Dirty South Drug Wars (38 page)

“Don’t stop running, no matter what you hear. Keep running and don’t use the flashlight unless you have to.”

“I can’t just leave you here,” I whispered. “I know what you’re doing. You’re sacrificing yourself.”

He removed my ski mask, followed by his, and kissed my lips. “There’s no other option. Just go.”

My mouth brushed against his mumbled words. I gave him a slight nod and left the car. The door quietly closed behind me, a feeble attempt to not draw attention to my presence. The weight of his stare followed me. I stumbled down the slight embankment, the bracken loose and slippery, causing me to momentarily lose my footing. Once I regained it, I shot him one last look, wondering if this was the last time we’d see one another.

Then I was gone, disappearing into the black forest, leaving Tanner alone, leaving myself alone with nothing but the terrifying realization I may not make it out of these woods alive if they found me.

Or if they killed him.

That thought alone terrified me, forcing me to turn and face the road behind me. Tanner stepped out of the car, phone in hand. Quiet as could be, I backtracked into a ditch close to the road. Moonlight glinted off the gun, warm in my hand.

With the gun in my possession I felt in control. No matter how pissed off Tanner would undoubtedly be when he found out I hung back, it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but me, Tanner, and that gun.

“I’m on County Road 316,” he said into the phone. “Amos is somewhere behind me. There’s a cop car ahead of me. They’ve got me hemmed in. Where
are
you? Rue’s in the woods headed north. She should hit the highway in the next thirty minutes. I need you to pick her up.”

Tanner pocketed the phone and got behind the wheel, but it was too late. An old pickup truck was gaining speed, along with the cop car that was now approaching from just yards away. There was no possible way for Tanner to get around the wide truck or the blindingly fast police car. There was no escape. He was trapped.

Trapped.

“Someone is gonna die tonight,” Lucy sang from behind me.

I turned toward my sister but was met with only the blackness of the forest.

The truck pulling up, turning up dust and rocks, recaptured my attention. When that old pickup truck came to a stop and not only Amos but also Matt and Saul poured out, I knew there was no escape for Tanner. There was no getting out of these woods alive. There were too many of them. Too many of them and only two of us.

Another vehicle emerged from around the bend in the woods, parking behind Amos’ truck. Tanner stared through the window, releasing the steering wheel from the death grip in which he held it. The police cruiser pulled up as well, edging up on the borrowed car’s bumper as the driver cut the lights.

The lights perched on top of the cruiser were only for show. If they shone too brightly for too long, the man slipping from behind the wheel, the man whose son Tanner had murdered in cold blood, couldn’t do what I believed he came there to do that night.

Buck Bridges came to kill Tanner and me.

Tanner emerged from the car at the same time as Buck. Buck held a gun steady in his hand. The door of the car slammed behind Tanner, shoved closed with the back of his boot. Tanner smirked at Amos, Saul, and Matt as they stepped away from Amos’ truck. That smile burned away at the sight of the people joining them from the other vehicle.

My uncle, Alex, and his daughter.

My younger cousin, who looked strikingly like me, stood slightly behind her father. She stared down at her dirty sneakers, bottom lip tucked between her teeth.

“Olivia.” Tanner frowned, shaking his head.

What the hell is she doing here?

A bitter chuckle escaped Tanner’s chest, breaking the tight tension. The brothers exchanged confused frowns as his laughter suddenly became off-kilter and slightly maniacal.

“You’re kidding, right?” Tanner snorted, ignoring Buck as he drew closer with his gun. “You double-crossed us? You? The same girl I watched sit on her cousin’s, no, her
best friend’s
hospital bed and help paint her toenails? Why? Why would you do this?”

“He’s my father,” Olivia said, voice trembling.

Black spots peppered my vision. Disgust curled in my stomach.

“And Lucy was your best friend,” Tanner said. “What about Rue? What has she done to deserve your betrayal?”

Olivia said nothing. She stared down at the ground, stared down at the darkness. The gun trembled in my hand.

How could she?

“Who else is in on it?” Tanner demanded, sucking in a deep breath when the barrel of Buck’s gun suddenly pressed against his right temple.

“My advice to you,” Buck drawled, toothpick bobbing from the corner of his mouth, “is to shut up.”

The gun struck the side of Tanner’s head in a flash. My quivering hand smothered the gasp threatening to escape. Tanner’s head snapped to the side, white stars exploding in my own vision as I imagined the pain he felt while Buck pistol whipped him. Tanner fell against the car but quickly righted himself and turned back to Buck. I clenched my hands into tight fists, my throat tightening in blinding fury. A long, thin trail of blood trickled from Tanner’s temple. He swiped his hand against the wound, staining his palm with bright red blood.

