Page 47 of Lone Star

Jinx paused once he was on his feet, head turning, looking right at Candy. An emotionless stare brimming with checked hostility.

“If you’ve got something to say–” Candy started.

“Nope,” Jinx said. His jaw worked. “How’s Pacer?”

“I was just getting to that, if you wanted to stick around.”

“Nah. Think I’ll head out.” He waited, though; arms tensed, shoulders elevated, bristling.

Candy finally jerked a nod. “Yeah, be safe.”

Jinx was out the door before he’d finished his sentence.

“Want me to go with him?” Colin offered, when he was gone.

Candy did, but Colin’s face was a little too fresh in law enforcement minds after yesterday. “Pup,” he said, jerking his head toward the door.

“On it,” Pup said, and hurried out.

Candy told the others about his visit to Pat, which garnered some raised brows.

He told them about the time he’d spent with Pacer yesterday, and those brows climbed higher.

“He was on something,” Gringo said. “Had to be.”

“That’s what I thought, but I looked through his nightstand, and all his bathroom cabinets, and all I found were blood pressure meds and some very questionable old condoms.” He resisted the urge to drop his face in his hands and try rubbing some of the tension from his scalp. “Maybe he’s just cracked, you know?”

“Happens sometimes,” Cowboy said thoughtfully, stubbing out a cigarette and lighting another. “There’s a word for it: when something really bad happens, and it’s just too much for yourcabeza.” He tapped a knuckle to his own temple with his free hand.

“Nutso?” Gringo suggested.

“No.” His friend shot him a glare across the table. “A real medical word, dipshit.”

“What we know, then,” Blue said, loud enough to quell any further bickering, drawing everyone’s attention. “Is that everyone dead – so far – used to be a dealer. Right?”

Candy sat back, hands flat on the table. He was already so tired today. “We don’t know who was in the truck last night, but otherwise, yeah, so far. I couldn’t get anything useful out of Pacer about his boys, but I think it’s safe to assume they were in the selling business, too.”

“Fits the pattern.”

“Someone’s trying to set up shop, then,” Gringo said.

“Looks like. And if we can’t figure out who’s selling, then we need to talk to who’s buying, and trace the stuff backward.”

He gulped down the rest of his coffee, even though it burned his mouth, and divvied the crew up into pairs. “Talk to everybody. Fuck subtlety, at this point. Get the word out: someone tried to run my old lady off the road, and I want a head on a plate. Tell them they can come talk to me if they wanna start a turf war, and we’ll handle this the old-fashioned way.” He felt a familiar crack in his knuckles, and glanced down to see that he’d tightened his hand into a fist. God, it would be great to get hold of the guys responsible for all this drama, and put that fist into a face.

He dismissed church, and Blue lingered at the table. Last in, Colin was the last out, too, and sent them both a searching look – that went ignored – before he finally latched the door behind him, leaving them alone together.

Blue sat forward and braced his elbows on the table, stretching out his back in an old gesture Candy felt like he’d been witnessing his whole life. It was funny the way a person’s tics ingrained themselves into your awareness; the ways something so simple, like a pose, could evoke old memories. Memories of a time long distant when Blue had been a young man. He looked old now, suddenly. Candy wondered what he looked like in turn to his old friend.

“This thing with Jinx,” Blue said, and for the first time in days, he didn’t sound cautious and borderline lecturing like he had over the feds. “It’s about Cade, isn’t it?”

Candy let out a deep breath, and when he inhaled, it felt like the first oxygen he’d had all day. “Yeah. He hasn’t talked about it, but–”

“He’s not gonna,” Blue finished for him with a grim smile. “Yeah. I get that.” He sighed. “If it were up to him, you’d have left Pacer hanging when he called.”

“Why do you think I didn’t take him with me when I went out there?”

“To be honest,” Blue said, “nothing against the man personally, but I’ve got no love for Pacer either.”

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