Dirty South Drug Wars (12 page)

“If you knew it was me, what? You wouldn’t have let me kiss you on that pier? You would have ignored me?”

“Yes,” I whispered, turning my head away from his. “I wish I’d never seen that tattoo. You would just be some random guy at a random party.”

Chuckling darkly, he dropped one hand from the building. He clutched my chin with his long fingers and turned my face toward his.

His grin faded and he squeezed my chin. “Well, that’s completely unacceptable.”

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath and preparing to fight with all I had, to run, kick, scream my way out. What I didn’t expect was the rush of his hot breath and his soft lips pressing against mine. For a numbing handful of seconds I kissed him back, my hands gripping his waist and drifting to his lower back. My fingers brushed against something hard. A familiar object rested under his shirt, tucked in the back waistband of his jeans. I pulled away, breathless and angry and sad.

Before he could blink, I held the gun against his neck, pressing the muzzle into his carotid artery. At first I believed the shaking of the gun came from my anger, from my disappointment, but it wasn’t. Blood pumped and throbbed violently in his neck, the vibrations rattling my hands.

“You almost had me,” I said, cocking the gun. “Almost.”

“Give me the gun.”

“Why? So you can use it to kill me?”

Tanner’s eyes narrowed. “I carry the gun for protection, nothing else. I’d never hurt you.”

I laughed, pressing the muzzle deeper into his neck, forcing him to turn and back up against the building. “You tricked me into showing up tonight, you forced me out of my family’s sight,
and
you’re packing heat. Now you’re telling me you’d never
hurt
me. Too late. You already have.”

I took a step back and his shoulders sagged in relief. He held his hands up, palms forward. “Keep the gun, but don’t run away. Not again.”

I paused, holding the gun steady in my hands. “What did you mean earlier, when you said I ran knowing you would follow? How would I know you would follow me?”

Tanner gave me a weak smile. “What idiot wouldn’t follow you?”

My heart sped up despite myself. “You’re insane.”

He chuckled. “Possibly. I’m standing here getting turned on by a girl pointing my father’s gun at my face. I’ve betrayed everyone—my family and my entire existence—to find you.”

“You found me. Congratulations.” I took another step back and he followed, unwavered by the gun, his gaze locked on mine. “Mission complete. Now go back to Birchwood.”

“I knew who you were from the second I saw you at that party,” he confessed, ignoring my sarcasm. “At least, I
thought
it was you. You were sitting on that bar wearing that ridiculous wig. You were staring back at me, and I prayed you were that same girl I met when I was a kid. When I saw your tattoo and found out where you worked, I knew you were Rue Monroe.”

“Aw, how romantic,” I said, glaring. “You better stop moving unless you want Brodie or Peyton to see you.”

At the edge of the building, I stopped walking, but he didn’t. He stood in front of me, unfazed by the gun. “Don’t you get it? I don’t care if they see me. There’s only one thing I care about.” He reached out and touched my face. “You. I’ve thought about you every day since the first time we met. Did you ever think about me?”

Butterflies tickled my belly, making me feel like a silly little girl. “Stop talking.”

“Not until you start listening. Did you?”

“Did I what?”

“Think about me.”

“Yes,” I replied. “I thought of you.
Thought
of you, but now I feel stupid for wasting my time on someone who only wants me dead.”

Tanner’s brows bunched together, and he shook his head. “I said I’d never hurt you.”

“What you did tonight was dangerous. If the wrong person finds out, we’ll both end up in a body bag.”

“I did what I had to do to bring you to me,” he told me in a low, threatening tone. “Josie was never in any danger. They wouldn’t have hurt her. I wouldn’t have let them.”

“You’re not worried about my family seeing us together? If they find out, they’ll kill you dead.”

“Dead,” he said. “Dead is how I felt every day before seeing you at that party.”

His words caused my heart to twist in my chest. How long had I felt the same way? Since my father died? Since my mother left?

The mist swirling around us transformed into light drizzle. Small raindrops fell from his messy hair, running down his face and neck, soaking his shirt. My sister’s muffled voice somewhere in the distance snapped me back to reality.

