Ten
Abraham refused to say where he was going the
Saturday morning he visited the Trevor mansion. He left in a sullen mood
and spun the tires of the pickup all the way to the highway. Unsettled by
Abe’s odd behavior, Lazarus and Noah stayed close to the house during the
course of the morning. They were waiting in the drive when Abe finally
returned home. Abe left the truck and confronted them in the middle of the
driveway.
“I’ve spoken with Billy Trevor. There won’t be any
more trouble between the Darkers and the Trevors. If Billy agrees to
leave Silver Ridge in peace, Evie goes with him without any quarrel on our
part.”
Lazarus looked astonished. Astonishment gave way to
an expression of utter desolation, and then to rage. Abe was shrouded in
a complete calm when Lazarus attacked him.
Lazarus sprang for Abe’s throat. Abe backhanded the
man with reflexes quicker than either brother had ever managed to best.
Lazarus went down with blood spilling from his mouth.
Abe dragged Lazarus to his feet by the collar of his
shirt and calmly sank his fist into the man’s gut to take what fight was
left out of him. Lazarus collapsed to the ground a second time, this time
with a spark of fear in his eyes. He crawled to the back porch gesturing
his willingness to concede.
Abe turned to Noah to assure himself that he had only
one stubborn brother to contend with and not two. Noah was as much a
maverick as his brother, but he possessed more self-control, and he had
always been willing to let his older brother guide the family along the
rough paths of life.
“Listen to me,” Abe said. “The both of you.”
Lazarus looked up in anguish. Noah’s expression was
unreadable.
“We’ve got to settle this, but I don’t want Evie to
hear.” He gestured with a nod to the truck. “Get in. We’re going for a
ride.”
Noah climbed into the cab alongside Abe. Lazarus
chose to ride in the bed. Abe drove to the die-casting plant on the north
side of town, the Trevor plant that had employed the Darker family for
four generations. A seventy-year-old retiree standing guard at the chain
link gate let them in without question, without even making eye contact
with the three Darkers.
Abe drove around the back of the metal frame building
and used his key to disarm the alarm and open a door. The three entered
the dark expanse of the shipping department with echoing footsteps. Abe
went to where a conveyor delivered machined and polished compressor
cylinder heads to the packing area. During the week, three packers worked
off to one side, assembling and taping cardboard shipping boxes. Four
Styrofoam spacers were placed in the bottom corners, and in each box, a
cylinder head was slipped down to rest on the spacers. Four more spacers
were placed in the upper corners and the flaps closed and sealed. The box
was then loaded aboard trucks for destinations throughout the northeastern
regions of the country.
Abe held up a foam spacers marked with a blue dot.
What appeared to be inexpensive Styrofoam was actually a strong
polyurethane foam. “We all know what’s inside these. We three and
Bentley and Jenkins and Mr. Severson and our illustrious shipping foreman,
Ziggy.”
“I don’t know what that shit is,” Lazarus muttered
unhappily.
“That’s because we live in God’s country, not in some
dirty city filled with whores and drug addicts. It’s cocaine, and some
heroin from time to time. It’s a powder made from plants like you’d grow
in your back yard, but it does weird things to your head, and you can’t
stop taking it once you start. So we don’t give a damn what it is, except
what it’s worth, sometimes thousands of dollars an ounce. You know what
an ounce is, Lazarus?”
“Not very fucking much,” Lazarus growled.
“An ounce will get us jailed in a federal pen if
anyone finds out we help deal in it. That’s assuming a man named King
doesn’t find out we messed up our end of the operation first, in which
case we’re dead.”
“We know all about that,” Noah protested.
“Let’s just make sure we understand one another.
We’re backwater hicks playing with the big city boys. If things run
smooth, we’ll give the Trevors a run for their money someday. If things
get fouled up, King will take his business elsewhere. If he does, he’ll
cancel you, me, and Lazarus along with our contract. I hear that King is
crazy. He watches too many stupid movies. I hear he’s got false teeth
made of titanium, and that he’s ripped out a man’s throat with them.”
Noah grimaced. Lazarus sneered with disbelief.
