The Dust and the Roar Page 21

  “Leo wasn’t intimidated,” said Jake on a chuckle. “He told me that when his business picked up, and he and Shepherd first started talking, Leo might have said maybe to him. Of course to a guy like Shepherd, ‘maybe’ means I’m a weak bastard, bulldoze me. But for Leo, ‘maybe’ was nothing but a tease, a kiss my ass, motherfucker. Bottom line, Leo’s been giving Shepherd and his boys the finger at every opportunity. Swear to God, for a scrawny guy who looks like he’d blow over in the wind, Leo has no fucking fear in front of these motherfuckers. It’s goddamn inspiring.”

  “We got to take Shepherd and Claw out,” said Boner.

  I grit my jaw. “Is that necessary?”

  “They find him, they’re going to run him into the ground and grind the pieces,” said Boner. “I’ve been in these situations before, Wreck. It’s kill or be killed. They’re not going to stop until they get what they want, and they’ll take it out on us, on our businesses for the fuck of it. Because they can.”

  “Case in point, The Tingle. Tip of the iceberg,” muttered Jake.

  “If we make that kind of absolute move, it’ll only cause more chaos,” I said. “A new chaos. The Feds have been watching our area since Cheezer killed Kip and we became Jacks, pressuring the Meager PD to crack down. We can’t be murdering our known enemies.”

  “It’s a war out there, man,” said Boner, his tone unemotional, as if we were discussing the weather. The voice of experience, the voice of practical wisdom.

  “Hey, Jake!” called Leo from the bed, eyes wide, a grin growing over his thin lips. “C’mere! You gotta see the motorized pogo stick this kid’s using.”

  “Oh yeah?” said Jake, his gaze darting back to Boner and me, eyebrows quirking. Jake settled in next to Leo on the edge of the bed in front of the TV, and Boner took out his pack of cigarettes and headed outside.

  Isi slid her arms around my middle. I pulled her around to my front, embracing her, taking in her warm flowery fragrance like a balm. She planted a kiss on my chest. “Thank you.”

  “Babe, we’re going to have to keep him out of sight for a while. He’s got a bunch of people after him. People you don’t want after you.”

  She turned in my arms, leaning back against me, the two of us watching Leo and Jake laugh over the television show. “Leo was always different, peculiar. A loner. The odd one out. He was a math prodigy in school. They said he was gifted, and he graduated early. He even made a name for himself mountain climbing and got a full scholarship to USC. My parents were so proud. They felt he was on the right road at last. This was what he needed, focus. His interest wouldn’t wane. He’d be challenged, he’d come into his own. But I knew better.

  “He fell apart right before finals his freshman year. He took off, disappeared. My senior year in high school, my dad gave me his GTO convertible—he never let anyone drive that car—and I went to California to find him.”

  “You did that by yourself?”

  “I did. I got there, and no one knew where he was. He didn’t have any friends really. Eventually, I found him in the basement of the library. He was in dirty clothes, piles of books and notebooks around him. He was figuring out this important equation, he said. The solutions were swirling, swirling in his head suffocating him, and he was in a panic that he needed to set them free, get them down on paper before they vanished.

  “We road tripped home in that convertible. We took Route 66 through to Texas then came up north to South Dakota—road trip of a lifetime. He started eating again, sleeping, he relaxed, we laughed at silly, stupid stuff, sang out loud. It was the best, just me and Leo hanging out, making do.

  “We got him into a psychiatric ward in Rapid, and he was diagnosed with a type of schizophrenia, but actually, they weren’t too sure what to call it, but they had to put some kind of label on it. The interesting thing was they told us the part of his brain that registers fear and emotion, is very different from what’s considered normal.”

  “Meaning?”

  “He doesn’t register fear and emotion the way the rest of us do, which accounted for his fearlessness climbing the most dangerous mountains, and his inability to maintain any kind of relationships. He went through a number of medications, but nothing seemed to have much effect, or they had too much of an effect and changed him for the worst.

