Dirty South Drug Wars (29 page)

Crestfallen, I stared past her shoulder into the darkness. All my worries, all my fears confirmed, I shook my head, my heart in my throat.

His extended family
would
never accept me, based on my last name alone. They knew nothing about me, cared nothing about the love I felt for Tanner.

A monumental, exasperated sigh from Josie broke me from my tumultuous inner musings.

“Get in the Jeep, bitch. You’re not in any shape to argue. Keep talking and I’ll thump you everywhere it hurts.”

Shelby stared at Josie aghast.

A clap of thunder and streak of lightning ripped across the sky. The mist dancing in the glow around Shelby’s blonde head transformed into a light shower. Her face hardened and she gave an unsure nod of her head.

Shelby winced, gasping for air as Brodie helped her into the backseat of the Jeep. Josie sat beside her, raising a daring eyebrow. Shelby frowned then turned away from Josie. Brodie gingerly wedged his large frame between the two girls.

“Lucy, call Chance.” I ignored Brodie’s heated stare from the backseat as I drove over the muddy road. “Tell him we’ve got Shelby and to meet us at the hospital.”

“But don’t tell him about Drew,” Shelby whispered. “Please. I’ll tell him when the time is right, but not now. Maybe I can talk him into going to rehab or something, but if you tell the Montgomerys, there’s no chance for him to get better. Not if he’s dead.”

Lucy nodded, shooting Brodie an unsure look before calling Chance and speaking quietly into the phone. She ended the call a couple minutes later. The Jeep was then filled with an awkward silence, other than the occasional wheezing and stifled sob from the blonde beauty in the backseat.

“I’m sorry, Shelby,” I said, breaking the awkward silence. “My Jeep rides like a logging truck.”

Shelby doubled over as I swerved around a deep pothole in the worn roads. “Don’t apologize for something out of your control.”

“Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on?” Brodie asked. “Is it true? Are y’all seeing the Montgomery boys?”

Josie sighed, leaning back in the seat and rubbing her forehead in frustration. “Yes. We were planning on telling you everything tonight, before we had to save Ms. Priss, here.”

Brodie shook his head in disgust. “How could y’all do such a thing, betraying our family like this?”

“You don’t know the whole story, Bro,” I said. “Everything you know as the truth is really just a lie cooked up by Amos.”

“You’ve got until we reach the Birchwood Medical Center,” Brodie replied, “to explain everything. Don’t leave anything out.”

We took turns hurriedly explaining everything. We told Brodie about Nana’s safe and the contents linking Davis to my father’s murder and the fact that Amos himself was a Montgomery and not a true Monroe. I explained how my father, Graham, and Tanner Sr. had made an agreement to work alongside one another in the drug business, only to have two of the three men later murdered. Then we spoke of Levi.

“Levi deserved what he got,” Brodie said. “But Amos … there’s no real evidence linking him to Uncle Jeb’s murder. The documents, the photos, they all point to Davis? You’re basically telling me you’ve put all your faith in the Montgomerys without any actual evidence.”

Frustrated, I threw my hands up. The Jeep veered and I grabbed the steering wheel. “What more evidence do you need? Why else would he hold on to all the photographs, witness statements, and original, un-doctored police reports if he wasn’t somehow involved?”

Brodie ran his fingers through his hair. “Maybe those police reports aren’t un-doctored. Maybe the ones on file are real and the ones in the safe are doctored.”

“That makes no sense,” Lucy interrupted. “If Amos wanted Davis in jail for Daddy’s murder, he could have already put him away for life. Instead, he’s got all this evidence collected against him. Why would he hold on to it unless maybe Davis has something on him as well?”

“I don’t know,” Brodie responded. “But it’s funny how a little loving from the Montgomery boys has blindsided y’all and turned you completely against your own flesh and blood.”

“Your cousin, Peyton, is dealing meth in Mayhaw,” Shelby said, “for Amos and Davis. They’re working together.”

Brodie’s glare was fire and ice, his sneer twisting his face into a menacing mask of disbelief. “Peyton wouldn’t do business with a Montgomery.”

