Dirty South Drug Wars (36 page)

“That’s weird,” Tanner said, shifting on the pew.

I couldn’t contain my breathy, low laugh. “That’s Lucy. Always one for dramatics.”

Mia sang of a childhood lost, of a first love never known. Christine’s sobs picked up pace, and I gloated at the absurdity of the song and situation in general. Lucy really knew how to pack a punch when needed.

Christine’s hand fumbled for mine and I allowed it. Who knew when I’d ever see her again? For once, her emotions seemed sincere. Her curls hung limply around her splotched face. Her hazel eyes were rimmed with redness and shining with tears that spilled over her cheeks. Her sorrow became my pleasure.

Josie isn’t the sadist after all. That role belongs to me.

Christine wouldn’t be around for long, a fact that brought me mutual joy and pain. Graham told me the hospital’s social worker had reported Christine to the state for child abandonment and neglect. Lucy’s death would seal the deal, so to speak, on Christine’s fate. She’d go to prison, maybe not for long, but long enough. Any amount of time behind bars was better than a lifetime of no punishment at all.

I was certain she’d also lose her nursing license sometime in the near future. She’d have to start over somewhere fresh, just as I would. Would she have her boyfriend waiting for her? I doubted it. He didn’t accompany her to her own daughter’s funeral. Why would he wait for her to be released from prison?

Mia’s song died away on a bitter note, as did the life my sister once lived. Any inkling of remorse I held, the tears that sprang forward, the heartache that clenched in my chest, was for the others who perished in that fire. Graham assured me over and over that they were just casualties of war, patients who had no chance at a real life, but that didn’t ease the stinging guilt that infiltrated my mind during the long nights.

Our pastor presented the eulogy, and I pressed a tissue to my eyes. The spoken words, the prayers, and the humility surrounding me faded into nothing. I became lost in my own thoughts until I noticed movement from the corner of my eye.

A young woman slunk into the room, attempting and failing to fade into the far wall as she ducked into an empty space near the last pew. The girl was beautiful from what I could tell. Pale skin was hidden beneath the black lacy veil covering her face. The only color peeking out was the red on her lips. Once she saw me, those blood-red lips curled into a small smile. Her dress was modest with black lace edging and a sexy, yet almost childlike appearance on her small frame. Lacy black gloves traveled up her arms, dancing across her pallid skin and ending above her elbows. I frowned at the audacity of the girl who was obviously begging for attention but finding none. No one else looked her way.

Turning back to the front of the room, I caught the tail-end of the eulogy. Mia sang one last song, the words whispered and raspy from her throat. I focused my attention on the closed casket, the one thing Christine and I had agreed on in regard to the funeral service.

For all she knows, the body is too damaged from the fire to view.

The service ended, and we all stood, my hand firmly clasped in Tanner’s. Uncles and male cousins acted as pallbearers, toting the casket through the open door. Sunlight spilled into the room, the sound of happy birds and a nearby lawnmower filling the somber area. The doors closed behind Brodie, and after one last prayer, the funeral came to an end.

I rode with the Montgomerys to the grave site. Graham’s Cadillac tore through the dirt roads, coating the glossy dark paint in a fine sheen of dust. I spotted my sister’s casket in the distance, past the rolling green hills and gray headstones, hovering over the fresh, open grave below a green canopy. White, wooden folding chairs were lined in front of the casket, filled with family.

I joined them, my hands full of the Gerbera daisies Graham had stopped and allowed me to purchase at the local flower shop. I allowed Christine to, once more, clasp my hand in hers. The minister gave a short speech, consoling the friends and family of little Lucy Monroe, and I finally allowed myself to break down. I felt it all—the pain, the sorrow, the agonizing terror of a life without my sister, who was no longer by my side.

Concerned murmurings surrounded me. Aunt Maggie’s arms embraced me, submitting herself long enough to comfort me. She shoved her hatred for the Montgomerys aside to remember I was still the same Rue she had watched grow up over the years.

There was one last long, sorrowful prayer from the minister before a machine slowly dropped my sister’s casket into the ground. People stood, taking turns dropping a single white rose into the open grave. Lucy’s friends and classmates sobbed and took turns hugging my limp body. Friends and family offered their condolences in soft-spoken words, but I heard nothing. All I saw was Josie, hiding her tears, and Brodie, cussing God, and Olivia, apologizing to a girl who could no longer hear her regrets.

This isn’t real. Why are you so heartbroken? Oh, right. They’re playing the part. We must keep playing the part.

People departed from the grave, chatting among themselves, some even breaking into quiet laughter in a vain attempt to cut through the seriousness of the situation. I remained seated, staring at my sister’s grave until I was physically shaken by Tanner and forced from the cemetery. I stumbled across the soft grass, weaving through rows of headstones from the eighteen hundreds as we drifted to Graham’s Cadillac.