“All right, so maybe it’s bullshit, a scare tactic,
or maybe it’s the truth and he’s completely wacko. He runs a big
operation regardless, and he’s given us a choice between more money than
we’ve ever seen before, or a long, slow rot in the grave.”
Noah at least understood Abe’s concern. “Lazarus
knows what’s good for him. He just forgets that things don’t always go
his own way.”
“Lazarus forgets too often,” Abe said, “but I know
damned well you’re none too pleased yourself about letting Evie go with a
Trevor.”
Noah faked a grin. It came out pale and sweaty.
Lazarus wanted Evie for himself, regardless of what the world thought of
his incestuous obsession, but Noah hated the Trevors with a passion for
other reasons. It was a hatred that had been growing since the day he had
found his father dead at the gate to the Trevor mansion.
Zeke had been drunk the night he died. Noah had
followed him to the Trevor castle where his father had gone to beg for his
job back. A blizzard had been blowing hard during that bleak and gray
winter evening. That had been back in the days when Howard Trevor spent
Christmas at the mansion with his wife, Sarah, and their nine-year-old
boy, Billy.
Zeke had staggered into the path of an approaching
limousine. At the age of eleven, Noah had watched his father knocked to
the ground. The front tire of the car had crushed his skull, and the
undercarriage of the vehicle had torn the clothes from the body before the
chauffeur had responded to the shrill cries of the only witness to the
accident.
The experience had broken Noah in some subtle way.
Noah believed that the Trevors deserved to die for what they had done to
his father, any and all of them, including Billy.
“Forget it,” Abe said, sensing Noah’s train of
thought. “What’s done is done. We can’t undo it. All we can do is screw
ourselves over even worse, in which case we’ll die like Pa died, probably
even worse. The Trevors aren’t worth it. Evie’s not worth it.”
Abe took a breath and tried a different approach.
“We can’t hold what happened to Pa against Billy Trevor. He was about
your age when it happened, Noah.”
Abe looked to Lazarus, willing to try one last time
to reason with insanity. “Evie’s your sister, Lazarus. You can’t have
her. Best to remove the temptation and be rid of her entirely. Best for
her and best for us.”
Abe glanced between the two men, anxious for an
accord. “Noah?”
Noah nodded. “Whatever you say, Abe.”
“Lazarus?”
Blood still leaked from Lazarus’ mouth. He wiped it
on his shirt sleeve and turned his head aside.
“Have it your own way, but cross me again and I’ll
have to deal with you. You’ve had all the warning I’m going to give.”
The three returned home in the truck. Abe sent the
two off for a beer at the Silver Ridge Saloon and went alone to Evie’s
bedroom. The door was locked, but the lock had never held against his
anger, regardless of how often he repaired it.
Wood splintered, and the flimsy door fell open. Evie
backed against the far wall, her dark eyes bright with fear. She was a
tiny thing, not like her brothers at all, but she had Darker eyes set in
her delicate, heart-shaped face. She looked like a doe, rather pretty,
but too scared to be fetching, in Abe’s opinion.
“I know that you heard that I struck a deal with
Billy Trevor.”
“I heard,” she said gently, and as defiantly as ever.
“Don’t cross me, woman. You wanted that boy once.
He’s still got money, even if he’s useless in other ways. Take what you
can get and run with it. You ain’t got no future here.”
His voice softened. “You ain’t got nothing but hurt
here, Evie. I’m giving you your freedom. Don’t fear it. And you never
did have to be afraid of me.”
She blinked back tears and just stared at him with
quivering lips.
“Do you have anything to say to me?”
She shook her head nervously.
Abe sighed, saddened. She had a great deal to say to
him, if the truth were known. She was a Darker and his only sister.
Somewhere deep inside them both, they loved one another desperately. Abe
had protected her since childhood, but Ella May was right about the harm
he would do if he took it too far.
“It’s late,” he said. “I’ll run you up to Billy in
the morning. Pack your things, whatever you want to take. I’m damn well
sure he can buy you anything you don’t have.”
Abe turned away, but he looked back just outside her
door. “It is what you want, isn’t it?”
Evie managed a faint smile and nodded frantically.
“It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