“Drew felt like bonding tonight.” Shelby slumped down in her seat, her fingertips skimming her neck. “He’s tweaked out of his mind, rambling on and on about every sin he’s committed the past couple of years. Some of the things he told me, they made me sick. I started crying, and it pissed him off. He wrapped his hands around my throat, told me he’d kill me if I repeated anything he said. Two days have passed since he last slept and he’s on edge. He’s capable of anything and everything.”

“Why are you telling us this?” Brodie asked. “Why are you ratting out your boyfriend?”

Shelby licked her broken lip, casting Brodie a solemn gaze. “You ever put so much faith in someone, praying night after night they’d get better, only to be slapped in the face by the reality that maybe they never will?”

My cousins and I sent an inadvertent gaze Lucy’s way. Lucy dropped her head, a smile curling on her lips, her demure happiness void of discernment. Then again, none of us understood the workings of Lucy’s mind, let alone me, her own sister.

Shelby drew in a deep breath and released it in one long sigh. “Yeah, well my faith is dwindling. And you deserve to know the truth.”

“So does Graham,” I said. “He took you in and raised you as his own. You shouldn’t keep these secrets from him. Maybe you’ve been placing your faith in the wrong person. Graham can help. He can help you get out of this relationship. He can help with Drew’s rehab.”

The Jeep went silent as I turned off the highway and pulled into the parking lot of Birchwood Medical Center. The two-story complex sprawled across a few acres of land, surrounded by tall pines. The front parking lot only held a handful of vehicles. Two lone ambulances rested under the awning of the emergency room, abandoned by their occupants.

A shiny black Cadillac sat near the exit, the surface gleaming beneath the harsh overhead lighting. A ball of dread formed in my stomach, not at the sight of Graham stepping out of the car, but at the sight of the strange man who exited the vehicle on the passenger side.

The man was tall and bore a striking resemblance to Graham. They shared the same distinguishing features: the dark mass of hair, cold eyes that could pick you apart, limb from limb, with one stern stare. He was much younger than Graham, looking to be in his late twenties.

“That’s Ray,” Shelby said. “Ray Montgomery, Graham’s first cousin.”

The sight of Tanner, emerging from the emergency room with Bryce and Chance in tow, faded her words into nothing. I grasped the door handle and sprang from the Jeep, but froze at Tanner’s solemn stare. He shook his head minutely.

Chance crossed the lot, his fingers flexing out and in, coiling into tight fists before extending. “Shelby.”

Brodie was helping Shelby from the Jeep, but stiffened when Chance’s hands wrapped around his arms. Chance flung him to the side as though Brodie wasn’t nearly twice Chance’s size. Brodie stumbled against the concrete before regaining his footing.

Shelby slowly emerged from the Jeep, battered and bruised. Chance cupped his hands on her face, tilting it as he inspected the busted lip, the growing hand prints appearing on her neck. Fingers leaving her face, he turned, glaring at Brodie.

“You. You did this. You hurt my sister.”

Brodie opened his mouth to protest, but not a word was uttered. Chance threw a steady punch upward, smacking Brodie in his jaw. I reached out to stop him, but Chance shoved me to the side. I fell to the ground as the two men broke into a scuffle, exchanging curses and blows. Chance knocked my cousin to the ground, his rage overpowering Brodie’s size.

Shelby and Lucy yelled, begging Chance to stop, but it was as if they weren’t there. It was as if none of us were there.

Josie stood apart from everyone, leaning against the Jeep, observing the tussle with a look of pure disgust on her face. Tanner and Bryce stepped in after a matter of seconds, but it felt like hours. They grabbed Chance, forcing him off my cousin and pinning him against my Jeep a breath away from Josie.

“Drew called and told me everything,” Chance screamed at my prone cousin, spittle flying from his mouth as he struggled against Tanner and Bryce. “He told me you attacked my sister in the parking lot of the car wash.”

Enraged, I stepped forward, heat creeping over my chest. “Brodie didn’t attack your sister. Drew is the one who threw her to the ground. Drew is the one who’s been hurting her for months. Everyone’s been too blind to see what’s right in front of them. Tell them, Shelby. Tell them about Drew.”