“Did my son bleed?” Buck’s low voice grumbled. “Did my son bleed when you killed him? You did kill him, didn’t you, Tanner? My only child. You murdered him in cold blood.”

“What are you gonna do, Sheriff Bridges? Shoot me? I doubt it. There’re people who know where I am. They’ll look for me.”

“Like your uncle?” Amos said, lighting a cigar. “Speaking of Graham, he’s surprisingly absent tonight. Where could he be? You seen him, Buck?”

“He was sitting outside the judge’s house, watching in case we left our weekly poker game, right?”

“Where is my uncle?” Tanner asked.

Amos laughed. “Don’t worry, son. I’m sure he’s keeping poor little Lucy company wherever she may be.”

Before I could contemplate his confusing words, Tanner let out a loud curse. Boots scuffled and dark figures lunged forward. Buck moved at a surprisingly fast pace for a man of his stature and age, grasping Tanner’s shirt and yanking him against the vehicle. The wind was knocked out of him as Buck slammed his beefy fist into Tanner’s abdomen. Tanner doubled over once again, staggering on his feet as he sucked in a desperate breath.

Amos laughed again, strolling to where Buck had slung Tanner against the car. “What’s that old saying? He’s in a better place now? That’s it. Old Graham’s in a better place now.”

Tanner drew in a sharp breath, hands against his knees. “In a better place now? Like Lucy? Like my father? Like Jeb? Lucy is dead because of you. Dead.

“You’ve messed Rue up. You’ve messed up her brain. You set that hospital on fire. You killed innocent people. You burned them to death, you sick bastard. You killed your own niece because you thought she knew too much on you, too much on Davis. Now Rue is
ruined
. She’s
ruined
.”

You killed your own niece. Now Rue is ruined. Ruined.

Graham set the fire. Can’t be true. Lucy is safe, not dead. This isn’t happening.

“So I’ve heard,” Amos said, casting a thankful smirk at Olivia. “I’ve heard how she’s in denial, how she thinks her sister is traveling north with her boyfriend. Crazy’s always run deep in the Monroe family. My mother, Lucy, and now Rue. How does it feel, Tanner? How does it feel sharing a bed with a crazy girl every night? Do you like that? Do you like getting your rocks off on some delusional little girl? You do, don’t you? You love it, screwing your psychotic little whore every night.”

“Screw you.”

Amos laughed. “No, screw
you
. You’re pathetic, allowing her to live in her own little fantasy world believing her sister is alive tripping through the daisies somewhere. Oh, she’s near the daisies all right, but she’s not tripping through them. More like pushing them up.”

Tanner straightened his spine and spit on the ground. “And I’m next? I’m next, then Rue, and after that, what? You’re gonna kill everyone who knows the truth about who you really are, Amos? You’re gonna kill your own mother after that? Because she screwed a Montgomery? That’s what this is really about, right? It’s not about drugs, or money, or power. It’s about the fact that you were born the bastard child of a Montgomery, the bastard child of my own grandfather.”

“What’s he talking about, Amos?” Matt demanded. “What the hell is he talking about?”

“Nothing,” Amos said. “Just more Montgomery lies. He’s trying to turn us against each other—another lowlife trick the Montgomerys have come up with.”

Tanner laughed, shaking his head in disgust. “A trick? That’s the best you can do? What’d it feel like growing up, watching your father dote on his first-born son, Jeb? Did he love him more than you? Did he take him fishing? Rue says her father loved to fish. Learned everything he knew from his own father. Did he include you on those fishing trips, or did he leave you out? Is that it? You were stuck home baking cakes and pies with Nana Monroe while your younger brother was out fishing with a father who never accepted you.”

“He’s trying to play y’all,” Amos said. “I’m tired of listening to this fabricated bullshit spewing from your mouth. Where’s Rue? Where’s my whore of a niece?”

“Do you really think I’d take her with me to break into your office?”

“I thought you said she’d be with him,” Amos said to Olivia.

“That was the plan …” Olivia’s voice trailed off.

“Speaking of plans,” Tanner said. “You Monroes, y’all must take us Montgomerys for idiots. I always have a backup plan, you know. Do you honestly think I tell Rue everything? Is that the way it works with the Monroe men? You lie in bed at night exchanging your dirty little secrets with your wives?

