BooksBarbecue
Back The Heathens
Chapters (33)
  1. ALSO BY ACE ATKINS
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. ONE
  5. TWO
  6. THREE
  7. FOUR
  8. FIVE
  9. SIX
  10. SEVEN
  11. EIGHT
  12. NINE
  13. TEN
  14. ELEVEN
  15. TWELVE
  16. THIRTEEN
  17. FOURTEEN
  18. FIFTEEN
  19. SIXTEEN
  20. SEVENTEEN
  21. EIGHTEEN
  22. NINETEEN
  23. TWENTY
  24. TWENTY-ONE
  25. TWENTY-TWO
  26. TWENTY-THREE
  27. TWENTY-FOUR
  28. TWENTY-FIVE
  29. TWENTY-SIX
  30. TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  33. What’s next onyour reading list?

“Sounds like a sleight of hand,” Pollan said. “Have to hand it to Stagg. That old boy couldn’t go straight if you shot his crooked ass from a cannon.”

TWENTY

Ladarius had seen the used car lot and garage on the way into Texarkana: Gonzalez & Smith Motors, an old gas station surrounded by a ten-foot-tall chain-link fence. Good a place as any to do a little shopping, check out what suited them best, and roll on out the front gate with no one watching. Just in case someone spotted him, he’d borrowed TJ’s hoodie overlaid with his leather jacket. He covered half his face with a bandanna and did his damn best to be quiet and smooth, scaling that tall fence out back and dropping down to the gravel lot without a sound. Most places kept the keys up front by the register or sometimes a few late drop-offs had the keys stuck under a front mat or even in the ignition. Wasn’t much to stealing most cars but having the balls to do it.

As far as what came next, he wasn’t wild about the plan. But it was all they had, drive on down to Louisiana and lay low at Chastity’s daddy’s cabin on Grand Isle. If things got tight, no one listening to what TJ had to say on social channels, they could gas up that boat and drift on over to Old Mexico. Ladarius never drove a boat in his life before yesterday, but turns out there wasn’t much to it.

He couldn’t make any sense of that girl, Chastity. Pretty little face like a Barbie doll with plenty of big attitude. He couldn’t figure out if the girl wanted to fight him or fuck him. Making sly little jokes that seemed like flirting but always leaving a knife in his back. You’re a lot smarter than you look. Don’t know what TJ and I would do without you. How good can you be if all you do is get caught?

Ladarius’s feet crunched on the gravel as he made his way to the back of the repair shop, past the dumpsters and plastic drums filled with dirty oil that had him thinking back on things he’d heard about Gina Byrd. How could anyone think he’d do something so fucked up? Killing a woman and chopping her up. What kind of damn animal would do some shit like that?