TJ wiped the mess off her face and looked square at Little Miss Perfect, holding her forehead, a big old egg already beginning to form. Both of the girls were red-faced and breathing hard, and TJ did her best to listen to her little brother, promising him on the way down that they were now partners in this. Holly is gone. Ladarius is gone. Now it was up to them to see this to the end. “Family,” she had said. “We’re all we got now.”

TJ told him she was sorry. John Wesley just stared at her, putting a finger to his lips and shaking his head. “Don’t you hear it?” he asked. “It goes thump, thump, thump.”

“Damn,” TJ said. “I had the music cranked up too high on the road. That’s Rikki Rockett’s kick-ass drums on ‘Nothin’ but a Good Time.’ I can still hear it in my head, too.”

John Wesley shook his head, a big beach towel up over his shoulders, and pointed up to the ceiling. TJ didn’t say a word and listened.

He was right. Someone was on the roof.

*   *   *

“Not that it matters,” Quinn said, riding shotgun as they sped down to Grand Isle. “But TJ Byrd had a solid reason for knocking the hell out of her mother.”

“And where did you receive this bold revelation?”

“Holly Harkins,” Quinn said. “She said TJ was trying to kick Gina Byrd out of their trailer and out of their lives after she kept on bringing one shitbird after another home to beat up her little brother.”

“Holly said that?”

“Yep.”

“Gina did have awful taste in men,” Lillie said. “But I saw Gina after they got into it. TJ left her momma in some bad shape.”

“Apparently all that damage wasn’t done by TJ.”

Lillie didn’t say anything, doing seventy with her hand on the wheel, a straight shot of Louisiana highway in front of them. The gray clouds and darkness across the flatlands, a big-ass plant of some kind in the distance churning up smoke into the sky. Everything was so empty and desolate, they looked like they were on the other side of hell.

“Gina and I were friends for a long while,” Lillie said. “Maybe I should’ve listened to the kid more.”

“I’ve been out there,” Quinn said. “TJ doesn’t make it easy.”

“Maybe you can talk her into joining the Army?”

“I’ll do my best.”

Lillie shook her head, catching a sign pass by, only twelve more miles to Grand Isle. “I was only joking, Ranger,” she said. “The military isn’t for everybody.”

“What worked for you at that age?”

“Me?” Lillie said. “I’ve always had this sunny and sweet disposition. Folks used to call me Little Miss Fucking Sunshine.”

“The truth is you haven’t changed a bit.”

“You, too, Quinn Colson,” Lillie said. “I guess we all had to grow up real quick.”

*   *   *