  “After he was released, he was real quiet. He helped with the store, doing stock work only in the back or at the warehouse because he was better when he was alone, not with people. He did wonders with the stock at Uncle Walt’s feed store at night, everything perfectly organized in neat rows. That sort of thing kept him calm, but that didn’t last too long. He’d take off, come back. Take off, come back to the house, like a stray dog who knew there’d be food and shelter waiting for him if he needed it.

  “He spent a year climbing mountains, traveling around in this small van that he managed to buy. For a little while there, he seemed good, content. Then he injured his knee and stopped climbing and came home. That was not a good time. That’s when he and my ex got involved in petty robberies, then that last one. He took off again for a long time after that. Like this last time.” She let out a heavy sigh. “I’m proud of him.” She let out a small laugh. “Of course, my parents are both probably turning over in their grave to hear me say that. Leo was always a disappointment to my dad. He loves him, but never tried to understand him.”

  “You should be proud of him. People want to get high, they’re going to find a way to get that high. And I hear Leo sells the best shit there is, and it’s his own. Home-grown.”

  Isi’s gaze went back to her brother. “He hasn’t slept in God knows how long. I brought his sleep medication with me, I’ll try giving it to him.”

  “That’s good.”

  She leaned her head back against the wall. “Have you ever been to the Hippie Hole?”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  “When I was little, and it would get real hot during the summer, Leo would take me swimming at the Hippie Hole. James would get mad at us because he’d be there with his high school buddies and the girls they wanted to impress, and he didn’t want his baby sister and weirdo brother embarrassing him. Leo didn’t care, though. In the end, James was impressed with all the cool dives from the highest spots Leo could pull off that no one else could—back flips, twists. “That’s my brother!” James shouted out. Leo taught me how to hike that summer, how to dive, how to risk and not let the fear control me.” The slight smile that had curved her lips faded. “What happens now?”

  Destroy the enemy at all costs?

  Jesus.

  Another jungle.

  “We’ll see,” was all I managed.

  We kissed, my hand sliding around the side of her face, my other searching for more of her warm, bare skin under her short tee.

  Jake and Boner went out and got us some sandwiches. We all ate together in the small room, and they left soon after. Isi and I got on the bed with Leo and watched television. She got him to take his meds, and finally, he fell asleep. The darkness cocooned the three of us.

  Something tugged on my hand, a wetness invaded my ear. “Wreck.” Isi’s whispering voice, her tongue sliding on my flesh. My eyes popped open. The digital clock read 2:45 am. I’d fallen asleep. I reached for Isi, my eyes straining to focus on her in the dark. “You okay? Leo?”

  “Leo’s fine, I’m not,” she whispered. “Get up.”

  I shot up out of bed. Leo was immobile, face down on the mattress. Isi tugged my hand, and I followed her. I blinked. She was only wearing her cut-off tee without her bra, and her tiny panties which revealed a hell of a lot of juicy ass. I’d let that ass lead me wherever it wanted to go.

  That was to the floor.

  “He’s not going to wake up.” She got down on her knees in front of me, tugging at my boxer briefs.

  “I don’t fucking care,” I breathed, a hand at her chin.

  She swallowed my cock whole.

  “Fuck, baby—”

  She gave me the most furious
head of my fucking life, my hips pulsing and jerking in time to her sucks and hard twists. Digging my hands in her silky hair, I exploded. Her head dipped as her fucking amazing mouth slowed its brutal pace on my cock, and she swallowed, stroking my balls. I gripped her chin, pulled on her hair, and she released me, her lips dripping wet with her saliva, eyes gleaming.

  My fucking girl.

  “I got to taste you,” I said. “I miss my snatch.”

  “It misses you.” She got on her back, but I stopped her fingers from pulling down her panty. How I loved to yank that small strip of fabric off her. That was all mine. What was hidden beneath, totally fucking mine. I ripped off the panty with my teeth, and she grunted softly. I nibbled at her smooth thigh and licked and nipped around her pussy while she squirmed and moaned, pulling on my hair. Finally, I dove in between her legs and filled my senses with her. A man possessed.

  Her back arched off the floor, her legs shook, her one heel digging into my back, her yelps and soft cries filling my ears. I gripped her tightly as her body twisted with an orgasm. I kept licking, kept sucking, our skin wet with her cum, my saliva, our sweat.

