Page 46 of Small Town Hunter

“You think I can’t take care of my baby?” Jessica screeches.

Ruby starts crying in the background.

“OH MY GOD! QUIET!”

“Don’t yell at the kid!” I bellow.

The line goes dead, and I immediately call my sister.

“Crash? What’s wrong?” Comes my sister’s even, stable voice. “I always know when something’s up with you. What do you need?”

“Sis, I need a favor.” The knot of stress in my back tightens. I swear Jess has tested every drop of my honor and patience. If she was standing in front of me there’s no telling what I’d do.

“What’s wrong? Is it Jess again?” My sister says with her usual mind-reading powers.

“SJ, I need you to get Ruby from my house.”

“Damn it, Crash, I’m about to go to church,” my sister sighs. “And Jack-Jack just puked everywhere. BETH! Get the bucket of water, will you?”

“Yes mommy,” says my niece in the background. “Is that Uncle Crash?”

“Yes, but we’re having an adult conversation, so go get that bucket like I told you babygirl. Okay, Crash. What’s going on?”

“Jessica’s bringing her brother around Ruby. I need you to get her or I swear to God I’m going to jail when I get back.”

“Pedo Freddie?” Sarah Jane cries. “Are you kidding me? Crash, where the hell are you?”

“Oklahoma.”

“Oklahoma?” Her voice dips low. “Is it true you’re out to get Roman’s gold back?”

“Where did you hear that?”

“Oh— just in church.”

“Christ, there’s so secrets in our town is there?”

“Nope.”

The last thing I need— vultures circling my kill. But I expected this.

“I really need this money, SJ, or trust me I’d be home right now making Jess kick rocks.”

“Well, I’ll get some people and we’ll get Ruby out of there,” my sister promises. “But you better hurry home. I can’t keep somebody else’s baby, Crash. The law gets funny about them things. And that girl will make trouble, sure as daylight.”

“I know.”

“Always got to be the hero. You can’t see something hurtin’ and just walk away.”

I think of Trina and her bambi eyes. “Let me know when you get Ruby. And thanks– a million.”

“You owe me. A big one,” my sister says.

“I know.”

Trina isn’tin the room.

A quick sweep of the building leads me to the vending machine. She jumps as I turn the corner.

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