Junkyard Dog (6 page)

Hayes knows the restaurant staff, and I wonder if
he partially owns the place. I still don’t know just how many local businesses
he has a piece of. He might trust me with his dad, but not his house or
finances.

“Can we get the potato skins?” I ask while checking
my phone.

“We’re not on a date.”

“Are you sure? You did open the door for me, and
you’re paying. I also feel like I might be expected to put out at the end.”

Hayes closes his eyes and rubs his head. I
immediately laugh at his effort to play the harried victim of my mouth.

“Whenever you wish I would shut the fuck up,” I
say, grinning, “just know that’s how everyone feels when you talk.”

Hayes smiles at me. “You fucking refuse to zip your
fucking mouth.”

“Why should I? If you really don’t want me to talk,
I could play on my phone during lunch, but I sense you want to bond.”

“You sense that, huh?”

“You’re giving off a vibe.”

Smirking, Hayes nods. “Women are an odd bunch.”

“I’m only one woman, boss. Just the one broad. I’d
think the son of an accountant would be better with numbers.”

Hayes grins again. “You’d think, wouldn’t you?”

“So, how did you gain control of White Horse?”

“I took it,” Hayes says without missing a beat.
“When I saw a weakness, I exploited it. When I saw a threat, I eliminated it.
No one gave me shit. I had to take it all.”

“But how? I mean you can’t just walk into a
business and threaten them into giving you half. Well, I guess you could, but I
don’t think that’s how you did it.”

Hayes shrugs as if he doesn’t want to brag. I roll
my eyes at his bullshit, and he finally gives in.

“I had a small inheritance from an uncle. Mom
suggested I use it to travel. Dad wanted me to go to school. Back then, White
Horse was failing, and businesses were leaving. People needed a vision, so I
took the inheritance money and bought partnerships with several businesses. I
made those businesses healthy while using my power to bully other businesses
into working with me and doing things my way. I looked for uses for the local
empty land and abandoned buildings to lure new businesses into White Horse. The
more new blood into the town, the more my businesses flourished.”

“You’re pretty fucking smart, eh?”

Hayes adjusts his large frame in the circular
booth. “Yeah, but lots of guys are smart. I was willing to break bones to get
things done where other guys just wanted to talk or bribe their ways into
power. Everyone has a button that can be pushed. With some people, they can’t
be bought or charmed into obeying. They only understand pain and fear.”

“You’re pretty fucking scary, eh?”

“I’ve heard, yeah,” he says in a voice reeking of
pride.

“The outfit in Common Bend has backers from out of
town. The bikers run Hickory Creek. You do it alone.”

“If you mean I outsource much of my muscle, yeah. I
don’t trust anyone. People are stupid and selfish.”

“Don’t you have anyone who will watch your back?”

“Are you fishing for a compliment?”

“No way do I want to watch your back. It’s too big,
and I’m easily distracted. Don’t you have anyone you consider a friend? Does it
really have to be so lonely at the top?”

“I had someone. When he got nailed for a murder
charge in Nashville, he could have lowered his sentence by turning on me. He
had the info to sell, and the cops were always willing to plea someone down for
info that’d increase their conviction count. Moot could’ve made life easier for
himself, but he didn’t sell me out. He’ll be out in a year, and I plan to
reward the fuck out of him.”

“Ah, you do have a friend.”

“That I haven’t spoken to in four years.”

“Friends are overrated,” I say immediately.

“You always have a response.”

“Silence has never worked well for me. The day I’m
speechless, call a doctor.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Tell me Moot isn’t his real name.”

“It’s Sasha. Apparently, it’s a guy name in certain
parts of the world, but here in the greatest country on the planet, Sasha is a
chick name. So he ended up going by Moot.”

“Why Moot?”

“I don’t know.”

“Didn’t you ask?”

“I’m a guy. I don’t ask questions.”

“You ask me questions.”

“Because you’re a woman and women like to think men
are interested in their crap. Men know we aren’t.”

“Fascinating stuff.”

“Tell me about your kids’ dad.”

