Chapter 11
Eleven
C iaran walked into the small, ugly brick building that housed Fontaine’s Sheriff’s Office.
He’d been asking questions, and he had the idea that while Silas Barnes would be perfectly willing to overlook Joey busting up Lowey’s place, he had serious doubts the man would be willing to overlook the massive influx of a dangerous drug into his tiny little town.
“Silas Barnes?” he asked, stepping into the office.
Ciaran nodded his thanks and crossed the small room.
He knocked on the door as he opened it, not allowing the man to send him away.
He’d spent the better part of his morning running in circles trying to track down Harlow Tate’s piece of shit ex-husband, and he was done.
It was time to use the resources available to him.
“We need to talk,” he said.
The sheriff put down his cell phone mid text and glared at him. “Well, now that you’ve let yourself into my office like it’s your goddamn right, who am I to say no? ”
Ciaran smiled. It really didn’t matter to him whether or not Silas Barnes hated his guts. “Your cousin made some interesting friends while he was at Blackburn,” Ciaran began. “The kind of friends you’d probably like to keep out of your pretty little town.”
Silas sat back in his chair and propped his feet on his desk. “You’re a Darcy. It took me a minute to place you. The accent threw me. I’d heard there was another one of your lot running around.”
There was no love lost there, Ciaran thought grimly. Clearly the man’s association with Samuel hadn’t endeared the rest of the Darcy clan to him. “Some of us are a bit more palatable than others.”
“Say what you need to say about Joey, then get the hell out of my office,” Silas demanded.
Ciaran made it a point to sit down in the chair across from the desk, even though he hadn’t been invited to do so.
“Your cousin was cellmates with a nice Russian fellow by the name of Sergei. Sergei, who has since shuffled off this mortal coil, put Joey in touch with some associates of his who are looking to move a very nasty drug into your charming little area…ever heard of Krokodile? ”
Silas’s expression hardened, his already thin lips disappearing behind his mustache. “I’ve heard of it. And the little shit knows better.”
“He knows better than to handle a firearm as a felon on parole, too,” Ciaran reminded him gently.
“I’ll talk to him,” Silas said. “I don’t think Joey would be that stupid, but I’ll make damned certain of it.”
Ciaran nodded. “While you’re at it, make certain that he leaves Harlow Tate in peace. Now that I’ve been accepted into the clan, I’m feeling very protective.”
“What the hell is Harlow Tate to the Darcys?” Barnes demanded.
“Apparently, she’s now with Quentin…seems her taste in men has improved significantly.
It’d be a shame to have some hot-headed idiot ruin your long-standing relationship with the Darcys, now wouldn’t it?
Now that Samuel is no longer running the show, the people of Fontaine might not be as forgiving when you turn a blind eye to things. ”
Ciaran closed the door, but he could hear Barnes cursing him from behind the closed door.
Silas waited half a heartbeat after the newest Darcy left his office before picking up his cell phone again.
Discarding the half-written text to the very married hairdresser he’d been fucking for the last few months, he pulled up Joey’s number and called him.
When the little shit answered, Silas didn’t hesitate before chewing him a new asshole.
“What the hell are you into, you stupid little fucker?”
Joey sputtered. “What the fuck, man? You’re not my father!”
“No, but I am the sheriff of this town, and if you’re bringing in the shit that I think you are, I am gonna put your ass back in prison personally!”
Joey laughed. “The fuck you are. You’ve been balls deep in the dirty goings on in Fontaine for so long that the dirt on you would fill Commonwealth Stadium! And I know more of it than you think I do.”
Silas cursed. “Krokodile, Joey? That shit will tear this town apart!”
“You think I don’t know that? But thing is, Silas, these aren’t the kind of people you turn down. They ask you to do something for them, and you do it…otherwise you wind up with a few extra holes in you. And that’s if you’re lucky.”
“Promise me you’re not bringing that shit to Fontaine…I don’t want to have to send you back to prison. It would kill your mama. ”
“Don’t make me play hardball with you, Silas. You’re family, but I’ll throw you to the damned wolves if I have to.”
Silas didn’t doubt that for a minute. Joey had no notion of loyalty, that sniveling little shit. It was going to get ugly, and he didn’t have any other choice. But…on the upside, he had Harlow Tate handy to take the fall. It wouldn’t be too difficult to make her look guilty as sin.
“We need to talk this out face-to-face. I can help get you out of this, if you let me,” Silas lied.
Joey scoffed at that. “Yeah, right. There’s no way in hell we’re getting out of this…me and Tommy are in too deep.”
Silas covered his face with his hands. The last thing he needed was for his baby brother to get dragged into this mess. A cousin was one thing, but a sibling was something else altogether. Voters didn’t much care for a sheriff with a drug-dealing brother.
“Meet me at the diner on twenty-seven,” he said.
“I’ll meet you at Mama’s,” Joey said.
“No. There’s a Darcy in town looking for you…he’s already been to your mama’s once. He’ll be watching for you there.”
Joey capitulated with a sigh. “Fine. But Silas, I trust you as far as I can throw you…I’ll be coming armed.”
So would he. “You’re family, Joey. Family comes first.”
“What the fuck ever, man.”