“That’s my sister,” I said. “I should go check on her.”

“When will I see you again?”

I huffed at his persistence. “Never. Even if I wanted to, which I
don’t
, my uncle told me he’d kill me if he ever found out I was messing around with a Montgomery.”

“Which uncle? Amos? I swear on all that’s holy I’ll shoot him myself if he so much as touches you.”

“Speaking of shooting, you know, I’m kind of fond of this gun.” I unloaded the magazine and tossed the bullets on the ground. “I think I’ll keep it.”

“That gun belonged to my father.”

“I know. You said so earlier. Means a lot to you, I guess, huh?” I tucked the gun in the waistband of my shorts beneath my shirt. “I guess we’ll see.”

Without waiting for a response, I darted around the building, never looking back. My shoes slipped across the muddy parking lot and I skidded a few times, but somehow managed to not bust my ass.

The boys continued to scuffle, covered in mud and blood, but it was my sister who drew my attention. She was in a face-off with Chance, the same boy she claimed was her soul mate. Josie and Mia stood by her side and I joined the girls, breathless from running through the thick, sticky red clay.

“Stay back, you chicken clucker!” Lucy screamed, hitting Chance in his chest with her fist as he stood there with a bemused grin.

“Chicken clucker?” he asked, his face alight with amusement. “Have you been watching old
South Park
re-runs? I think you mean chicken fu—”

“Cracker!” she barked, her face red with anger.

I shook my head. Lucy had completely lost it and was about to show her crazy to the world.

“Cracker?” He gave her an odd look. “Uh, you’re as white as I am.”

“Cracker Jack! Cracker Barrel!” she screamed, hitting him in the chest once more.

“Cracker Barrel? The country restaurant?” His forehead wrinkled in confusion.

“That’s it, you cracker-eating redneck,” she hollered, darting to Brodie’s truck. Lucy hopped in the bed and bent down with nothing but her skinny butt in the air. She began digging around in the back as we all stared at her.

“You better run.” Mia laughed, crossing her arms across her chest. “Lucy has officially boarded the crazy train.”

Lucy popped up from the bed of the truck screaming like a maniac. She sprang from the tailgate and face-planted in the mud, and we all cringed. Then she hopped up like a tiny ninja, covered in red, wet Mississippi clay. Brodie’s baseball bat was clutched in her hands.

“You ruined my new shirt!” she yelled, staring down at her mud-stained blouse. “Now you’re gonna pay, you freaking Montgomery wannabe!”

Lucy kicked off her flats and shot forward. Chance began screaming, narrowly missing her swings each time. He darted around gracefully while laughing.

“You’re insanely weird, but adorable.” Chance grinned, dodging a swing to the ribs.

“Arghhhhhh!” With a face as red as candied beets, she clipped him with the bat.

He recoiled but kept running. She chased him into the crowd of fighting boys and disappeared in the thick of it all.

Sirens whined in the distance, followed by flashing red and blue lights. Everyone in the parking lot froze, the brawl completely forgotten. Then we all scrambled to our vehicles. I slid behind the wheel of my Jeep, looking around frantically for my sister. Brodie held her in his arms, dragging her kicking and screaming across the muddy parking lot. Still threatening Chance’s life, she continued to swing the baseball bat. The bat flew back, hitting Brodie’s right temple and he screamed, releasing her to rub his sore head. She shot forward again, but it was Peyton who caught her this time, dragging her back to Brodie’s truck.

Chance gave her one last grin before running across the lot to a certain black muscle car. He disappeared inside the passenger door. Tanner stood there leaning against the car, gazing at me through the whipping rain.

“Let’s go,” I said to Mia, somehow breaking away from his haunting stare.

I was happy to leave before Tanner. I didn’t like the thought of watching him leave.

Cars flooded across the parking lot and onto the long, wet road. A cop car was forced into the ditch by the rowdy teenagers who swerved too close to his car. Mia laughed and blew the cop a kiss as I drove past him. The cop was none other than Levi Bridges, the son of the local sheriff, Buck Bridges.

