang up on him. Finally, though, someone picked up.
“Yeah?”
It was a woman’s voice.
“I’m looking for Flynn,” I said.
“No kidding. This is his number. Who’s this?”
I shook my head, amazed. “This is Travis. Where’s Flynn?”
“I don’t know a Travis.”
“Can you just—”
“Flynn?” I heard her yell. “Who’s Travis?”
I held back my laughter as I heard some muted conversation, the phone rustling against something. Finally, Flynn came on the line.
“Travis,” he said. “Sorry about that.”
“Who the hell was that?”
“Uh, I don’t want to tell you.”
“She your new woman? You shacked up, Flynn?”
“Not exactly.”
“Don’t make me pull rank.”
I could feel the discomfort down the line. “That was my mom, man.”
I burst out laughing, not able to contain myself. Flynn, the big badass SEAL, was staying with his mother?
“What the hell, man?” I asked.
“Look, she split from my dad, okay? She needed a place to stay. I couldn’t say no. She’s my damn mom.”
“Well aren’t you a great son.”
“Please,” he said softly. “Get me out of here, Travis. Help me.”
“You’re in luck. I have a job.”
“Good. I’ll be there soon.”
“Gage is coming to get you.”
He groaned. “No, please. Don’t send Gage. I’ll meet you anywhere—just don’t send Gage here.”
“Too late, man. See you soon.”
He went to argue, but I hung up the phone, already laughing.
That had gone easier than I’d thought. It shouldn’t have been a surprise, though, since most SEALs got bored as hell when they were on leave. We were built for action, not sitting around taking care of our freshly divorced parents.
I sent the location to Gage and things were moving.
A couple hours and one cab ride later and I was sitting in the back of a smoky bar, my head on a swivel. The place was a well-known dive in the center of town called The Clam, and plenty of locals were milling about. The crowd was half rich and half hill people, which meant rednecks rubbing shoulders with society folks.
Back in the day, it had been my parents’ favorite bar. They came here during game weekends, whenever there was a football game on or some shit. They drank until they couldn’t drink anymore, and my dad would drive them home blind drunk. That was probably where Ray had picked up that bright idea.
Tonight’s crowd wasn’t as boisterous as it could normally get. They were subdued, drinking quietly or talking. I would have preferred some loud yelling or something, just to keep attention off me, but that didn’t matter. I didn’t recognize anyone and nobody recognized me, as far as I could tell.
Ten minutes after sitting down, a whisky in my hand, I caught sight of him slinking into the room like a rat. Toad looked nervous and out of place as he finally spotted me and came over to my table.
“Hey, Travis,” he said.
“Sit,” I ordered.
He sat. “Everything good?”
“All good. I don’t have much time though. I need to get home. Did you bring it?”
“Parked around back,” he said.
“Everything I asked for?”
“Everything and more.” He frowned. “I’ve heard some rumors about you lately, though.”
“Forget about that.”
“What are you involved in, man? Should I be worried here?”
“You shouldn’t be.”
“I don’t know. Shit about the Dixie Mafia and about the Caldwells? I’m worried.”
I grinned at him. “You’re fine, Toad. Let’s just get this over with.”
“Fine.”
He stood up and I followed. We headed out the front door and then walked around back. I couldn’t wait to see it, and I felt like a little kid again. My heart was beating fast and I was grinning to myself.
I’d always wante
d one of these. Even back when I was younger, I wanted to get inside one just to feel the power it held. It was like a mythical beast to me.
We got behind the bar and there it was, parked in the lot like a great white whale.
“Well?” Toad asked. “This what you meant?”
I couldn’t help but burst out laughing.
Toad shook his head, looking nervous. “What?”
“It’s fucking perfect, Toad.”
The big tractor-trailer truck was exactly what we needed. The eighteen-wheeler was the sort of truck people shipped stuff across the country in, and a lot of guys in Knoxville drove one. There was a strong tradition of truckers in the town, and even my father had driven one for a couple years in his younger days.
“How’d you get it?” I asked him.
“Don’t worry about it. I just need it back in two weeks.”
“I can handle that.”
He handed me the keys. “There you go. She’s all yours.”
I handed Toad a little envelope. He tried to refuse, but he took it once I insisted.
“Good luck with whatever you’re planning,” he said, and then walked away.
Poor Toad. He was worried that by helping me out, he was going to get himself killed. I doubted that, but he understood this game. He knew how it could be. Every deal was potentially dangerous when you worked with dangerous and violent men. Toad was used to the risk, and I wasn’t going to treat him like a fucking kid about it.
I walked around the truck once, inspecting the tires and wheels. It looked good, or at least good enough. The container was empty, though it smelled like dog food. Finally, I got up front and started the engine.
Power, so much power. I pulled it out of the lot slowly, getting a feel for the way she moved. It was like a giant slug crawling along, and that was how I liked it, slow and steady and strong.
I took the long way home. I hit the streets, opening her up, letting her speed a bit. I got a feel for the handling, the acceleration. By the time I was finished playing around, it was well past one in the morning.
It took me another twenty minutes to find a spot where I could park it. Once I did, I walked back toward the apartment.