“Rue has always known there’re things she’d be left in the dark about in our relationship. My family, we have connections everywhere. Did you really think I was stupid enough to sneak into your office without a plan B? What do you take me for, an idiot kid running on half a brain?”

“What do you …” Saul spoke.

Tanner looked down at his watch. “It’s about time.”

Buck cocked the gun he held, pointing it at Tanner’s head. “About time for what?”

The men jumped as Tanner hit the ground, rolling sideways and forcing himself under the car. That was when the world around us skyrocketed. A thunderous explosion filled the air. The fire in the sky burned so bright it blinded me. Shards of glass and metal rained down all around us.

Olivia’s shrill scream cracked through the night. Adrenaline pushed through my veins, but I was frozen with fear and couldn’t move. Tanner belly-crawled to the opposite side of the car. He jumped the ditch, inches away from my prone body. He hit the tree line and disappeared inside the dark forest, never looking back.

Coming to my senses, I stood to follow but became rendered still by the scene in front of me. Olivia’s hair and clothes were engulfed in flames, her screams amplified by the woods. Men hollered, some fighting the flames on Olivia’s scorching body as they threw her to the ground, some yelling as they noticed me backing into the dark woods.

Shots rang out in the night, the whizzing sound of bullets pushing me forward. I twisted and ducked below low-lying branches and swaying trees. Polaris stood bright and bold in the sky, beckoning me north to where I was supposed to be waiting for Tanner.

Bracken crunched beneath heavy boots behind me. The only other sounds were the popping and cracking of a burning car, the screams of a newly disfigured girl, and the wheezing bursting forth from Buck’s chest as he descended closer, emptying his gun of his last bullet.

I didn’t even realize I’d been shot. I was too wrapped up in my desperation to get to
him
as Buck’s gun emptied and Tanner’s voice broke in the distance.

The sound of Buck’s low curse fueled my escape. His wheezing breaths and the crunch of boots filled the night air, intermingling with mine. Twigs and leaves of low-lying branches slapped across my face, arms, and legs.

I stumbled on exposed roots, nearly losing my footing before regaining my balance and darting forward. The only source of illumination was the moonlight pouring through the trees and the North Star shining brightly overhead.

The ground gave way in an unexpected dip. I slid down a steep hill, sputtering curses below my breath. I landed near a wide creek on my hands and knees.

The earth was covered in soft birch leaves, splattered with a black-red liquid. I stared down at the stain in the moonlight. Liquid dripped from somewhere above. Looking upward, I saw nothing but the night sky.

Sticky, thick wetness spread over my shirt and tickled my neck. I pressed my hand against my neck then held it up in the moonlight, staring dumbfounded at my fingers.

Blood.
My
blood.

I was stunned for a moment, blinded by the sight of my own blood on my hand, until I heard the sound of male voices at the top of the hill closing in on me.

Forgetting my injury, I surveyed my surroundings, frantic in my search to get away. A large tree leaned over the creek, thick and aged with the soil burrowed out just beneath. Long roots roped in and out of the soil at each side. The tree burst forth from the earth as though it were fleeing the confines of the deep forest, just as I was. Thin, scraggly roots hung down below the base of the tree, clawing across the surface of the creek water, partly hiding the shallow indentation underneath.

I fell into the water, slipping and crawling across the slick creek bottom until I reached the base of the tree. I grasped the roots, pulling them apart and praying to all that was holy that a beaver wasn’t burrowed somewhere inside. The dark water and black hole swallowed me up as I pressed my body into the tight cavity. Water rushed over my mouth and nose occasionally.

The ebb and flow of sound came and went as the water drifted in and out of my ears, but I heard them in the distance cussing and pacing, searching the woods. A bright light landed on my face, blinding me. I dropped my head below the surface of the black water, holding my breath as long as possible before emerging once more. The light had shifted in a new direction. Two dark figures stood at the top of the hill, one holding a spotlight, slowly guiding the shaky beam across the forest floor.

“Where are they?” Buck asked. “I saw her. I saw the girl.”

Amos and Buck’s figures were silhouetted by the pale moonlight washing through the trees. Amos wiped his nose with the back of his arm. “I heard her scream when you shot. She’s out here somewhere. Heading to the highway probably, hopefully losing a lot of blood.”

“She’ll never find her way out,” Buck assured him in a confident, gravelly tone. “These woods are easy to get lost in. Especially a young girl. And if I got a good shot on her, she’ll most likely bleed to death out here before anyone finds her.”

“You better hope you got a clean shot on her,” Amos said in an eerily nostalgic voice. “Rue is her daddy’s girl. She knows the woods like the back of her hand.”