Levi was just a few years older than I was, and I hadn’t seen him in years. I didn’t even know he’d become a cop. I swallowed hard, hoping he didn’t find out what happened that night and report back to Amos. Everyone in town knew Amos had the police department in the palm of his hand.

What I didn’t know was that Levi would, in fact, report back to Amos, and Amos would show me exactly why I should stay away from Tanner Montgomery.

“Josie, come out front, please,” Lucy called from the register.

Josie muttered below her breath and abandoned the wedding cake the two of us were decorating. She had been working on placing shells of icing around the bottom tier. I swirled fleur-de-leurs on the top tier.

It’d been a few days since the incident at the train station and I hadn’t heard a peep from Tanner. Maybe he’d taken my weakened pleas to heart. Maybe he’d given up on me. I’d spent every night tangled in sweaty sheets. I could think of nothing apart from his face, his words, and his body pressed so dishonorably against mine. The only thing I had going for me was the fact no one had witnessed Tanner’s presence at the train station that night, and they certainly hadn’t seen him pull me behind the building. The only person in my family who knew he had been there was me, and I wasn’t telling anyone.

My family couldn’t talk about anything
but
what happened that night. Brodie and Peyton were ready to kick ass first and take names later.

Josie was angry and scared by the incident. She was also worried about Bryce. She’d admitted that much, but she didn’t have to confess her concerns to me. I could tell how nervous she was by the anxious expression on her face. She wondered why he hadn’t been there the night of the fight. Had he found out who she really was? Was he upset about it? I felt worthless listening to her fret because I didn’t have the answers she sought.

Lucy was the only one who didn’t speak very much about that ill-fated night. She’d been quiet and withdrawn since meeting Chance once again. She did speak about him, just once. Lucy’d told Josie and me he wasn’t technically a Montgomery.

Apparently, Graham and Melissa Montgomery, Tanner’s uncle and aunt whom he lived with, took Chance and his twin sister Shelby in to live with them when their parents passed away in a car accident. Their mother was Melissa’s sister.

After hearing that story my perception of Graham changed, even if just a bit. He was still a Montgomery after all, and possibly my father’s killer. Amos had never elaborated on who he thought murdered my father but always hinted it was Graham.

How Lucy found out about the Hayeses was beyond me. She
was
a chronic social media stalker, so maybe that was where she got her information.

“Oh, dear Lord in heaven,” Josie exclaimed in exasperation.

I dropped my bag of icing on the counter and wandered to Josie and Lucy. Beside the register on the counter lay a bouquet of fragrant, hand-picked wildflowers tied together with a red garbage bag tie. The bouquet was bursting with yellows, purples, and pinks.

Lucy and Josie were holding a scrap of paper in their hands. Their heads were pressed together as they leaned over reading the note. Without making a sound, I reached out and snatched the note.

“‘Roses are red, violets are blue, you lied about who you are, but I’d still bone you. Love, Bryce,’” I read aloud, snorting at the end. “Where did you get these?”

“Some kid brought them in. He said some guy paid him to deliver them to me. You see what I have to deal with?” Josie huffed, grabbing the note from between my fingers. “An idiot. A deranged lunatic.”

Josie pretended to be irritated by Bryce’s idiocy, but she failed to hide her smile. Very carefully, she folded the note into quarters and slid it in the back pocket of her frayed blue-jean shorts. I found an old mason jar in the kitchen and filled it with water. Josie begrudgingly placed the flowers in the jar and sat the bouquet in the room near the wedding cake we were working on. Wildflowers and buttercream icing scented the room and were a surprisingly wonderful duet.

“Who’s Bryce?” Lucy dragged a stool beside us and plopped down.

I said nothing as I decorated the cake, but I couldn’t hold back the frequent bursts of laughter that escaped my lips as I thought about that note. Was Bryce Montgomery really as goofy as Josie thought, or was it all just part of his silly charm?

“He’s a Montgomery, that’s who.” Josie used a bag of icing to place a row of shells along the bottom tier of her cake.

“Josie.” I shot Lucy a nervous look.

“Oh, come on, Rue. We might as well tell her. Everything’s gone to hell in a handbasket anyway,” Josie said.

