Chapter 26
Several hours later, I stood next to my old pickup truck which was parked past the far side of town, about as far from where Mags was staying as it was possible to get. There weren’t any houses around here. It was a small, dirt access road leading to one of the many walking trails around here, just a rarely used loop that cut into the woods a short distance.
Night had fallen, and there wasn’t much of a moon. The silent road was dark, lined with nothing but trees on both sides. Not even a firefly to cast a glow.
Though I was nervous, I resisted the urge to pace back and forth, instead leaning back against the hood of the car, my legs crossed at the ankles. I put my hands in my pockets and pretended I did this kind of thing on the regular.
My pickup was full of drugs.
In fact, it was so full of drugs, it gave new meaning to the word loaded.
I glanced to the cab of my truck, wondering if I should mention the wordplay to Mags. She’d probably think it was funny. Only I was still kind of mad she was with me at all. I’d argued hard to come alone. She didn’t need to be here.
But hell, she was stubborn. And here she was.
At least I’d managed to extract a promise that she’d stay in the truck and keep quiet. She was scrunched around in the passenger seat so she could gaze out of the back window. And it was dark enough that I could barely see her silhouette, so maybe this Spike guy wouldn’t even know she was here.
I heard the roar of a car engine approaching. A moment later, headlights shone into my eyes, making me squint and turn my face away. Music was playing inside the car, the thump, thump of the bass beat clearly audible as the car rolled close.
My heart rate kicked up. This was it. Showtime.
The car stopped when its front bumper was only a few feet from the back of my pickup. The engine died, and the loud music cut off. The headlights stayed on, making it all but impossible for me to see anything.
Both car doors opened. Squinting into the bright light, I caught the dark shape of a man unfolding himself from the driver’s side. Another man was getting out of the passenger’s side.
“Are you Spike?” I called.
“Who the fuck are you?” the driver growled. He had his hood up and I couldn’t make out his features.
“A friend of Magdalena’s.” I nodded my head back, indicating the pickup’s bed. “The truck’s got what you want, like she told you. Y’all can take it all, just don’t bother her again.” Slowing down my speech, I exaggerated my accent. Mags had made disparaging assumptions about me based on where I lived and how I looked. Hopefully these New Yorkers would too. Better if they thought I was harmless.
“You armed?” the driver demanded. He was clearly in charge, so he had to be Spike.
“Nope.” I held up both hands. “I ain’t looking for trouble. What’s in the truck is worth a whole lot more than she owes you. Ten times, at least.” I had no idea of the street value of my daddy’s stash, but Spike could judge for himself.
Both men walked to the back of my pickup and peered inside.
Then Spike stiffened. He stepped to the side, staring through the window, into the front of the pickup. “Who’s in the truck?” He thrust a hand into the large pocket at the front of his sweatshirt. I was pretty sure he was armed and was holding his gun.
My heart rate kicked up. “Nobody.”
I had a hunting rifle stashed under the seat of my truck and had instructed Mags to use it if she needed to protect herself. I could only pray it wouldn’t come to that.
The passenger window opened, and Mags poked her head out. “It’s just me,” she said. “Magdalena.” Her voice was high and nervous.
Spike sidled toward the window, his movements cautious. “Put your hands where I can see them.”
“I’m not armed,” she said. “And I told you I’d pay you back. This settles the debt, right?”
“This isn’t money,” he snarled.
I stepped toward him, trying to distract him and keep him away from Mags. “No, but it’s better than money.”
Spike swung toward me. Before he could say anything, his friend snapped, “Who asked you?”
“You want these drugs or not?” I spread my hands. “I don’t have all night.”
Both men stared at me a moment, eyes narrowed as though assessing whether I was a threat. Stepping closer to each other, they had a muttered conversation I couldn’t hear. Then Spike raised his voice, addressing me.
“Why do you have all this?” he demanded. “What’s really going on?”
“Nothing but what you see. I found these drugs in the woods. Magdalena’s my friend, and I figured I could help her out, is all.”
“You found this stuff?” He sounded disbelieving.
“I figure one of the local growers must have lost it. Finders keepers though, right?”
“It’s a generous offer,” Mags called from inside the truck, her voice still higher than normal.
The two men conferred a little longer in low tones. They still seemed unsure, but greed was a powerful motivator. With the drugs in front of them, how could they resist?
“Load the bags into our car,” Spike snapped at me.
“Sure thing. But could y’all dip your headlights so they don’t blind me? I’ll be seeing stars for weeks.”
Spike’s friend dipped the lights so they weren’t shining straight into my eyes, and Spike watched me warily as I carried the bags from the bed of my pickup, filling his trunk with them. There were so many bags of weed, I had to pile some onto his back seat. By the time I was done, their car was groaning with illegal product.
“Right.” I brushed my hands together in a “job done” motion. “That’s it.”
“That isn’t it,” snarled Spike. He walked over to the passenger door and yanked the door open. “Get out here,” he ordered Mags.
I tensed, balling my hands into fists, forcing myself not to rush between them. My heart slammed against my ribs. If he hurt her, I’d make him regret it. But I’d do everything I could not to let it come to that.
“You’ve got what you came for,” I said, dropping the exaggerated accent. “Now leave.” My tone was cold. My words sharp.
Spike yanked his gun out of his pocket and pointed it at the truck. “Get out.”
Mags did what he ordered. She stood next to the truck, her hands in the air. She looked scared but defiant.
Spike leveled the gun at her. “You gave me trouble. Now I’ll give you trouble.”