  Things would be different now with her brother on everyone’s Most Wanted list, and I knew it. I’d put Isi on lockdown at our clubhouse if I could. But we barely had a clubhouse, and she would refuse it, wanting to take care of whatever was left of her family's business. I didn’t know what was ahead for us.

  I slid my hands under her ass and went down on her again, shoving away all the I don’t knows with my tongue and my fingers and my mouth.

  But that voice in my head kept saying, “I don’t know.”

  Chapter Forty-Three

  The next morning, Isi and I woke up to Leo watching television.

  “You two are naked,” he said, eyes locked on a documentary on deep sea fishing.

  “Yeah,” I grumbled, pulling the sheet higher over Is.

  I vaguely remembered the two of us finishing on the floor and getting back in the bed. But once I’d wrapped my arm around her middle and pulled her back to my chest, the two of us on our sides, her ass cheeks nestled up against my shaft, my whole body had hardened all over again. My hand found a tit, and I bit her neck, thrusting between her ass cheeks, a hand gripping a thigh. Her fingers worked her clit, and she’d muffled her cries in the pillow, and I’d grit my teeth to keep my own grunts down as our flesh urgently slapped together. I’d tightened all around her in the dark, and we’d gotten off together. Cocooned in each other’s satisfied, exhausted bodies, the two of us dazed, the smell of our sweat and sex lulled us to sleep.

  I pushed off the bed, pulling up my boxer briefs. “How you doing? Get a good sleep?”

  “Yeah, one little pill and I’m a brand new man,” he replied. “I made coffee in that machine. It’s not bad,” he said.

  “Great, man.” I got up and poured myself a cup and returned to him at the edge of the bed. “Leo, you got Shepherd on your ass.”

  “Shepherd is an anachronistic, arrogant, feudal overlord—

  “Jesus, Leo. Don’t you realize who you’re dealing with?”

  “Someone needs to explain free trade and capitalism to him.”

  “You got Claw after you too,” I said. “He said you cheated him.”

  “Of course Claw wants that money. It’s a lot of money.”

  “From a liquor store holdup?”

  “That was no ordinary liquor store holdup, Wreck. You think I’d risk my neck for a couple hundred bucks in some cash register? Not me. That robbery was my idea, my plan, and he fucked it up. I’d found out that the owner was having a regular poker game going on three nights a week in the back of his store. That night was the championship event. That’s why I’d picked it. There was serious cash there, and I took it, and the men playing that night didn’t tell the cops about it either. After Tommy got arrested, I found out what he did to my sister. That fucker deserved to rot in that jail cell.”

  “Isi made him promises to keep you safe. That’s why the cops never came after you.”

  “I told her to stay away from him.”

  I rubbed a hand across my mouth. “Leo, the police want to bring you in for questioning.”

  “Why?”

  “They need to find out how the fire happened. Claw showed up at your dad’s funeral. He pretty much admitted he set the fire to get to you.”

  Leo laughed.

  “Why the hell are you laughing, man?”

  “He wishes he set that fire. He might have been there that night. He’d been trying to follow me for months. I heard a couple of bikes when I got there, but the fire wasn’t him. I know how it happened. I saw it.”

  Both of us kept our eyes glued to the TV screen, and I took a small breath to say the words. “What’d you see, Leo?”

  “I saw my dad set the fire.” His voice was even, matter of fact.

  “Your dad? You sure?”

  “Yes, I’m sure.”

  “Did you talk to him? Ask him why?”

  “I knew why. He was drunk, angry with me, and in a panic. He’d borrowed money to keep the store floating, but the time to pay had come in, and he didn’t have it.”

  “Bank loan?”

  “Worse than a bank. A loan from the Hildebrands. Mr. H made him sweet promises—all neighborly. See, my dad’s the kind of guy who likes having friends. He believes in people, believes what they tell him, the promises they make.”

  “Why would he go to the people who’ve been trying to take his family’s property for so long?”

  “He didn’t want to jump through hoops with the bank—paperwork, numbers, and Isi would’ve found out easy. He wanted to believe in a gentleman’s agreement.”

