“Boy, this game ain’t for you,” Stagg said. “You want to run with the big dogs, run a liquor store? To get things done, you got to deal with some unpleasantness. Hell, I’ve been dealing with unpleasantness since I opened up the Rebel. Just last night, two old boys tried to steal an ATM from me and nearly tore out my wall. But you move on. You do what needs getting done. And if that means working with some folks like the Nix boys. Well. I guess that’s how that old song goes.”

“Even if I knew,” Chester said. “I wouldn’t tell you where those children are at. I guess I just don’t have it in me.”

Stagg nodded and crawled into the El Dorado. The big car door still wide open, rain pelting the black interior as Chester Pratt walked up to the door.

“Those kids ain’t safe out there,” Stagg said. “If the law don’t get to them, something else will eat them alive. Those boys will bring ’em back. Get things settled the way they should be.”

Chester swallowed and nodded. “TJ,” he said. “She knows. She knows all about the money I took from her momma. Won’t be long till the law will be coming for me, too. You get that. Right?”

Stagg shut his door, cranked the ignition, and let down his window just a crack.

“A damn shame,” Stagg said, knocking the ElDo in drive. “You stay dry out there, Chester. You hear?”

*   *   *

TJ banged on the truck cab with the flat of her hand as she heard more yelling from inside. She was about to give up and run for help when the door opened hard and fast, sending her flat on her back. A huge man, one of the biggest goddamn men she’d ever seen, stepped out on the sideboard. He had a shaved head and a handlebar mustache, a large old belly and only one good eye, the other covered in a black patch like some kind of redneck pirate.

TJ scrambled backward. The one-eyed man was shirtless, with reddened skin covered in white hair across his stomach and over his arms and thick neck. Inside, she heard Chastity’s voice, begging for help.

“Who the fuck are you?” the man said.

“I came for my friend.”

“Your friend’s busy,” he said. “Her mouth’s full.”

TJ, halfway soaked from the puddle, pushed herself up in the dark. She reached across her to her left hip and grabbed her daddy’s .38 and aimed it square at the man’s pecker.

“You don’t get down from there and I swear to Christ, mister, I’ll geld your fat ass in one shot.”