Chapters (110)
- Cover
- ALSO BY J. TODD SCOTT
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- PROLOGUE
- I
- II
- PART ONE
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- PART TWO
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- PART THREE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- FIFTY
- FIFTY-ONE
- FIFTY-TWO
- FIFTY-THREE
- FIFTY-FOUR
- FIFTY-FIVE
- FIFTY-SIX
- FIFTY-SEVEN
- FIFTY-EIGHT
- FIFTY-NINE
- SIXTY
- SIXTY-ONE
- PART FOUR
- SIXTY-TWO
- SIXTY-THREE
- SIXTY-FOUR
- SIXTY-FIVE
- SIXTY-SIX
- SIXTY-SEVEN
- SIXTY-EIGHT
- SIXTY-NINE
- SEVENTY
- SEVENTY-ONE
- SEVENTY-TWO
- SEVENTY-THREE
- SEVENTY-FOUR
- SEVENTY-FIVE
- SEVENTY-SIX
- SEVENTY-SEVEN
- SEVENTY-EIGHT
- SEVENTY-NINE
- EIGHTY
- EIGHTY-ONE
- EIGHTY-TWO
- EIGHTY-THREE
- EIGHTY-FOUR
- EPILOGUE
- I
- II
- III
- IV
- V
- VI
- VII
- AUTHOR’S NOTE
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- Excerpt from LOST RIVER
- LITTLE PARIS
- DILLON
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- What’s next onyour reading list?
Chris nodded, unbelieving, but knew he wouldn’t get any more out of her. Mel hadn’t been willing to share her talk with Amé, either. It had been a long afternoon for all of them, and it was going to be a longer night. He could only hope they didn’t have too many more ahead.
“I wish Danny hadn’t come out here,” Chris said. “I hope he decides not to come back. I don’t want him part of this.”
“I don’t, either, but it doesn’t matter what you or I want, or what you tell him to do.”
“He never said where he was going?” Chris asked.
Amé brushed hair out of her eyes. “No. But he did mention Eddy Rabbit.”
“Eddy? Why Eddy?”
“He spoke with Eddy’s girlfriend, Charity. Since he’s been released, Eddy hasn’t tried to see her or call her.”
Chris stared into Amé’s smoke, tried to make sense of the shapes he saw there. “That’s good for them both. He’s not supposed to.”
“Verdad. But the fact he hasn’t tried even once is the problem. Danny just wanted to check on him.” She picked at some wood on the railing.
Chris shook his head. “If he’s going down there, it’s because he’s still afraid Eddy might have something to do with Fox Uno . . . with what we’re doing here. This is about you and me and Fox Uno, not Eddy and Charity.”
Amé breathed out smoke. “I talked to her that night after he beat her. She still loves him. She doesn’t know how to stop.”
“I’m sure,” Chris said. “We don’t always get to pick and choose. Life would be damn easier if we could, right? Probably wouldn’t be half as interesting, though.” He thought about Mel and all their tough times together, how they’d always found a way through.
But there was another side of that—was it possible you could ask too much of someone who loved you? He didn’t know the answer anymore, if he ever thought he did. Not now, not after forcing Mel and their son out of their home. Not with a man like Fox Uno sitting in his living room.
“Anyway, running out to the canyon shouldn’t have taken all afternoon, so maybe that’s a good sign.” He didn’t want to say out loud that maybe it wasn’t.
Amé didn’t say anything, either. She crushed out her cigarette on the railing, and then swept the ashes into her hand, where she held them tight.
Chris watched the sky deepen, darken. Everything out there was unseeable, unknowable, but it was moving toward them all the same.
The coming night . . . and whatever lay on the other side of it.
“What do you want when all this is over, Amé?”