Shallow Grave-J Collins 3 (27 page)

Abita tore into the living room the same time my father stepped through the front door.

Everyone froze.

307

Jesus Christ. Could nothing in my life go smoothly?

Abita gaped at Doug Collins. My father’s gaze narrowed on Jericho and didn’t waver.

“Now that he’s awake we’d better go,” Abita said.

“No, you can stay. Th

is’ll just take a minute.”

“Mama, wanna go now!” Jericho clutched the books to his chest and blinked at Doug Collins.

Abita scooped up her bag and jostled him on her hip.

“Th

anks for everything today. I’ll call you soon, okay?”

My protest fell on deaf ears as she scurried out.

With any luck my father would assume Abita and Jericho were just friends of mine and leave it at that.

But I took one look at him and knew that wouldn’t be the case.

My dad said, “Who were those people, Julie?”

I could lie. I could be petulant. Guess which one I picked? “Why do you care?”

“Because that boy was the spitting image of Ben. Is that his kid?”

Our gazes clashed.

“It doesn’t matter. You didn’t give a rat’s ass about Ben, so don’t you dare pretend you care about his spawn.

Isn’t that what you called him once? Unwanted spawn?”

“You always got a smart answer, don’t you?”

“Daddy? What’s going on?” Brittney asked.

He scowled at her. “Head on back to the car, Britt.

308

I’ll be right there.”

“But Dad—”

“Go. Now.”

Brittney’s confused, frightened gaze darted between us and she ran out the door.

I needed a minute to think, to breathe, to get away from him. I wheeled around and stomped to the kitchen.

My damn hands shook as I lit a cigarette. I poured a shot of tequila in my coff ee mug. I didn’t really taste it as it slithered down my throat.

I’d taken a healthy drag when I sensed him in the doorway. “I’m asking one more time, girlie. Is that kid Ben’s?”

I exhaled. “Yes. Ben left a young, pregnant girlfriend behind in Arizona no one knew about. She’s here because she’s curious about Ben’s family.”

“Didja plan on tellin’ me about this boy?”

“Not my place.”

“But I suppose the injun family knows.”

“Yep.”

“But I ain’t got a right to know?”

“Why? You have a hankering to be a grandpa,
Doug
?”

“You got a smart mouth.”

“Like that’s a big surprise.”

He snorted. “Th

e injuns throwing him a big ‘wel-

come to the tribe’ powwow?”

309

Stay calm. Don’t react.
“No, so I can see where Abita wouldn’t want a repeat performance with you after her meeting with Yvette and Ben’s other siblings. Did you forget you washed your hands of Ben and anything associated with him years ago? So your ‘rights’ are non-existent, Dad.”

He gave me a fi ery look of hatred. “You don’t get to decide that, and I ain’t done with this. You tell that girl to call me at the house. If she don’t, it’s gonna come down on you.”

I didn’t move for the longest time.

Yeah. My life was a tangled mess. Jerk a loose thread and it wouldn’t pull free but was guaranteed to become another knot.

M M M

I stole into bed for a few hours. I deserved a nap.

Th

e insistent ringing of the phone woke me. I blinked at the clock, as the time registered early evening, not the middle of the night. Th

e caller ID read:
rural pay phone
.

“Hello?”

“Julie?” a garbled male voice said.

“Who’s this?”

“Denny Bird.”

“Hey, what’s up, Denny?”

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“Umm. Nothin’.”

Th

at didn’t sound convincing.

“Okay, something came up. Remember when you tole me to call you if I needed anything?”

I jackknifed in my bed. “Yeah. What’s going on?”

“I kinda did a dumb thing. I hitched a ride off the rez, you know, to clear my head? And I got no way to get back, no one to call, so I wondered if you could pick me up and give me a ride back there?”

“Where are you now?”

Pause. Traffi

c noises droned in the background.

Dread swirled in my system. “Denny? You still there?”

“I’m in the Save-Mart parking lot. Know where that is?”

Denny was in Sturgis? “Yeah. Give me twenty minutes.”

“Th

anks.”
Click
.

I fl opped back in my pillows. What the hell had I just agreed to? Hadn’t I suff ered enough self-recrimination about my stupid choices today?

But I
had
told Denny to call me if he needed anything, not that I’d expected him to take me up on it. I couldn’t rescind the off er now, as much as I was beginning to regret it.

