Page 6 of Hell or High Water

The man rubbed his short beard, and I saw tattoos on his fingers, along with a black ring on the ring finger of his left hand. He was married. I knew it shouldn’t, but that made him feel less dangerous. Or maybe I was just grabbing at anything to ease my mind.

“I have a daughter, and when she’s older, I hope she’s careful. I can respect that,” he replied in a hard tone.

His being a father of a little girl surprised me. He didn’t fit that part.

“I live on thirty-five acres of land. It’s fenced in, and it has a privacy gate. There is a small cabin toward the back of the property that I am allowing you to use while you are here. Than will be your transportation, and he will also be who makes sure you are where you say you are. We can’t have you going off and running your mouth about things,” Linc finished.

I glanced back at Than, who had the cigarette in his mouth again.

“Trust me, I’m not fucking thrilled about it either,” he drawled, and his voice was deeper, huskier than I’d expected.

Not wanting to look at him any longer than necessary because it could be addictive, I turned my attention back to Linc. “Okay. But there is someone close to me who knows about this. They don’t want anyone finding out either for my sake, but if I go missing, they’ll go to the police with my medical records and paternity test and tell them I came here to get help after my momma died,” I warned him.

Peg and Melody knew where I was, just not the truth behind the why. If Jericho or this man thought that this was a secret just between us, he had been misinformed. Folks had seen Jericho with Momma back then. Momma didn’t tell anyone who my father was, but his showing up with gifts after I was born had kind of given it away.

His eyes narrowed. “Who else knows?”

I shook my head and let out a sharp laugh. “Like hell am I telling you. That’s my insurance policy. I don’t know that Jericho didn’t hire you to dump me somewhere and leave me for dead.”

Linc let out a heavy sigh and glanced at Than with annoyance, then back at me. “Do you need help with your things?” he asked again.

I did. I had more than I wanted to carry. I stepped back and opened the door wider. “The two suitcases and the boxes. I can roll the suitcases if y’all can carry the boxes. One has books, so it’s real heavy. The smallest one is just some pictures so it’s light. And that one has some breakable things in it,” I said, pointing to the one to the right.

“Thanks,” Than drawled. “I missed the large red letters that sayFragile, written across it three times.”

I glared at his back as he sauntered past me.

“I’ll get the breakables and the other one. You grab the books,” Linc told him.

I was relieved. Than seemed like he might just dislike me enough to drop the box with Momma’s collection of shot glasses on purpose. I’d wrapped each one up tight, but I wasn’t sure they could survive a fall to the pavement.

They were the most important things I had with me. I could remember Momma buying many of them. Whenever we had gone somewhere new, she always had to get one. A smile touched my lips when I thought about her lining them up in the china cabinet for display, like most women did with expensive plates or crystal serving pieces. We’d had forty-two shot glasses in ours. But my box only had forty. Two of them I’d tucked into the casket with her. She’d always said they were her favorite and that she was taking them to the grave. She had been sure she could convince the folks at the pearly gates to let her bring them in.

“It can’t truly be heaven if they don’t serve up unlimited lemon drop martinis without the hangover or weight gain.”

The two she had loved the most weren’t expensive or even rare.

One had been my grandmother’s. She’d bought it in Graceland in 1982, the day it opened to the public for tours. Momma said that my grandmother loved Elvis and raised her on his music. Every time Momma had heard an Elvis song, no matter where we were, she’d start singing along. And although she could dance, she could not sing. I would get so embarrassed when she did it, and now I’d give anything to listen to her belt out “Don’t Be Cruel” in the aisle of the grocery store.

The other shot glass was one we had found at a yard sale. It saidMontanaon it. She picked it up and squealed, then hugged it to her chest like a little girl who had just found her favorite doll. It was one of those that you could probably get at any service station in the state, but to Momma, it was perfect. I never understood why, but she had kept it front and center, right beside the Graceland glass.

Once both men were out of the room with my boxes, I slipped my Taser into my purse, then took the handles of both suitcases and followed them. Unfortunately, the back side of Than Carver was as nice as the front.

Three

Than

Linc nodded his head for me to walk with him away from the cabin after we dumped the governor’s bastard off with her shit. He didn’t say anything for a few moments, and I realized he wanted to be sure we were out of hearing distance. I was guessing the fact that someone knew about her paternity was an issue.

“You think you can handle this?” he asked, cutting his eyes at me.

“Do I have a fucking choice?” Because if I did, I wanted out of it.

“No. Now that I’ve seen her, it sure as hell can’t be Gathe.”

I scowled. Yeah, well, it would have been nice to have had a little heads-up on what she looked like.

“Keep on scowling,” he drawled. “The less you like her as a person, the easier it will be to overlook her, uh, physical appearance.”

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