Buford gave Mama a nod and started to leave when I said, “You need to keep my Deddy’s name outta your mouth.”

Buford swung around in the hallway and put a finger in my chest. “It’s a shame your deddy ain’t here to take care of your mama. She’s a pretty one.”

I grabbed Buford by the wrist. He jerked, but I tightened my grip until weakness streaked across his face. All it would’ve took was for me to give it a twist, and Buford would’ve went to the emergency room. But Mama stopped me.

“Mackenzie Walter Dooley, what’s done go into you, son? Let him go right now.”

I didn’t do what Mama told me, but I loosened my grip enough for Buford to retrieve his hand. He massaged his wrist as I stepped inside Mama’s bedroom and slammed the door.

Mama slapped me when I turned toward her. Tears made my vision bleary, and my cheek burned. She said, “What the hell’s done got into, son? You don’t come into somebody’s house acting that way. Not after what they done for you.”

“What they done for us?” I swiped the back of an arm across my eyes. “It ain’t like Peanut was acting out of the goodness of his heart, Mama. He told me we was gone have to work it off as a debt.”

“I don’t like it no more than you do, Mack,” Mama left me by the door and sat on the edge of her bed, “but it’s the situation you and Marshall got yourselves into.”

“So you want us to go off and do Peanut’s bidding then?”

“It’s better than y’all being left at the mercy of that preacher.”

“You don’t know what kinda trouble Peanut’s gone ask us to cause.”

“But it’s trouble I know, son. Ever since the day your deddy got tangled up with Buford.” Mama shook her head like it might change the past. “At least if y’all are working with Peanut, I know y’all got his protection. Y’all ain’t got that on your own. And it scares me to think of what that preacher might be capable of.”

I sat down next to Mama and kept my eyes on the floor. The words I wanted to say got stuck inside me, and I had to pry them out. “He killed Harper Lewellen, Mama.”

Mama gasped, and I looked over at her. A hand covered her mouth, and she looked at me like I jumped out from around a corner and spooked her. She tried speaking, but the words came out in a sputter.

I went on without waiting for her to get it together. “Andy Lewellen told me. The preacher’s keeping her captive in the church basement, and I think he’ll kill her next. He’ll want to after what Marshall did to get me free. I gotta get her, Mama.”

Mama’s hand dropped into her lap, and her eyes got stern. “How you gone do it, Mackenzie?”

“I’ve tried asking Peanut to help me, but he won’t do it. He’s more worried about getting the preacher’s money than helping Andy.” My eyes turned back to the floor. “I’ll have to do it on my own.”