“What about him?”

“How did you hook up with the rich boy?”

“I worked in a doctor’s office, and he flirted with
me. We went out a few times, and I decided to make him my wealthy sperm donor.”

“A fucking fairytale.”

“Fairytales don’t work out for my family. We always
end up with the frog that empties out our checking accounts or fucks our best
friends or is an all-around douche like Andrew.”

“Did you like Eddison at all?”

“Sure. In the beginning, but there’s something
empty about him that turned me off.”

“He didn’t want kids, and you trapped him.”

“Don’t get all high and mighty with me, you big
bully. I’ve seen you tell off an old, disabled woman.”

“A mean old disabled woman.”

“Still an old disabled woman.”

Hayes waves his hand around as if to erase any
culpability. “You knew he didn’t want kids.”

“He said there were too many people in the world,
and most were trash. I didn’t give a crap about his views. I’ve never been
interested in romance. I like dating for the free meals and movies. Once things
get too clingy, I bail. Romance and Wilburn don’t mix.”

“So you decided to pop out a kid with a guy you
didn’t like.”

“I always wanted kids. At that point, I had a
stable job and a decent apartment. I was ready to be a mom. Toby had solid
genetics, and his family would provide for the kids’ education. I still wasn’t
sure until he pissed me off one night. Then I decided I didn’t give a shit what
he wanted.”

Hayes’s dark eyes light up. “Pissed you off how?”

“I don’t know if I should tell you. Giving you ammo
to irritate me later seems dangerous.”

“Don’t be a pussy. Just tell me.”

Laughing at his hunger for gossip, I relent. “My
brother Peat fell for a bad woman, and she treated him like shit. She beat on
him, and he took it. Mostly because if he left, she'd faked suicide attempts to
make him feel guilty. Then one day, she was wailing on him with a frying pan,
and he lost his shit. Punched the bitch out. She called the cops, and he ended
up serving three months for assault. Once he was out of prison, Peat avoided
her. Moved to a new state and gave up his whole life, but he was free. Until he
fell for another bad woman, who killed him when he tried to leave her. The
bitch claimed self-defense and the prosecutor decided not to charge her. The
fucking whore shot him in the fucking back, and the law believed her.”

I pause to control my temper from spiraling out of
control. Every time I think of my little brother’s murder, I want to kill
someone.

“Peat was covered in bruises, and she didn’t have a
mark on her, but the prosecutor didn’t think she could get a conviction after
Peat’s criminal past.”

I grip the table, wanting to shake the world until
my brother got his fucking justice.

“So I told that story to Toby one night at dinner,
and he said, and I quote, ‘He sounds like a loser.’ I’d just told him my
brother was murdered, and the pampered piece of shit responded in a fucked up
way. I decided if my feelings didn’t matter then Toby’s didn’t either.”

Hayes studies me, looking irritated. “The guy’s an
asshole, so why not get a better man to father your children?”

“Are you deaf?” I grumble, and he smiles at my
anger. “My family has bad mojo. Or shitty genetics or whatever. We can’t pick
good partners. I’m unable to look at a bad man and see him for what he is. It’s
why I don’t date. Toby wasn’t a good man, but he had what I wanted.”

“Fine. You’re cursed.”

“You don’t have to believe in the curse for it to
be real.”

“You sound crazy. You know that, right?” he taunts.

“See, you think of the curse as a magical,
paranormal type thing, but that’s not it. Some people are just doomed. They
make bad choices. It’s like how addictive habits can run in a family. Maybe it
really is genetic, or it might be environmental, but we always trust the wrong
people. The only way to beat it is to be the asshole, rather than the victim.”

“Makes sense.

“If we can’t be the asshole, we have to be alone.
If Peat stayed away from women, he’d be alive. Honey could have gone to college
and gotten the career she wanted, but she kept falling for one loser after
another. Now she’s married to one, and he’s locked her down with four kids.”

“Love is a hell of a lot of effort even without a
curse.”

“Love’s overrated, for sure. I don’t mind being
without a man. I always wanted kids, but romance and even lots of friends never
mattered to me.”