“Tell me. I swear I’ll keep it a secret.” Lucy crossed her heart with her forefinger. Then she clasped her hands together in a gesture of plea while giving Josie those big, sad eyes.

I was thankful our grandmother had taken the rest of the day off to cook for our monthly family gathering. If she heard the things Josie and I told Lucy she’d probably have fainted. We took turns talking about the night we met Tanner and Bryce at the party with Lucy listening in rapt attention. When we finished our tale, she took a deep breath and slumped on the steel counter by her side.

“It’s like
Romeo and Juliet
,” Lucy whispered after a lengthy pause.

“Yeah, and we all know how that love story ended,” Josie said.

“It’s nothing like
Romeo and Juliet
.” I finished the tier I was working on and set the bag of icing on the counter. “They were careless with their love. Juliet didn’t fight to keep Romeo away. I’m doing what I have to do to keep Tanner away from me because I don’t want him to end up like Romeo. And I most certainly won’t end up like Juliet.”

“It’s exactly like
Romeo and Juliet
.” Josie shot me a wicked grin. “They met once and it was love at first sight.”

“Aw, you love him, don’t you, Rue?” Lucy asked in a snarky tone, studying my shameful face. “You do. You are so in love with Tanner Montgomery. You wanna have little Tanner and Rue babies with him.”

She cackled, and I gave her a hard punch in the arm. My face reddened, causing an evil grin to spread across hers. I turned the tables on her.

“What about Mr. Soul Mate?” I smiled as her bemusement faded. “Don’t think I didn’t hear you hollering out his name last night in your sleep.”

“That was a low blow.”

“Lucy, you have it made.” Josie groaned. “At least Chance’s not an official Montgomery. Date him all you want!”

“He may as well be a Montgomery,” Lucy said.

We stayed later than normal because of the extra work needed on the wedding cake. Nana wasn’t there to lend us a helping hand, so it was twilight before we completed the job. The sky was darkening outside and the small town was quiet as everyone gathered in their homes for suppertime. Little else was said among the three of us. We finished up for the day and officially closed shop.

Lucy and I stepped outside and came to an abrupt stop. Standing outside the cake shop stood none other than Bryce Montgomery. Lucy stood beside me, frowning at my mouth parted in shock. Her eyes narrowed in on Bryce, who was a stranger to her. He leaned against Josie’s truck with a familiarity he shouldn’t possess. He had a lazy, amused smile on his face.

Josie locked the shop door behind her. She held a box with a caramel cake I’d baked for our family gathering that night. She turned around, her body going stiff.

The box slipped from her hands in what seemed like slow motion. The lid popped open mid-air, and the cake smashed to the concrete with the box falling by the wayside. Caramel and yellow cake covered the ground, and I almost whimpered over the loss.

“I hope that cake wasn’t intended for someone important,” Bryce drawled.

“Why are you here? This is Main Street, for Christ’s sake! Are you trying to get yourself killed? Are you crazy?” Josie asked, snapping out of her daze.

“I’m crazy, all right.” Bryce gave her a lopsided smile. “Crazy for you. Did you get my flowers? I picked them myself.”

“Yes, I got your stinking flowers. You couldn’t afford to buy me some
real
flowers?”

“Why, Josie, I’m hurt.” Bryce placed a hand over his heart. “It’s the thought that counts. That gift was from the very depths of my soul.”

“Get in your car, truck, whatever, and get the hell out of here before someone sees you!” Josie looked down the quiet street, her forehead lined with worry.

“Darlin’, I’m not ashamed of our love. Why should you be?” Bryce pushed himself off Josie’s truck.

“Because I don’t wanna end up dumped in the bottom of some lake wrapped up in a tarp.”

“Baby, I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“Right. Where were you a few nights ago when your friends freaking kidnapped me?” Josie placed her hands on her hips and glared at Bryce’s casual grin.

“I was left out of the loop on that one,” Bryce drawled with a smirk. “If I’d been there, I wouldn’t have let you go.”

“You know, you’re one fry short of a Happy Meal,” she hollered, swinging at him.

