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I remember Sawyer mentioning the name. “It’s the church she grew up in, right?” I asked, glancing up at Critter who downed another shot and walked into the bar area. I followed and slapped the flyer down on the bar.
“What does all this mean?” I asked, growing frustrated.
“It means that I need to tell you a story about a man by the name of Richard Dixon. The lowest cocksucker that ever crawled across this dirt ball we call earth. That rat bastard is one of the heads of that church.”
“But it’s just a coincidence, right? Sawyer told me that her dad doesn’t know where she is and that he can’t find her because he never knew about the land,” I said, knowing right as the words left my mouth that I was wrong.
Critter raised his bushy brows at me.
“That’s not true though, is it?”
Critter shook his head. “Sawyer thinks it is. And for right now it’s better that way. That girl has already been through too much. She don’t need to worry…unless the time comes when she needs to worry.”
I started to panic. Sawyer was with Josh at her place but I needed to know what we were up against. “Critter, you have to give me something here,” I was practically begging. “I have to protect her. Tell me what you know. I can’t fight for her if I don’t know who or what I’m fighting.”
Critter sighed. “I got that today. I was coming to talk to you tonight,” he said, and by Critter’s standards, it was about as close to an apology as anyone ever got.
“Richard Dixon knows exactly where Sawyer is. He’s probably known where she was before she even got here,” Critter explained.
“How?” I asked, still not a hundred percent understanding.
“Because it’s the only way he’s like me. Knows the comings and goings of everyone around him.” Critter looked around like he was searching for something. “Just know, that for right now, I’ve got eyes on that bastard, and when he comes,” Critter reached under the counter and produced his shotgun. He pumped it and the click echoed throughout the empty bar. “We’ll be ready for him.” He leaned forward on the bar. “Are you in or you out?”
“I’m in,” I said, without hesitation. “Of course, I’m in.”
Critter clapped me on the back. “That’s what I was hoping you’d say. Then it’s about time I tell you a little story about a man named Richard Dixon. The motherfucker who calls himself Sawyer’s father.”
“Why do you keep calling him Richard Dixon?” I asked, realizing that Critter kept going out of his way to say his name instead of calling him Sawyer’s dad.
Critter set the gun down on the counter. “Because, he’s not Sawyer’s dad,” he grated.
He opened his wallet and handed me a picture of a woman who looked just like Sawyer except with blonde hair. She was smiling at the camera and had her arms around her good-sized baby bump. He then slapped down the document I’d given him. The marriage license listing Caroline Dixon as the bride and Critter Templeton as the groom.
He looked me in the eye. “Because I am.”
Chapter Forty
Finn
“This will be the last time I come here,” I said. For the first time, I was on top of the slide without a bottle or joint. Just me, a cigarette, and the feeling of peace.
“I wanted to tell you how sorry I am. For blaming you, for not moving forward with my life when I realize now that I was the only one in my own way.” I took a deep breath, breathing in the smell of the salty swamp. “I know that now. I know a lot of things now. I did love you. Not in the way you deserved to be loved, but I did love you. I always will. I hope you’re at peace now because I think…I think I’m finally getting there.”
I bent down to the cardboard box and pulled out the wind chimes Jackie had made for me. I tied them to the top of the slide where they immediately began to clink together wildly in the breeze, singing their delicate song without a beat.
Exactly how I loved Jackie. Wildly. Beyond reason.
“Goodbye, Jackie,” I whispered, tossing my cigarette into the pool below.
I stood, feeling the weight of the past two years rise off of me. I felt lighter knowing I was going back to a life I loved again.
A life with Sawyer.
And it was because of Sawyer I knew now that it was okay to remember Jackie. Okay to think of her. Okay to even still love her.
More importantly, it was okay to be completely in love with Sawyer.
Because I was.
I was about to head down the steps when I spotted a line of bright yellow trucks and cars driving down the highway. That wasn’t what grabbed my attention though. That wasn’t what had me flying down the steps in a rush to get to Sawyer.
It was the blue logo each of the vehicles had painted on the doors.
A sun rising over mountains.
He’s here.
Chapter Forty-One
Sawyer
I was on edge.
Something was off. And it wasn’t just that I wasn’t feeling great. I’d been feeling dizzy on and off all day, but it wasn’t that. It was Finn. He’d been acting different lately and when I asked him about it he told me not to read too much into his broodiness. He’d laughed, but it hadn’t reached his eyes.
I knew he was hiding something.
That and he went to run an errand early this morning and I hadn’t heard from him yet and it was approaching midnight.
My mood must have been written all over my face because as I was sweeping up, Critter reached under the bar and pulled out a shotgun. He cocked it and the sound echoed off the walls of the bar. “Where is that son of a bitch?” he asked, heading to the door. “I warned him…”
“Critter!” I called out. “Stop. Wait!”
“Did he hurt you?” Critter asked, turning back around and looking me up and down with murder in his dark eyes. “I warned that son of a bitch.”
“Not in the kind of way that needs resolving with a shotgun,” I explained, pushing the barrel of his gun down.
He raised a bushy brow. “Is there a kind of way that don’t?”
“Yeah, and I think this is one of them.” I crossed the room and continued sweeping while Critter walked back behind the bar.
The shotgun stayed on the counter.
“You ain’t gonna cry are you?” Critter asked, watching me from the bar.
“I don’t cry,” I replied, straightening my shoulders. “Not for a long time, anyway.”
