Page 192 of Five Mountain Daddies

“Ready,” hesays.

I’m about to walk in, but before I do, I turn and head back over to a nearby desk. I grab a stack of papers and shove them into a blank manila folder before nodding at Mitch. He grins at me but doesn’t say anything. This is the oldest trick in the book, but it oftenworks.

Mitch opens the door and we step inside. Reggie’s in there already, chained to the table, wearing a brown jumpsuit. He looks up as we come in and he grins atme.

“Hey, Wyatt,” he says. “How’s itgoing?”

I don’t react. I sit down across from him and I put the folder down between us. His eyes flick toward it and back to me, but I don’t smile. I know that the folder’s empty, but he thinks we have a whole stack of papers on him, and that’ll make himuneasy.

Mitch leans up against the wall behind me, crossing his arms. Cora’s watching us through the mirror on the far wall, but I put that out of mymind.

“The way I see it, you don’t have a lot of options here,” I say to Reggiefinally.

“How’s that, bud?” he asks,grinning.

“You tried to kill a police officer.” I open the folder and look at a blank paper. “Far as I can tell, that’ll put you on death row.” I close the folder and look at Mitch. “Isn’t thatright?”

He just shrugs and I turn back toReggie.

His smile falters. “We don’t have the deathpenalty.”

“You sure about that?” I smile and change tack. “Truth is, you’re screwed, Reggie. I thought we were cool, but that shit back there…” I shake myhead.

“High school was a long time ago. I’m not some prop to keep aroundanymore.”

I laugh softly. “Thing is, you weren’t a prop to me. I actually liked you. I probably was the only one, to be honest.” I meet his gaze and lean back in mychair.

“What do you want?” he snaps. “If you guys have me dead already, why bother with thisshit?”

“I want to know something. If you tell me, I might make your lifeeasier.”

He sighs. “I won’t roll over on my ownpeople.”

“No, of course not,” I say. “Not you, not Reggie. Right,Mitch?”

“Right,” Mitchsays.

“Thing is, Reg, I remember the skinny little dweeb you used to be.” He flinches and I keep going. “I remember how dorky and pathetic you were. Oh true, you got big, but back then? Nobody gave a shit about you at all. You were a nothing.” I lean forward and meet his gaze. “Except to me, you were a friend. And you tried to killme.”

He looks away. “I did what I had todo.”

“Sure,” I say. “I get that. We all have hard choices to make. But typically mine don’t involve killing someone that befriended me back in theday.”

“What the fuck do you want?” hesnaps.

“Where’sJaxson?”

“Probably with that dumb bitch Kristi.” He instantly looks like he regretsthat.

I cock my head. “Atticus’s ex-girlfriend?”

“They never liked each other,” hemutters.

I lean back and cross my arms. I almost want to laugh, it’s so fucking simple. “You’re in love withher.”

“Fuck no,” he says. “She’s a goddamnslut.”

“You want to fuck her, make babies with her, but instead she’s fucking a bunch of other scumbags. So you, what, you’re still willing to kill for her? Holy shit, Reggie. That’spathetic.”

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