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Chapters (43)
  1. BY ACE ATKINS
  2. Dedication
  3. CONTENTS
  4. Epigraph
  5. Episode 1: Brandon
  6. ONE
  7. TWO
  8. THREE
  9. Episode 2: The Big Woods
  10. FOUR
  11. FIVE
  12. SIX
  13. Episode 3: The Search Party
  14. SEVEN
  15. EIGHT
  16. NINE
  17. TEN
  18. Episode 4: The Teacher
  19. ELEVEN
  20. TWELVE
  21. THIRTEEN
  22. FOURTEEN
  23. Episode 5: The Sheriff
  24. FIFTEEN
  25. SIXTEEN
  26. SEVENTEEN
  27. EIGHTEEN
  28. Episode 6: Quinn Colson
  29. NINETEEN
  30. TWENTY
  31. TWENTY-ONE
  32. TWENTY-TWO
  33. Episode 7: Maggie
  34. TWENTY-THREE
  35. TWENTY-FOUR
  36. TWENTY-FIVE
  37. Episode 8: The Witness
  38. TWENTY-SIX
  39. TWENTY-SEVEN
  40. TWENTY-EIGHT
  41. TWENTY-NINE
  42. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  43. What’s next onyour reading list?

ONE

Lillie Virgil had been bird-dogging Wes Taggart’s sorry ass for most of the summer, from Panama City to New Orleans and now back to Biloxi. The top-shelf turd had left a trail of filthy motel rooms, unpaid restaurant tabs, and jilted strippers. The last one being his undoing, a cute little piece of tail named Twilight who he’d brought with him from Tibbehah County on his run from the law. He was wanted on charges of drug trafficking, racketeering, and the attempted murder of a close friend of Lillie’s, a one-armed trucker named Boom Kimbrough.

“This is it?” Lillie said, pointing to the old neon sign reading STAR INN. It was early morning, not long past dawn, the two having made the drive all the way from Memphis through the night to the Gulf Coast. With the windows open, you could smell the salt air on the hot wind.

“Yep,” Twilight said, playing with the ends of her bleached blonde hair, the tips tinged with a purplish hue. “We spent a week here last month. Eating shrimp po’ boys and drinkin’ Jim Beam. Now, do I get my money or what?”

“Depends on if he’s here,” Lillie said. “And sweetie? Would you mind not putting your feet on my fucking dash?”

The girl took down her bare feet, with those stubby purple-painted toes, as Lillie parked the gray Dodge Charger across the road, right outside the Sharkheads T-shirt shop, the entrance a wide gaping mouth with sharp teeth. Across the road, the Star Inn advertised LOW RATES. JACUZZI ROOMS. CABLE TV & SWIMMING POOL. Real class with a capital K.

“Did Wes at least spring for the Jacuzzi?” Lillie asked.

“No, ma’am,” Twilight said. “That should’ve told me something. We got a cheap-ass room overlooking the fucking parking lot. I laid out on the beach every day while he laid in bed watching goddamn cartoons and smoking American Spirit Lights. I’d get in as the sun was going down, thinking we were going for a steak dinner, and he’d just be lying there drunk as hell and wanting me to suck his peter.”

“That’s some real romance right there, kid,” Lillie said. “Bogart and Bacall shit. Now would you reach in the backseat for my binoculars? I think I spotted Romeo up there on the second floor scratching his nuts.”