“I’m not ready to leave yet,” I said. “Can I—I know this sounds strange, but can I have a few minutes alone to say goodbye?”

Tanner, Graham, Melissa, and Shelby exchanged relieved smiles, smiles I didn’t quite understand. Tanner raked his hand through his hair, gazing at people who made their way through the headstones to the parking lot.

“You don’t know how happy it makes me to hear you say that,” Tanner said. “We were beginning to worry that you … that you would never … realize …”

Confused, I tilted my head to the side, my muddled mind trying to dissect the words he didn’t say.

Tanner sighed and dropped his head, palming his forehead. “As relieved as I am, I don’t feel comfortable just leaving you alone. What if Amos …”

“I’ll just be over there.” I nodded in the direction of Lucy’s grave. “It’ll only take a few minutes and I’ll never be out of earshot, okay?”

Tanner nodded, pressed a light kiss to my forehead, and leaned against the car as the others slid inside.

The sun sank in the distance, coating the earth in pinks and purples, two of Lucy’s favorite colors. A concrete bench sat a few paces from my father and sister’s graves. I wandered over to it, relieved to sit underneath the limbs and leaves of the weeping willow which draped overhead like a dismal cloud. I sat on the worn surface of the bench my grandmother had purchased shortly after my father’s death.

Time slipped by. A birdsong faded away and was replaced with the song of crickets and the croaking of frogs. The sun sank lower on the horizon and still I sat, waiting with Lucy’s flowers.

Then she came, quiet as a ghost, drifting over the softly rolling hills. She was nothing but a drifting black figure, a silhouette against the fading purple sky painted behind her. The black veil encased her face in darkness, and the bloody red lips twisted into a smile. She fingered the key hanging from the necklace draped around her neck.

Instead of approaching me, she paused by the fresh grave, peering down at it. The red Mississippi clay lay in a soft mound over the grave.

“You have a lot a nerve, you know?” I grumbled, walking across the dewy grass. “Showing up at you own damn funeral.”

Lucy’s grin spread across her face, wicked and wide beneath the shadows of her veil. “Oh yeah? You saw me in the funeral home, huh? I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. It was great, right? Are those flowers for me?”

“Oh yeah. Your funeral was a blast. The most epic one I’ve ever attended.” I tossed the daisies on the fresh grave and scowled.

My sister snorted and turned back to the grave, the smile slipping from her face. “Who do you think is in the grave, Rue?”

“Davis, of course. I hate that we had to bury him next to Daddy, but we had to do something with his body. Burying him in your plot was an ingenious idea. Daddy would be pissed, but Davis? Ha! He was furious when Graham told him where he planned on dumping his dead body.”

A mischievous grin curled on her face. “Graham told Davis he planned on burying him next to Jeb Monroe?”

“Yup. When he wouldn’t give him the info he needed on Tanner’s father’s murder, Graham told him he was gonna kill him and bury him in the Monroe family plot. I wasn’t there of course, but I heard that Davis shit his pants. Literally.”

Lucy laughed, a whimsical sound that tugged at my chest. I’d miss that sound. “Who told you he shit his pants?”

I searched my woolly mind, but couldn’t find the answer to her question.

“You know, I can’t remember. In fact, I don’t remember who told me anything about
you
. Who snuck you out of the hospital? Where have you been staying?”

“Rue,” she whispered. “Don’t you remember anything?”

I groaned and looked to the heavens. “Not you too.”

“What?”

“Everyone is acting so crazy.” I frowned. “When are you leaving?”

“Soon. As soon as you leave this cemetery.”

“Where are you going?”

Lucy snickered, an impish twinkle in her eyes. “Hopefully up, but that’s still kinda iffy at this point.”

Up? Oh, she means north. Silly girl.

“What will you do up north?” I asked.

Down the hill below, Chance was propped up against the side of his truck, near Graham’s vehicle, conversing with Tanner as they peered up the hill at us.

“What will I do?” she repeated in a breathy whisper. “Anything, everything, nothing. Who knows? It doesn’t really matter. As long as I’m with
him
, everything will work out fine.”

Sadness bubbled in my chest. “I’ll miss you.”

“Oh, Sissy. You’ll see me again soon,” she whispered. “I’ll be back before you know it.”

“Wh—when?”

“When the storm comes.”

I laughed, a dry, bitter sound, as I thought of the past few months, the things we’d all weathered together since meeting the Montgomerys. “You mean the storm hasn’t already come and gone?”

“Not yet, but it’s coming soon. And I’ll be here when it arrives.”

“How will I know when it arrives?”

“You’ll know. You’ll know when it blows in. And when it comes, you’ll make a decision. A decision to kill. You’re the one who has to do it, Rue. You have to kill Amos.”