They continued to fuss, and Lucy and I stood there gaping at them like two idiots. Bryce stepped over the ruined cake on the sidewalk. He attempted to pull Josie into his arms, but she resisted. He held Josie’s arms at her sides and placed a desperate kiss on the side of her mouth as she tried to turn her face from side to side.

“Call the police, Rue.” Josie weakly pushed against Bryce’s chest. “He’s trying to rape me on a public sidewalk!”

“Should I really call the police?”

I pulled my cell from my pocket and ran my finger against the smooth surface of the screen. Josie didn’t respond to my question, unless moaning and grunting counted as a response.

Lucy held a horrified grimace on her face, and I gagged as Josie and Bryce began making out in front of us. She pulled at Bryce’s auburn locks, and he groaned and palmed her breasts.

Josie became aggressive and bit his lip, causing a yelp to burst from his mouth. He let out a low curse and pulled her face closer to his, looking as though he were trying to inhale it. The two stumbled on the sidewalk and Bryce’s boot slid in the caramel, sending them both crashing into one giant mess of arms and legs.

“Bryce’s a love-sick fool, huh?” a familiar, smooth voice said.

Sucking in a deep breath, I turned around. There he stood, snatching my cell from my fingers, a cocky grin on his face and a white baseball cap with a frayed bill on his head. There were dark shadows below his eyes, indicating he also may have had several sleepless nights. His stance was casual as though standing in the middle of Mayhaw next to his family’s archenemy was natural.

“What are you doing?” I asked when his fingers flew over the screen of my phone.

Tanner didn’t respond. A moment later his own phone rang in the pocket of his worn jeans.

“You know, I lay in bed all night wondering what ringtone to use for when you call me,” he said.

He held my phone up in front of him and took a snapshot of his grinning face. He held out the phone, and I snatched it from his hand with a huff.

“I think I’ll use ‘Perfect Storm.’ What do you think?” He tugged the cap lower on his forehead, hiding his face from a passing car.

I opened my mouth to argue but didn’t get a word out before he removed his own cell and snapped a photo of my stunned face. Tanner laughed at the screen and shook his head. My face burned when I heard Brad Paisley singing as Tanner programmed my ringtone.

“What do I think? I think you’re as insane as these idiots.” I jerked my thumb in the direction of the two horny teenagers still making out behind me.

“Insane? Possibly.” Smirking, he slid his phone back into his pocket. “But I prefer the term ‘persistent.’ The Montgomerys have always been persistent when we want something.”

“And the Monroes are pretty stubborn when we
don’t
want something.” I gulped when he grinned and stepped forward.

“You keep pushing and I’ll keep pulling.”

“Back off.” Lucy wedged herself between the two of us. “Leave my sister alone. You and your filthy cousin get out of here before I call the cops.”

“This is a public street.” Tanner shrugged, ignoring the rage on my sister’s face. “What can they arrest me for?”

“From what I’ve heard, the last time Buck Bridges caught a Montgomery in Mayhaw, the man couldn’t walk for a year.” Lucy smiled, her lips twisted in a venomous sneer.

“Yes, I know. That man was my father.”

Everything grew quiet as Tanner and Lucy stood with matching glares on their faces. I was acutely aware that the panting and moaning behind me ceased. I swallowed the lump in my throat, humiliated that Lucy brought up Tanner’s deceased father in such a manner. Everyone knew Buck had once nearly beaten Tanner Senior to death, although it was never proven.

“Lucy, I’m ashamed of you,” I told my sister quietly. She turned and gave me a look of pure astonishment. “How would you feel if someone said something like that to you about Daddy?”

Lucy shook her head in disgust. She removed herself from between Tanner and me. She continued to shake her head as she waited on a couple of slow moving cars to creep down Main Street. Then Lucy stomped to where my Jeep sat next to a very familiar looking black car.

“Don’t forget how the story ends, Rue,” she called in a sad voice.

Lucy’s words and the broken and sad expression on her face made my body tremble. A thrill of panic shot through me. Frowning, she opened the door to the Jeep and climbed into the vehicle.