The rush of a stiff, hot wind picked up, whispering through the trees, drowning out the remainder of their words for a moment before I heard their conversation resume. Then Buck said something that turned my blood into ice water.

“I’ll call down to the station,” he told Amos. “I’ll get Wes to bring the K9 down here. Old Rosco will sniff them out in a New York minute.”

If Amos said anything, it was lost in the babbling of the creek and the chattering of dry, cracked branches. The beam of light disappeared, bathing the forest in darkness once more. I blinked several times, trying to focus on my surroundings, my gaze darting back to the top of the hill. The two silhouettes were gone.

My heart picked up pace in my chest as I swayed in the water. The thought of passing out in the creek and Tanner searching the woods for me, only to be murdered, was overwhelming. I took a deep breath, trying to calm the blood racing through my veins, knowing the increase of my pulse could cause me to bleed out even faster.

When the forest was silent yet again, I parted the curtain of bony roots, pushing myself through the water and standing on weak legs. I waded with determination through the water as far north as the creek would allow.

My time to find Tanner was limited, but I had a pretty good idea of where he would be. He wouldn’t be roaming the woods searching for me. He’d be waiting, waiting in the one place he’d told me to run. I could only hope he’d made it to the highway by now. If Buck had radioed the police station and requested the K9, I’d be caught within minutes and I’d never know if he made it out of the woods alive.

“That’s just the way it works, Rue.” Amos had shrugged with an easy grin when I’d once complained about crooked cops. “They make a few arrests, make the community believe they’re doing their jobs when, in reality, people like me are paying them off. Everyone’s a winner.”

“Except the ones who get caught,” I’d said. “That’s hardly fair. What do you have to say about
that
?”

He’d grinned. “Simple. Don’t get caught.”

Don’t get caught.

Three words easier said than done.
Don’t get caught.
Had Tanner gotten caught? Had Graham? Did Amos and Buck murder Tanner’s uncle as they’d so proudly boasted? Had they found Tanner and murdered him as well?

I trudged forward, forcing the thought from my mind, busying myself by brushing the tip of my index finger against the wound in my neck. I cringed at the burn, yet sighed in relief at the shallow indentation marred in my flesh. Somehow the bullet had simply grazed me, leaving a flesh wound, albeit a good-sized one.

Water from the creek had probably ruined my flashlight, but I was too afraid to test the beam. Instead, I chucked it as far as I could throw in an opposing direction, hoping the scent would throw the dog off, even for a few seconds.

A break in the trees up ahead on a tall embankment called to me, and I knew I had found the highway. My body felt heavy and tired as I pulled myself from the creek, digging my fingers in the moist earth. I climbed up the bank.

Headlights shone in the distance and I staggered, unsure if I should flag down help or scramble away from the strange vehicle approaching. The car sped forward before coming to an abrupt stop, pulling up beside me.

Run
, I told myself, but a sound behind me rooted my feet to the ground. Tanner’s broken voice echoed through the trees as a large figure emerged from the car, his identity hidden by the sooty clouds drifting in front of the moon.

Seized with horror, I yelped as the man shoved me into the backseat of the car. The shadowy figure climbed into the driver’s seat. I scrambled for the door handle, but it was no use. The door wouldn’t open, wouldn’t budge. Each breath from my mouth fogged the window, and I wiped it away, peering down the bank for Tanner until I found him.

Tanner climbed the hill, boots slipping on dewy grass. He glanced up and seemed to meet my gaze, although it was impossible through the tinted glass. Still, he smiled with relief, his feet picking up speed.

I smiled in return, the emotion slipping away as a short, dark figure darted from the woods behind him. The teeth of a canine sank into his right arm. The man at the wheel pressed on the gas, jerking us forward.

I banged on the window with my fists, screaming his name and throwing myself against the car door. A second dog broke the tree line, joining the first. The second dog also sank his teeth into Tanner’s arm, twisting his body to one side and dragging him across the ground. I continued yelling in a broken scream, my throat sore and useless.

He seemed to hear me, to sense me, because he glanced up the hill one last time. Tanner and the German Shepherds faded away, replaced with the swirl of dark pines and thick oaks. I cried his name, banging the gun against the door, trying the handle to no avail.

“You can try all you want,” the smooth voice of the driver informed me, easily taking a turn much too sharp for the speed we were traveling, “but that door doesn’t unlock unless I want it to.”

“You can’t just leave him,” I said, ignoring the slight cocky edge to his voice. “The dogs! Amos and Buck! They’ll kill him.”