Both the clips in my gun were empty from shooting with Kevin. I reloaded and set the gun on the seat beside me in my truck. With the way my luck had gone lately, I wasn’t taking any chances. I slid my stun gun into my 311

right jacket pocket.

I hadn’t spent much time in Sturgis recently. It shocked me the Save-Mart had closed its big red doors.

A ‘For Sale’ sign decorated the front windows. Th e parking lot was empty.

Where was Denny?

My feeling of dread mushroomed.

I spied the pay phone and a form huddled on the ground on the far left corner of the building.

Shit. Was Denny hurt?

I hit the gas. Th

rew the truck in Park and jumped out.

Th

e second I got within three feet of Denny, I realized my mistake.

Roland Hawk oozed from the shadowed corner of the brick building.

My gaze whipped to Denny. His face was a mass of bruises, cuts, and scrapes. His left eye was swollen shut, the skin surrounding it a mottled red. Some abra-sions were lightly scabbed over, some were fresh. Th e

right side of his face bore the imprint of knuckles: purple bruises scattered like ink spots.

I choked on a stream of bile snaking up my throat.

Roland got right in my face. “Nice you could join us, bitch. See, I’ve already started this little fucker’s punishment for helping you.”

Started? Jesus.

312

“But then I realized I needed him to get to you, so I couldn’t fi nish until you joined my party.”

I fl inched at his stench of brutality. Automatically, my right hand dropped to my weapon.

Not quickly enough. Roland grabbed my wrist, twirled me around and twisted my arm. “Whatcha got in your jacket?” His free hand dove inside my pocket with enough force the seams ripped. He didn’t release my arm as he waved the compact black box in front of my face.

“I was hopin’ you’d bring this. Oh, look, and it ain’t got no safety pin.” Roland ran the prongs down the side of my neck in the same path his knife had taken. “Know how it feels to get zapped like a fuckin’ bug? I’ll bet not.

Wanna see the fuckin’ burn marks you left on me? How about if I demonstrate on you?”

“No,” Denny warbled. “You said you weren’t gonna do nothin’ to hurt her. Leave her alone.”

“Aw. Ain’t that sweet? Little fucker has a crush on you. Just to prove I’m a standup guy, I’m gonna do what you asked, Denny Birdbrain. I’m gonna use it on you.”

I was so scared I couldn’t fi nd my voice.

Roland shoved me forward. “Watch this neat trick.”

He dialed it to the highest setting.

Denny whimpered.

“Quit fuckin’ bawlin’. Be a fuckin’ man. Spread your legs, dickless wonder. I’m gonna zap you where you 313

should’ve been born with balls.”

“No. Please, Roland, don’t.”

“Shut the fuck up, and spread your fuckin’ legs or I’ll change my mind about usin’ this on her right now.”

Denny slowly parted his thighs. Tears leaked down his battered face. His knuckles were white beneath the bruises and scrapes as he clenched his hands into fi sts.

Horrifi ed, I couldn’t breathe as Roland bent down and placed the prongs on the crotch of Denny’s jeans.

He grinned at me and depressed the button.

Denny’s immediate shriek of pain was lost to the motions of his body twitching and writhing on the pavement.

My vision blurred from the tears and lack of oxygen to my brain. I swayed briefl y, only to be jerked upright again.

“Remember when you did that to
me
you fuckin’

cunt? Huh? ’Cept if I recall, you used this clever fuckin’

thing on me
twice
. So, what goes around comes around, and guess who gets to feel the sting the second time?”

My lips moved but no sound emerged.

Roland bent my wrist until the tendons popped.

“Answer the fuckin’ question.”

I swallowed. “Me. You’re gonna use it on me.”

“Knew you weren’t as dumb as you look.” He pushed me and I landed on the ground. Cement scraped my palms and burned my knees though my jeans. Im-314

mediately I pivoted and crab-crawled away.

“None of this shit would’ve happened if you wouldn’t have come sniffi

n’ around my place, threatenin’ me ’bout

something that happened years ago. Why the fuck you tryin’ to dig up shit on Ben now? Don’t fuckin’ matter.

He’s still dead.”

“It matters to me. Did you kill him?”

Denny moaned.

