Back The Bright Lands Save as PDF
Contents ( 108)
  1. SUNDAY
  2. JOEL
  3. FRIDAY
  4. JOEL
  5. CLARK
  6. JAMAL
  7. JOEL
  8. BETHANY
  9. SATURDAY
  10. JOEL
  11. CLARK
  12. SUNDAY
  13. JOEL
  14. MONDAY
  15. CLARK
  16. KIMBRA
  17. CLARK
  18. JOEL
  19. TUESDAY
  20. CLARK
  21. BETHANY
  22. CLARK
  23. KIMBRA
  24. CLARK
  25. WEDNESDAY
  26. JOEL
  27. CLARK
  28. JOEL
  29. CLARK
  30. JOEL
  31. CLARK
  32. JOEL
  33. LUKE
  34. JOEL
  35. CLARK
  36. THURSDAY
  37. JAMAL
  38. CLARK
  39. JOEL
  40. CLARK
  41. KIMBRA
  42. JOEL
  43. CLARK
  44. JOEL
  45. LUKE
  46. JOEL
  47. LUKE
  48. JOEL
  49. FRIDAY
  50. JAMAL
  51. CLARK
  52. JOEL
  53. CLARK
  54. JOEL
  55. CLARK
  56. JOEL
  57. KIMBRA
  58. JOEL
  59. KIMBRA
  60. JOEL
  61. LUKE
  62. JAMAL
  63. CLARK
  64. KIMBRA
  65. LUKE
  66. BETHANY
  67. LUKE
  68. CLARK
  69. BETHANY
  70. JAMAL
  71. LUKE
  72. JOEL
  73. LUKE
  74. BETHANY
  75. JOEL
  76. JAMAL
  77. CLARK
  78. LUKE
  79. BETHANY
  80. JOEL
  81. BETHANY
  82. JOEL
  83. LUKE
  84. CLARK
  85. KIMBRA
  86. LUKE
  87. CLARK
  88. JAMAL
  89. KIMBRA
  90. CLARK
  91. BETHANY
  92. JAMAL
  93. CLARK
  94. KIMBRA
  95. CLARK
  96. JAMAL
  97. BETHANY
  98. JOEL
  99. JAMAL
  100. JOEL
  101. BETHANY
  102. JAMAL
  103. BETHANY
  104. CLARK
  105. AFTER
  106. CLARK
  107. JOEL
  108. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

“Garrett Mason’s got a bruise just like it on his hand.” Clark smiled. “You two make quite a pair.”

KT’s eyes widened, briefly, at Garrett’s name.

“Whose idea was it to meet at the marina in July?” Joel said.

Nothing.

“Jason Ovelle was out of town for a time,” Clark said. “And then he turned up Friday looking for something in your truck. Where’d he go once our deputy turned him loose after the game, KT?”

Nothing.

Clark leaned forward, hardened her voice. She was good at this. “You got arrested again this week. They found a quarter ounce of meth on you in Dallas, KT. Did you buy it from Jason or did you have another source?”

Nothing.

“Garrett stopped by last night to make sure you stayed quiet about the drugs, didn’t he?” Clark indicated the bruise on KT’s cheek. “The two of you’s been in the business since you figured out you could get away with anything in this town.”

KT turned to her finally. “It weren’t my idea. It was Garrett’s brother. The one who lives out on 270 past the water towers, has all the signs in his yard. He was the one introduced us to Jason. I didn’t do shit.”

Clark glanced back at Joel. Ranger Mason. Of course.

“And how did Dylan get involved?” Clark said.

KT scowled at her. “Dylan was too busy for us.”

“Too busy working in the cities?”

The boy squirmed beneath the laptop before setting it beside him on the bed and letting its screen rest against the wall. He stared at the door and said nothing.

Joel looked at the light the computer threw across his lap. It was enough.

He opened his phone and found the photograph he wanted, passed the phone to Clark.

After a long moment she nodded and passed the phone back.

“Those are your naked photos on Dylan’s ad, aren’t they?” Joel said.

The boy didn’t answer. He only let his head fall into his hands. Of course.

It would have been obvious from the start if Joel had only made himself study the ad with a cool head. There was a door just barely visible in the murky background of the nude pictures. In Dylan’s room that door was nowhere near the bed.

Joel hadn’t put it together until he saw the way KT’s laptop, its lid propped against the wall, threw its light across the boy’s lap. No doubt KT rested the laptop there often, a habit, and had done so the night he took the pictures of himself, the screen’s light throwing his cock’s shadow straight to the left of the frame.

“It was easy to do,” Joel said. “Make a fake profile on the site, pull a few pictures from Dylan’s Instagram and mix it with a few nudes of your own. Type it up to make him sound as pathetic as possible. Send it out.”

KT tightened a hand over his eyes.

“So if Dylan wasn’t escorting or doing drugs,” Clark said, “why did he have two thousand dollars in cash this summer?”