He fiddled with the radio. “They won’t kill him. They probably would have if I hadn’t shown up. They didn’t see my face, I’m sure. It was timed so perfectly. I bet Buck and Amos are beside themselves now, wondering who I am.”

The reverent glee in his voice disgusted me, but I shouldn’t have been surprised at his excitement. We always thrilled this man—the Monroes and Montgomerys, that was. Our families inadvertently built a legacy around us. We were thrust into the middle of a feud, a battle that’d waged on years before our time, just because of our surnames, and this man made himself a part of it to fulfill a legacy of his own: the legacy of his father.

Detective Holloway continued to speak, gloating about his place in history, how his name would pass from mouth to mouth for years to come as the one to end the infamous feud. As the words spewed from him, I gripped the gun, remembering its presence for the first time. I stroked the metal between my fingers, meeting his even stare in the rearview mirror.

“Don’t even think about it,” he told me in a solemn tone, no longer full of boastful pride. “I wouldn’t have let you keep it if I wasn’t on your side.”

I was on him in a flash. The car swerved once the gun was pressed against his temple, although I doubted I would have cared if we wrecked. I saw nothing but red—the scarlet color of anger, the prism of blood seeping from Tanner’s body, the satin stain of my sister’s lipstick the last time I saw her, really saw her, standing beside her own grave.

“Put down the gun, Rue,” the detective told me. His voice betrayed the mask of calm indifference on his face as he gained control over the wavering vehicle. “How did I know where to find you tonight, unless someone told me? Who could have told me, Rue?”

The cocking of my gun broke over his timed, even breaths, causing him to flinch. His fingers grasped the steering wheel in a grip of death. “Buck, Amos, how should I know?”

“Tanner,” he replied. “Tanner sent me.”

I scoffed, shaking my head in faux amusement. “Ha. Tanner couldn’t have sent you. I’ve been with Tanner all night.”

“Put down the gun and I’ll explain. Damn it, Rue, I wouldn’t have let you keep the gun if I thought you were gonna pull the damn thing on me. I’m trying to help. I’ve been trying to help for a long time, long before we first met.”

There was no deception in his voice, no clear-cut proof he was lying, but he didn’t ask me for the gun, and I sure as hell wasn’t about to hand it over. Instead, I removed the cold, hard metal from his temple and slumped back against the leather seat.

A familiar gray bridge came into view, the yellow reflectors running along the highway beaming brightly against his headlights.

“Tanner and I have kept in close contact since the fire at the hospital. He was desperate to end this feud, one way or the other, especially after seeing you so devastated by what happened to your sister. I know about the safe. I know about the contents of the safe and the fact that Amos is a Montgomery by birth. I know about Levi Bridges. I know he’s dead, and Davis as well. And others. I know about others.”

“You’re crazy,” I said. “Why would Tanner confess to all that? Tanner’s not an idiot, Detective Holloway.”

He chuckled, maneuvering the vehicle onto an old dirt road. “No, Tanner’s not an idiot, but that boy would do anything for you, even face prison time if he has to. Of course, he won’t have to face prison time,” the detective told me. “You both have my word on that. You
all
have my word on that.”

“You have no authority.”

“You don’t know anything about authority. Especially since I’ve now gone rogue.” He smirked, gloating with gusto.

“What do you mean by that?”

He laughed, his deep dimples beaming at me from the mirror as we pulled in front of Tanner’s home. “I’m no longer working with the FBI. I quit.”

I frowned at the back of his head. “You quit? Why would you quit?”

“God help me if I’m wrong,” he said, his voice edged with a tender tone, “and maybe I’m not doing the right thing by most people’s standards, but I can’t find it within myself to care anymore. I have to make things right with my father. The Monroes and Montgomerys have their legacy, but what about my father’s legacy? He killed himself over this case, working day and night, searching for evidence, struggling to find a break to finally put an end to the feud, to put an end to the drugs, the dirty money, the crime, and for what? My mother left him for another man. His time with me and my kid brother was practically non-existent. It was squandered away on this case. I’m here for retribution. I’m here for my father.”

His last few words were spoken with a deceptively carefree shrug. Detective Holloway shifted the car into park and cut the engine. The bright beam of lights faded away and was replaced by the soft yellow glow from the front porch, a welcoming sight for an unpleasant situation, and as the front door of the large house opened, so did my mind. Everything I questioned about the detective sitting only inches away took to the back-burner, because emerging from inside the house and onto the dimly lit porch was none other than Graham Montgomery, alive and well.