Shelby parted her lips, her face paralyzed in fright. Disappointment drained me of my plight, forcing tears to my eyes. Shelby gave a slight shake of her head, an odd dimness in her eyes. Dimness. Deadness. Her eyes were dead, the strong girl who’d once introduced herself to me with a warning on her lips no longer alive.

Lucy’s sobs broke me from the sorrow and betrayal I felt inside. I gathered her in my arms and held her, our drying clothes uncomfortable and scratchy against each other’s skin.

Two security guards and a man wearing kelly-green scrubs darted outside. The security guards helped Brodie to his feet and escorted him inside. He leaned on their shoulders until a nurse came through the glass ER doors with a wheelchair. Holding his head up high, Brodie grumbled something, and the nurse allowed him to pass. Shelby trailed behind, awakening from her blank spell. Sobbing, she limped into the arms of the scrub-clad man who assisted her into the wheelchair.

“The boy thought you needed this worse than he did,” the nurse said. She wheeled Shelby into the building, and we watched until we could no longer see her windblown hair or bruise-stained neck.

“This is exactly what I was talking about, Tanner. Those Monroes are nothing but trouble.”

The man named Ray gave me a cold, hard stare. He stood near the Cadillac, glaring at me in disdain, his rigid posture a traitor to his sweet tone. He removed a cigar from his breast pocket and lit it. Smoke billowed around his curling smile, mixing with the rain that suddenly picked up speed.

Someone grabbed my arm, squeezing and dragging me beside them. Startled, I met Josie’s unwavering gaze. Lucy and I flanked her sides. Graham stepped around the Cadillac, his stoic expression unyielding. In my heart, I knew there was a reason he hadn’t defended my family or me, but my anger muddled any common sense. And doubt. Doubt also waged a war inside my heart, and I detested the uncertainty I felt for Graham, for Tanner.

Tanner.

Before entering the ER, I glanced over my shoulder. Tanner’s hair was wet with rain, slick and shining in an ungodly mess. The moisture trailed down his forehead, softening his long, sweeping lashes. The lean muscles in his arms and chest pressed against his soaking wet shirt. Rainwater whipped around us as the wind sucked it beneath the outside awning of the emergency room. The friction of the water slapped across my stinging face.

I walked inside the ER. Filtered coolness prickled my skin. The drone of a television mounted on the waiting room wall wasn’t enough to drown out the sound of a train rushing inside my head.

With hands shoved deeply into his wet, worn jeans, Tanner entered through the emergency room doors behind me. They breezed open for him, leaving a swooshing sound ringing through the air. Jaw set, he closed the distance between us, each step filled with purpose until Ray clamped his hand on his shoulder, leaned in, and whispered something in Tanner’s ear. Dogged determination melted away, replaced with a scowl and a curt nod. Ray patted his shoulder as though he were praising a child.

Tanner broke our gaze.

He turned and walked away, avoiding the nurses’ station and following his family down a long corridor without looking back. Wind, thunder, and rain pounded against the building and I pressed my hand against the place where my heart once rested. There was a frantic pounding below my palm, as frenetic as the storm raging outside, but it wasn’t real. It wasn’t real. The rush of blood as it screamed in my ears and churned through my veins wasn’t real.

Nothing was real.

*

The rooms in the ER were closed off by glass doors, the occupants hidden by a curtain on the inside. Brodie lay on a hospital bed, arms crossed over his chest, his lips pressed into a hard line. The only movement in the room was the flex of his jaw and the persistent rise and fall of his torso. His eyes flickered to mine once he noticed me standing at the door. I stepped into the room and sat on a plastic chair near the sink.

Blood no longer streaked across his face. A busted lip, swollen eye, cuts, and scrapes all replaced the crimson stain.

“You seen Drew or that Chance guy anywhere around?” he asked.

I shook my head, running my fingers through my hair. “I doubt Drew will show his face here.”

Brodie nodded and stared at the ceiling. “What do you see in him? And is he worth it? Is he worth all the bullshit that went down tonight?”

“Yes,” I whispered. “I’m in love with him.”