“Say,” Chastity said. “I have an idea. In exchange for a big favor, I let y’all stay here for as long as you like. I mean within reason. I don’t want you here when the weather gets warmer. I plan to pretty much live at the lake then. Did you know we have two boats? I love to ride around, ski a little bit in my bikini. Everybody knows me around here. If I’m not on Lake Hamilton, nobody is gonna have much fun.”

“What will you tell Big Daddy?” Ladarius asked.

“I like this one,” Chastity said, her eyes sleepy. “I like him a lot. So he’s not your boyfriend? Or he is your boyfriend? Just what is the deal here, Miss TJ Byrd?”

“Yeah,” TJ said. “I guess he’s mine.”

“And what about you, Lafonzo?”

“Ladarius,” Ladarius said. “My name is Ladarius.”

“Anyhoo,” she said. “Are you in? Or are you out? You hold the key to TJ’s belt? Do you take this woman here to be your forever partner in crime? And in death do your asses part?”

“Damn,” Ladarius said. “That’s some dark-ass shit.”

“You haven’t seen what I’ve seen on the news about y’all,” said Chastity. “That’s some truly dark-ass shit.”

“That favor,” Ladarius said. “What do you want us to do?”

“Since y’all are so damn good at killing,” she said. “Could you do me a big solid and ride up to Fayetteville and slice and dice up my stepmother? I’ll warn you. She does do CrossFit and keeps in shape. Big old thighs and shoulders. But between both of y’all, I think you could take her. Then, kick back and relax on the lake. You saw that sign out front. Firefly. That’s what my real mother named the place. So many of those damn things here in the summer, buzzing around and lighting up the lake.”

TJ couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The girl actually asked them, real casual and easy like it wasn’t a big deal, to run up to Fayetteville and kill her stepmother. She had to be kidding. After all, she and Ladarius had just met her. And if this girl Chastity actually believed they were killers, why wouldn’t they just kill her ass instead of sitting outside in the freezing fucking cold and smoking a goddamn joint?

“We don’t kill people,” TJ said. “We didn’t kill my mother. We’ve never killed anyone.”

“You said your momma killed some man?” Chastity asked. “But you didn’t finish the story. Then what happened? He come back to life?”

“I don’t know,” TJ said, her mind clouding a bit. “I’m not sure. But I think someone he knew came back for her. Maybe they got to her before she could get out of Tibbehah County.”

“What the fuck is that?”