“You’re smart not to give anyone power over you
except your kids have power.”

“I love them enough to let them ruin me. I won’t
love anyone else that much.”

Hayes sits quietly for a long time. The appetizers
arrive. I eat one potato skin and set the rest aside for leftovers. I’m
accustomed to Hayes falling silent and entertain myself on the phone until he’s
ready to talk.

“I could speak with Andrew Mayer,” he offers. “Make
him keep his hands to himself.”

Smiling at his offer to help Honey, I find his mood
today to be nearly irresistible. All of our talk about love being crap is less
convincing when we connect this way.

“You could help her, and I’m not going to tell you
not to, but I think it’s better if you didn’t.”

Hayes loses the warmth in his expression and just
looks pissed. “What in the fuck is your reasoning there?”

“Honey is thinking about leaving Douche. My moving
here gives her an out, and she’s inching toward it. If Douche stops being
rough, she might convince herself that he’s not so bad. She’ll think he isn’t
abusing her if he doesn’t smack her. He is, though. Douche wears her down with
his comments and rules. Whenever he feels threatened about her leaving, he
wants another baby.”

“I can make him fucking leave her. No inching
toward freedom. He’ll just be fucking gone.”

“Then she’ll end up with another Douche. Are you
planning to save her forever?”

“Pretty cold thinking,” he says, shaking his head.

“Honey needs to break free on her own. Peat never
truly left the first bitch, so he ended up with someone just like her. The only
way to be truly free of the wrong way of thinking is to face it and make the
choice to walk away.”

Hayes looks unconvinced, and I admire his desire to
save a chick in need.

“Honey is like my mom,” I say, wanting him to
understand. “She feels empty in a way nothing fills. Mom let life beat her
down, and love was the weapon. Every man broke her heart and killed her a bit
more. She used to ask if she was wearing a 'kick me' sign and I’d always think
yes. She wore it on her face. My mom was so obviously desperate for love and
attention that people knew they could do almost nothing and gain everything
from her. Honey will end up that way too if you or I solve her problems.”

Hayes sips his shot of whiskey and thinks about
what I said.

“Fine, I’ll hold off for now, but Honey is my
assistant’s sister. If she’s getting her ass beat and I don’t step in, that
makes me look bad. Life’s not all about you and your curse crap, Candy.”

I smile and pat his hand. “Naw, you’re just a
cuddle bear.”

Hayes rolls his eyes. “I checked up on Toby Eddison
when I hired you.”

“Of course, you did.”

“He got married and had a kid. You think that one
was a trick baby too?”

“No. His wife, Alice, isn’t someone who’ll trick
anyone. She wanted him, and she got him. She’s the classic, determined gold
digger. Of course, she probably didn’t expect her meal ticket to get indicted
on fraud charges.”

“Do you ever worry her kid will get all the
family’s cash and leave your kids out in the fucking cold?”

Hayes knows how to nail me straight at my biggest
worries. “When I was pregnant, Toby’s parents didn’t talk to me. They wanted to
wait until there was proof the babies were his. If you want to understand the
Eddison family in a nutshell, they did a paternity test on
both
babies.
You know, in case I was a hussy sleeping with several guys and only one baby
was Toby’s. They don’t mess around with the family money.”

I steal one of his fries and get a dirty look for
my efforts. “Anyway, after the twins were born, Toby’s parents wanted to put me
somewhere nice. Apparently my apartment wasn’t good enough for their grandkids.
They offered me an apartment near their home, or I could setup shop in their
guest house. I suspected they wanted me close so they could keep an eye on me.
The apartment sounded like a better deal, but I chose the guest home. I wanted
them to bond with their grandkids, so Toby couldn’t convince them to ditch
Chipper and Cricket down the road when he had a family. Years later, my worries
came true, and they got a legitimate grandchild. By then, Grandpa and Grandma
Eddison were in love with the twins. They still Skype with them every night
before bed. It’s pretty cute how much those uppity bastards love the kids.”