Days later, I woke to a cold bed, Tanner nowhere around. After slipping my feet into my fuzzy slippers, I made my way down the hallway to the stairs, pausing near the landing at the sound of my name being spoken.

“I know everything won’t always be perfect. Rue refuses to talk about Lucy being gone, even though I know it’s bothering her. Not only that, we’ve already had an argument over her going back to classes next week.”

“School is one thing I agree with you on,” Melissa said. “I’m not comfortable with her going back to Mayhaw High. Not with her uncles and Buck Bridges lurking around. What if they hurt her? I’d never be able to live with myself. She should transfer to Birchwood and finish high school here.”

Tanner sighed. “Rue’s stubborn. She wants to graduate with her class. I told her I was putting my foot down on the subject, but she just won’t listen to me. She can’t get it through her thick skull how dangerous it is for her to be in Mayhaw, especially now that our relationship is out in the open.”

“You can’t blame her, Tanner,” Shelby said. “Mayhaw is where she’s from; it’s where her family lives, not just the ones against her, but the ones standing beside her.”

“No one from her family is standing beside her,” Tanner argued.

The quiet sound of a newspaper being folded may as well have been a grenade going off. I backed up the stairway until I stood in the upstairs hall.

“You’re wrong, Tanner,” Graham’s amused voice drawled. “I’d say that’s Mr. Brodie Monroe sitting in our driveway right now. He’s not out of the truck yet. No, he’s nervous, sitting in the Montgomery driveway. He’s debating on whether showing up here unannounced was a mistake, but ultimately he’ll step down from that big ole truck. He cares about his cousin. I saw the look on his face at the hospital and at the funeral home. He’s worried about her.”

A barstool scraped against the floor. “I’ll go invite him in,” Shelby said.

“Like hell you will,” Tanner said. “What if Amos sent him here?”

“Brodie’s not like the rest of the Monroe men. He helped me the night Drew attacked me. I haven’t spoken to him, not once, since that night.”

I spotted Shelby from where I stood at the landing. She walked across the foyer and grasped the doorknob in her hand, determination in her eyes.

“Aren’t you gonna stop her?” Tanner asked. “Aren’t you gonna follow her? Or are you gonna sit there and drink your coffee?”

Graham laughed. “Sit here and drink my coffee. Oh, and read the newspaper. Don’t give me that look, son. I think you can handle Brodie on your own. I’m going to sit with my beautiful wife and have a lovely meal that she, hopefully, hasn’t burned.”

“Jerk.” Melissa laughed.

Tanner followed Shelby to the front door. Bright sunlight flooded inside the house. I walked downstairs, bypassing Graham smiling at me over his newspaper.

I stood in the doorway behind Tanner and Shelby on the porch, greeted by the early morning heat, the sound and smell of river water churning nearby.

Brodie’s truck sat in the driveway, large and fierce. He didn’t wait long before sliding out of the vehicle. His monstrous frame seemed small and non-threatening next to the truck. He slammed the door behind him, approaching the house cautiously.

Brodie’s pace halted at the foot of the porch steps. His arms were crossed in a defensive stance when he finally spoke. “I’m here to speak to Rue.” His voice was firm with little room for argument.

“Rue’s not feeling well,” Tanner lied.

Brodie scowled in disbelief.

“Before I came downstairs for breakfast I peeked my head in her room,” Shelby said. “She was still asleep. I can wake her up if you want.”

Brodie nodded his head in my direction. “She looks fine to me.”

Shelby and Tanner exchanged a questioning glance and turned in my direction.

“Brodie,” I said. “I can’t believe you’re
here
.”

Brodie ran his fingers through his hair. “Nothing could keep me away. Not even a Montgomery could keep me from checking on my cousin.” Brodie paused, looking at Shelby. “I’m glad you’re doing all right, by the way. I wanted to tell you at Lucy’s funeral, but I didn’t think it was the best time, with everyone’s tempers running high and all.”

“Thanks,” Shelby replied, her dimples deepening. “Stay a little while? We can sit on the porch and talk. Give me a chance to apologize?”

Brodie stood in the driveway for a moment before he caved. He followed Shelby up the porch steps, trying not to check out her ass as he did so, but failing. I gave him the stink-eye. The big lug had the audacity to shoot me a sheepish grin and shrug.

Tanner leaned on the deck railing. Shelby and Brodie sat stiffly in the wicker chairs, facing one another. There was a long silence, only interrupted by the chirp of a bird or the splash of a fish hitting the water. Then Shelby began to speak, apologizing for the way she’d acted at the hospital.

Once she finished, Tanner relayed the tragic events prior to Lucy’s death, how he’d heard Amos and Buck discussing how they hired Drew to shoot Lucy up with enough drugs to put her in a coma.