  Shit.

  “What were you doing at the warehouse that night, Leo?”

  “I wanted the cold medicine. They’d just gotten a delivery.”

  “Cold medicine?”

  “Yeah, and then my dad showed up. He said he’d figured out that stock was missing the week before and suspected me. He’d been staking out the warehouse a few nights to catch me. He was real upset about the loan, about me, and very drunk. Everything that went wrong was usually my fault at that house. This wasn’t any different. I offered him money to help with the debt, but he only got angrier and told me I had the devil inside me. He cursed me like an old preacher, said he didn’t want my evil earnings. Money’s money, don’t you think? It exists for a single purpose.”

  “Yeah.” I dragged my fingers through my hair. Holy fuck.

  “When a man is driven to pouring gasoline all over his own belongings and himself, it levels the playing field of good and evil,” Leo said, his tone calm.

  My throat thickened with sour bile, and I took in a deep breath. “Did you try and stop him?”

  “No. He’d made his choice.” His voice was eerily calm, detached. “He was in his own world, muttering to himself. He stumbled, and a stack of boxes tipped over on him, and that’s when I saw Isi on the other side of where he’d fallen. The flames had already started racing around the room, the smoke everywhere. All I could think of was getting her out. Getting her safe. Safe, out of the fire.” He turned to me and held my gaze. “So that’s what I did.”

  “You did good.”

  “I know.”

  The bed jerked as Isi darted up. Sharp movements, clothes rustling. She stood before us. “Leo.”

  “You didn’t tell me he started drinking again, Is. Why didn’t you tell me?” asked Leo. “Always protecting him.”

  “I tried to help him, I did,” Isi said, “but obviously I failed. I failed Dad, I failed Mom, you—” Her voice broke.

  “You’ve never failed me, Isi,” Leo said. “Never.”

  “Baby,” I put a hand on her middle, steadying her, wanting her to stop, to stop hurting. But her focus remained on her brother.

  “Dad was sick, Leo,” she said.

  “I’m the one who’s sick. Sick and twisted, that’s what the old man always used to say. That’s what he tol
d me before he lit the fire.”

  “Leo, listen to me. Dad had a bunch of shit going on. His eyes were failing, he couldn’t read anymore. His hearing was getting worse, the arthritis was crippling him. He was depressed, forgetful. He was supposed to get a pacemaker, but he was afraid of the operation, not to mention the cost. I only found about it last month when I overheard him and Uncle Walt arguing about it.”

  Leo pressed his lips together, his gaze falling to the floor, his heels tapping out a dissonant beat. He was agitated.

  Isi knelt before him, meeting him at eye level without touching him. “I tried with what I knew, but I should’ve paid better attention. I thought I was, but it wasn’t enough, I should’ve asked for help. He was hurting, and I didn’t know how bad, and that’s on me.” Her eyes filled with water, her hands touching his knees. “It’s just you and me now, Leo.” Leo’s body rocked left and right. Her arms went around him gently. Brother and sister remained in their tight embrace.

  “I can’t lose you too, Leo.” Isi’s voice was ragged. “You hear me? I can’t lose you.”

  Chapter Forty-Four

  “We should go down to Shepherd’s compound and blow it the hell up. Get rid of him and his crew once and for all,” said Mick. “All of us would be a whole lot better off.”

  We were at our favorite back table at Pete’s. It was early afternoon, and except for the two old men who were in here every day at this hour playing pool and drinking beer, we were on our own.

  “Time someone did it,” said Jump. “Everyone’s accepted that Shepherd’s the shepherd and that’s that.”

  “Geez, that was real articulate,” said Willy.

  “Thanks, man.”

  “Problem is, Shepherd’s in heavy with the cops and local businessmen,” I said. “Fire reigns down over him, they’re going to be all over it in a big way to cover their asses.”

  “Yeah, their little system’s gonna be broke,” said Mick, lighting a cigarette with a Zippo lighter, the large flame setting a glow on his face. “Sounds good to me.” He slammed the lighter down on the table with a hard clack. “That’s what Scout’s been pushing for anyhow, isn’t it?”