My blood was pounding in my ears. It took everything I had not to rush the guy, but to walk slowly toward Mags, my hands raised. “I wouldn’t do that,” I said.
“Why? What you gonna do?” As I’d hoped, Spike swiveled to point his gun at me.
“You want to give her any trouble, you need to go through me.” I kept walking.
Spike’s friend was standing beside their car as though impatient to leave. He didn’t seem to be armed, and was far enough away that I could ignore him and focus on Spike.
“You think you scare me?” Spike demanded.
“Not trying to scare you. I’m just saying how it is.” I stopped in front of Mags, putting myself between her and Spike’s gun and praying she stayed behind me. “Maybe you’ve killed before. And maybe you’re willing to kill me to settle whatever grudge you think you might have with her. But are you sure nobody saw you drive into this small town? Are you willing to bet your freedom that none of the locals who’ve known each other for years aren’t curious enough to remember what you look like, or the car you were driving?”
Spike was shorter than me, and slighter. I drew myself up to emphasize my size. If he fired, I wouldn’t go down easily. I’d do my best to take him down with me.
“Maybe I won’t kill you,” he snarled. “But I can fuck you up.”
I gave a deliberate shrug as though the threat didn’t bother me. “You can try. Or you can take what you came for and leave. I put thousands of dollars’ worth of drugs in your car. This doesn’t need to get messy.”
Spike strode up to me, shoving the gun barrel into my stomach. “If this is some kind of trick, I’ll come back here and fuck you both up.”
I pressed my lips together, saying nothing. As tempting as it was to grab the gun, I didn’t move. This close, our height difference was even more obvious. I glared down at him through narrowed eyes, ignoring the painful press of the gun barrel into my gut.
Thankfully, I couldn’t sense any movement from behind me. Mags seemed frozen.
“Come on,” Spike’s friend called. “Let’s get out of here.”
Spike hesitated a moment, then let out a grunt. “Stay here until we’re long gone,” he ordered. “If I see headlights behind me, you’re both dead.”
I still said nothing.
The gun barrel eased out of my gut. Spike walked backward for a few steps, keeping his eyes on me, then turned and strode to his car. The two men got in. When the engine started, loud music blasted from inside. While they turned the car around, I spun around to Mags.
“Are you okay?” I caught her arms.
She nodded, puffing out a breath. “Are you?”
“Get in the truck.” When she did what I said, I shut the passenger door behind her, then strode around to get in the driver’s side.
“Get down,” I ordered. “As far down as you can.”
She sunk into the front footwell, scrunching herself into a ball. “My hands are shaking.”
“We’ll be okay now. They’re leaving.” I peered through the back window to watch the car drive away, ready to drop and cover her body with mine the instant I heard a gunshot.
The car drove down the dirt access road, its red taillights bouncing as it made its way over the uneven surface. The main road was at least five hundred feet away, and thanks to all the ruts, they had to navigate toward it slowly.
It wasn’t until the car’s taillights reached the road that the patrol cars on the main road put their lights on. All at once, the dark, silent night turned into a blaze of flashing color and noise.
A voice rang out deafeningly loud over a patrol car’s loudspeaker: “Stop your engine and put your hands on your head! You’re under arrest.”
I lowered myself closer to Mags, figuring it was the time for gunfire if there was going to be any. But the deputies had Spike’s car surrounded, and he must have realized it would be pointless trying to get away. I watched as the two thugs got out of their car with their hands up.
“What’s happening?” Mags demanded.
“They’re being cuffed.”
She rose out of the footwell to watch with me as the two men were frisked, loaded into the back of a patrol car, and finally driven away.
“You should stay there,” I told Mags, opening my door. “It’ll be less complicated that way.”
I half expected her to argue, but she just nodded. It was hard to tell in the dark, but I thought she was still a little pale.
“You’ll be okay?” I asked. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“I’m fine. Hardly shaking anymore.” She gave me a crooked smile.
I smiled back, then got out and walked down the access road. Two of the patrol cars were still there, the officers busy looking into the trunk and back seat of the car I’d loaded all the drugs into. Spotting Sheriff James, I strolled over to him and nodded a hello.
“Cy.” He nodded back. “This is some haul.”
“Yes, sir.”
The sheriff gave me a wry smile. “Your daddy was a busy man.”
“He must have been,” I agreed.
One of the sheriff’s deputies moved closer, his narrowed eyes moving over me. I recognized Jimmy Dale, a man I didn’t know well, but who clearly thought he knew me.
“Are we arresting him, Sheriff?” Jimmy asked.
I tensed, but kept silent.
Maybe the folks around here would always look at me with suspicion. I’d never be completely okay with that, but as long as the people I cared about knew the truth, I could ignore the rest.
Sheriff James frowned at his deputy. “Why would we do that?” he asked.
Jimmy ran a hand over his chin. “Well, should we search his pickup?”
The sheriff didn’t answer him. Instead he turned to me. “Thank you for telling us what was going on, Cy. We don’t want drug dealers turning up in our town and threatening innocent folks, do we?”
“No, sir.” I kept my gaze on him, not on Jimmy.
The sheriff nodded. “You have our gratitude, and if you want to head home now, you can go. We’ll be here for a while, taking pictures for evidence before we impound the car. We’ll need to take a formal statement, of course, if you don’t mind coming into the station tomorrow?”
“I can do that, Sheriff.”
He offered me his hand and I shook it. Jimmy had his lips pressed together and was looking sullen.
The sheriff clapped me on the back. “You’re a good man, Cy.”
“Thank you, sir.” I couldn’t resist shooting a smug look at Jimmy as I walked away.