BooksBarbecue
Back Atlanta Burns Save as PDF
Chapters (50)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Dedication Page
  4. CONTENTS
  5. PART ONE: SHOTGUN GRAVY
  6. Sometimes she wakes…
  7. CHAPTER ONE
  8. CHAPTER TWO
  9. CHAPTER THREE
  10. CHAPTER FOUR
  11. CHAPTER FIVE
  12. CHAPTER SIX
  13. CHAPTER SEVEN
  14. CHAPTER EIGHT
  15. CHAPTER NINE
  16. CHAPTER TEN
  17. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  18. PART TWO: BAIT DOG
  19. CHAPTER TWELVE
  20. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  21. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  22. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  23. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  24. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  25. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  26. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY
  28. PART THREE: THE FARM
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  36. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  37. PART FOUR: KISSING FIRE
  38. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  43. PART FIVE: BAIT GIRL
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  46. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  47. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  48. EPILOGUE: THE MESSAGE
  49. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  50. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

“I’ll bring him back,” she says, getting an idea. “When’s the next fight?”

“Two weeks. And I’m not interested in waiting that long.”

“You may not be interested in it, but you’ll do it anyway. I’m gonna train the dog for you.”

He laughs, a big grumbly sound like if you threw some ice into a garbage disposal. “That’s sweet, but no thanks.”

“It’s not an option. It’s an offer and the only one on the table. I’m going to train him to be a fighter, and then he’s gonna win his fights and you’re going to owe me instead of me owing you.”

“You’re no dog trainer.”

“Your nephews were doing such a fine job of it.”

“Sarcasm doesn’t suit a pretty girl like you,” he growls. “Still. You got a point. So. You bring me a champ, then what do I owe you?”

“I want revenge on someone,” she says. “Someone you don’t much like.”

“Who’s that?”

“Orly Erickson.”

A bigger, meaner laugh from Ellis this time around. And with that, she knows the hook is set. She just hopes she can reel in such a big dang fish.

She stands there for a while after he hangs up. A rare breeze blowing. She then dials another phone number and tells Jenny’s mother she’d like to talk to her daughter, please.

Jenny is stiff on the phone. “It’s you.”

“You said you wanted it all shut down.”

“I do.”

“That you don’t want dogs hurt anymore.”

“I don’t.”

“Is the money still on the table?”

“Anything I can offer.”

“Good. Because I’m gonna do it. Couple weeks from now, I’d keep a close eye on the news if I were you. Then you’ll see. Everybody will.”

Back inside the trailer, she tells them what happened. What she did and what she said. They look at her the same way some folks look at really nasty YouTube videos, like a guy taking a skateboard to the nuts or a couple girls doing the cinnamon challenge—wide-eyed disbelief, disgust. They ask her what’s wrong with her? Why did she do that? And she tells them it’ll be fine. She has a plan. It came to her like—she snaps her fingers—like that. As she tells them the plan, a plan so simple and so elegant it cannot fail, she feels the hairs on her arms and neck rise, feels the sense of driving in a fast car down a dark road with no headlights on. Exhilaration and fear holding hands and running toward the edge of a cliff. Guy and Shane nod. They still look worried. But the plan is the plan, and there’s no turning back now.

PART FOUR: KISSING FIRE

PART FOUR: KISSING FIRE

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Two weeks later. Night before the dogfight.