“Fuck, no. I had no beef with him.”

“Did you have a beef with Maria Dove? Did you kill her?”

“What the fuck you talkin’ ’bout?”

“Maria had you arrested. Did you kill her after you got out of jail?”

“No. Christ. I wish I would’ve. Th

at little sister of

Bonita’s was a fi rst-class liar. And a two-bit whore. She chased after me from the time she was twelve. So, yeah, if tight, young pussy is fl ashed in my face, I ain’t about to say no. But the night she went cryin’ to the cops that I’d supposedly beat her up?
Shee
. Bonita done that.”

I sat there like a lump, soaking it in, yet scared to make another peep.

“Everybody in her family ’cept her mother fuckin’ hated that bitch. We didn’t give a shit when she disappeared, but I sure as fuck didn’t have nothin’ to do with it.”

“So, it was Bonita’s fault you sat in jail on a domes-315

tic charge?”

His eyes glittered with rage. “Yeah, but she paid for it. Trust me. Now it’s time for you to pay.”

My mind registered the steel prongs digging into my belly and every muscle in my body spasmed. Th en nothing else registered but debilitating, excruciating pain.

An eternity later I quit jerking and twitching. My face was ground into the cement and dirt coated my mouth as I panted, trying to force my lungs to work. My whole body spasmed involuntarily. I was caked in sweat, from fear, from the toll of 300,000 volts on my body. I was half-afraid I’d wet myself.

“Take this as a fuckin’ warning, which is better than I give most people who fuck with me. Stay the fuck out of White Plain. I catch you there again and I’ll kill you.”

Bootsteps thumped and faded. A car engine started and I dragged myself out of the way in case Roland decided to run me over. My back hit a solid object.

I slumped against the building and passed out.

316

A chill burrowed under my skin. My eyes opened slowly and I didn’t know where I was.

Th

e crackle of a neon sign across the road reminded me.

Right. Going off half-cocked again. I was pretty sure I was close to the end of my nine lives.

I shivered. Rolled to my knees—shit that hurt—

and wobbled to my feet. I pressed my forehead into the brick and regained my bearings.

I turned around and saw Denny. He’d positioned himself against one of the cement posts. His arm dangled between his knees, my gun clasped in his hand.

And he’d found the knife I’d taken from Roland.

“After you passed out I took these out of your truck in case that cocksucker came back.”

I swallowed, trying to get moisture in my mouth so I 317

could speak. “And if he would have come back?”

“I’d’ve killed him.”

I didn’t doubt that a bit. I wouldn’t have shed a single goddamn tear, either. I might even have pumped in a round or two myself. “You okay?”

“No. Motherfucker fried my nuts.”

A hysterical giggle slipped out and I clapped my hand over my mouth.

“It’s all right. Th

ough, I’m hopin’ if I ever have kids

they’ll have some kinda super powers from my balls getting electro-charged.”

Tears prickled my eyes from Denny’s pseudo-blasé attitude. What a tough kid. He reminded me of . . .

me, actually.

“Let’s get out of here.”

He stiff ened.

“Denny, come home with me, then we’ll fi gure out a place for you to stay tonight. I’ve got your
unci’s
ointment.

Th

at oughta help with the hamburger that’s your face.”

“Don’t it make you nervous, bringin’ an injun into your house after what Roland done to you?”

“Should I be nervous?”

Denny shook his head.

“Didn’t think so. Besides, I’d planned on calling my friend Kevin to help us out. He’s a cool guy.”

“He your boyfriend?”

318

“No, business partner.”

“Don’t you got a boyfriend?”

Question of the month. “Sort of. It’s complicated.

Look. I’m dying to get the hell out of here. You coming or not?”

“I’m coming.” He heaved himself up and shambled to the passenger side.

We lit up and lit out.

After a bit, I switched off Gretchen Wilson’s
Skoal
Ring
and said, “You okay?”

“I didn’t think it’d hurt that bad.”

“No shit.” I felt a tiny bit remorseful about using it so callously on Bo-Bo Saturday night.

“Didja notice he took it?”

“Yeah.”

“Sure hope he don’t use it on my mom, even though I’m really pissed off at her.” He ground out his cigarette in the ashtray. “She called my cell and told me my
Unci
Bird was in the hospital. I got there and they was waitin’ for me.