“Your cousin, Olivia, overheard a conversation between the Monroe men before the fire,” Tanner said. “Your father, her father, hell,
all
the Monroe men … they helped murder Jeb. They had Davis kill Rue’s father.”

“You’re a dirty liar,” Brodie whispered, his face turning a brilliant shade of red. “My father would never be involved in his own brother’s murder.”

Saying nothing in response, Tanner leaned back against the railing, raising an eyebrow at Brodie.

I sighed, my mind and body feeling so weary. “It’s all true, Brodie.”

I crossed the porch, my feet padding against the rich wooden boards. Tanner tugged the hem of his white shirt I wore and I leaned into him, smiling as he took me in his arms. He ran his fingers through my hair, pulling the tangles from the unruly mess, kissing me on my forehead.

“Okay, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to
that
,” Brodie grumbled.

Snickering, I said, “You better get used to it, that is, if you want to continue visiting your favorite cousin from time to time, ‘cause Tanner’s not going anywhere.”

Brodie muttered something below his breath, but I didn’t catch his words.

Tanner sat in a chair, bringing me down onto his lap. I snuggled against him, my head resting perfectly in the bend of his neck, so perfect, in fact, I believed it purposeful, as though some great deity designed the two of us specifically for one another.

“How are you holding up, Rue?” Brodie asked.

“I’m doing okay,” I said, twisting my fingers through Tanner’s. “I mean, considering …”

“Yeah.”

“I really miss my sister,” I whispered.

“Yeah. I do too.”

The air became stiff and uncomfortable. I wondered if I should break down and try to convince Brodie that Lucy’s death was a hoax, but something deep inside me screamed against the decision, so I said nothing.

Brodie cleared his throat, breaking the tense silence. “I, uh, just wanted to check in on you. We haven’t heard from you as much as we’d like. Nana’s been worried. She really misses you. Are you coming back to school soon? Are you quitting the cake shop?”

“I’ll be back in school next week,” I replied, ignoring Tanner’s sudden, intense stare. “I’ll continue working at the shop after school.”

“Maybe that’s not a good idea,” Brodie said, holding his hands up in defense at my angry stare. “Just hear me out. If Amos and Buck are behind Lucy’s overdose, what makes you think you’re not next? You can’t go back to Mayhaw. You’d be safer here with
Tanner
.”

He spoke my boyfriend’s name like it was a curse and glowered at Tanner. I couldn’t help the snicker that escaped my mouth. Tanner shot him a smug, lazy grin.

“I dunno, Brodie,” I responded. “I don’t know anyone from Birchwood, other than Tanner, Shelby, and Bryce. Shelby drives to and from MSU every week, so I only see her on the weekends. I’d just feel so lost going to high school here.”

“What about the GED program?” Brodie asked, causing me to cringe.

“I’m not a quitter. I’m not quitting high school because of Amos. I’m not a freaking statistic.”

“Who cares if you get your GED or have a high school diploma?” Shelby asked. “They’re basically the same thing. No college is going to turn you down just because you have a GED. It’s not quitting; it’s being reasonable and making a smart decision. I’m in agreement with Brodie. It’s much safer to stay here with Tanner, Graham, and Melissa than running around Mayhaw. Just think about it, Rue. We haven’t known each other long, but I care about you. Truly. And Melissa thinks of you as a daughter. She’d be devastated if anything happened to you.”

“The hottie with the banging body is right.” Brodie grinned and Shelby blushed. “Beautiful and smart.
Niiice
.”

*

A week later, Brodie once again pulled into Tanner’s drive unannounced. When Tanner and I greeted him on the porch, he casually dropped a set of keys in Tanner’s hand.

“What’s this?” Tanner asked.

Brodie shrugged, grinning. “Keys to Amos’ office.”

“How’d you get these?” I snatched the keys from Tanner’s hand.

“I talked to Olivia. She admitted she was working at the office when she overheard Amos, Saul, Alex, and my father talking about working with Davis. She told me they killed Uncle Jeb. She thinks there may be some information in Amos’ office that could help put him away.

“I want y’all to know that I’m in. Call me a traitor against my father. I don’t give a shit. I’ve always said, done, and believed everything they’ve told me, but that ends now. They told me the Montgomery family was the enemy, but they’ve been working with two Montgomerys all these years. Lucy … Lucy was like a sister to me. How could they? How could our own flesh and blood do something like that? They hired someone to murder her.”

My mouth parted of its own free will, ready to share the truth of Lucy’s existence with my cousin, but Tanner’s fingers digging into my arm made me give pause. I closed my mouth.

“So we’re gonna break into Amos’ office …” I said.

Tanner grinned. “Yeah, we are.”

“Sounds dangerous.”

“Good,” Tanner said. “Dangerous plans are my favorite kind.”