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“The Night doesn’t scare me any more than your pappy did,” Ludwig said, looking at Forrest. “He talked big, but when it came down to it, Reynolds didn’t have enough guts to smear a windshield.”
“You killed him?” Twyla asked.
Ludwig laughed. “I wish, doll, but I couldn’t. Not before knowing if he was lying to me. Turns out he wasn’t just singing.” Gesturing toward the grassy field road, he demanded, “Start walking.”
“To where?” Forrest asked.
“You’ll see soon enough,” Ludwig said.
Keeping one arm around Twyla and her tucked closely to his side, Forrest started walking. He knew this area down to the last stick, having seen it from the air, and that was more disconcerting than comforting. The few clumps of trees offered little protection and the wide open pastures were too big to run across.
Ludwig, swollen with pride at having the upper hand, started yakking. “Your pappy and I shared a jail cell for a time. When he first started yapping, I didn’t pay him much mind, but then he told me about this one-time banker who stockpiled up a bunch of paper and ink the government issued for printing the bank’s money and had a copy of the printing plates made for his private use.” He laughed loudly. “That there was information I could use.”
Forrest wished the man would shut up, but at the same time he wanted to know more. Alone he would have had more options. With Twyla by his side, he had to stay in a position to keep her safe.
“While the banker printed money, your pappy sent it overseas, buying girls and claiming he’d make them film stars. It was a good game. American money is good worldwide. Even old money.”
“What happened?” Twyla asked.
Forrest cringed at the same time he felt pride swelling. She wasn’t whimpering or begging to be released as some girls might. Not Twyla. Head up, she was marching forward and, just like him, scanning the area for a possible escape route.
Ludwig laughed again. “Your pappy happened, doll. The Night set the hounds on Reynolds. The banker got scared and Reynolds got greedy. He didn’t tell me that. I figured it out, and no old bootlegger scares me.”
Twyla stiffened, and Forrest whispered, “Just keep walking. He’s trying to get to you.”
“I know,” she said quietly. “And you.”
Forrest squeezed her shoulder. “Just don’t let it show.”
She nodded slightly.
“I’m smarter than both of your pappies,” Ludwig continued. “I had Reynolds’s arrest record checked out. No one ever learned of the money-making. He was arrested for human trafficking and money laundering. He was exchanging too much Mexican money into American bills for all those little girls he liked to buy and sell. He’d sold a boatload of whores and shouldn’t have tried to exchange the currency so fast.”
Ludwig’s laugh fit his name—it was as nasty as anything could sound. “I told your old pappy I had a mouthpiece who could get his charges dropped, the same one who got me out.” After another laugh, he said, “I didn’t kill those men I was accused of killing. They just got tangled up in more chain than they could swim with.”
Ludwig was just the kind Galen would take up with and promise a piece of the action to. Forrest bit his lip as he glanced around. The field road curved around a line of trees and he saw two cars parked on the road and backed up to head straight for the highway. Older models with no back doors.
Twyla hissed and leaned a bit closer. “I thought I recognized the man beside Nasty Nick,” she said. “That blue one is his car. He tried selling Norma Rose a vacuum cleaner yesterday.”
Forrest internally kicked himself. He’d sent Bronco and Tuck out searching when the thugs had been right under their noses. “Was he alone?”
She nodded slightly. “He stayed overnight in one of the cabins.”
“A traveling salesman who could afford to stay at the resort?”
“That’s why I remember him.”
Pain shot up Forrest’s spine as the barrel of a gun rammed into his back.
“You two don’t listen very well,” Ludwig barked. “I told you to shut up. I was telling you about your pappy.”
Twyla attempted to spin around, but Forrest stopped her. He, too, wanted to turn around and grab Nasty Nick by his shirt as he’d done at the Plantation a couple of days ago, but he willed his patience to remain intact.
Side by side, they continued forward as he attempted to form a plan. All of his combat training had taught him that when outnumbered, do as you were told. Which was useless. Soldiers normally didn’t have a woman at their side.
