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The patio door opened, and Roslyn stepped inside, holding a glass of iced tea. She must have poured it from the pitcher that had been left on the table outside. She handed the drink to cooper, and he slugged it down in one long swallow. He set the glass on an end table next to his elbow and leaned back against the couch once more.
"Now what?" Phillip asked, standing in front of the TV.
"Now I go get Sophia back. "
He nodded. "Bria said Harley Grimes and Jo-Jo know each other?"
"Yeah," I said. "He, Sophia, and Jo-Jo have a history together. If you could call it that. "
"What sort of history?" cooper asked.
"Grimes kidnapped Sophia years ago. He beat her, tortured her with his Fire magic - including ruining her voice - and then did a whole lot of other unspeakable things to her before Jo-Jo hired Fletcher to rescue Sophia.
And when Fletcher did, he made sure that Grimes knew that if he ever bothered Sophia and Jo-Jo again, he would wish he hadn't. "
"But Fletcher's dead," Bria pointed out.
"I know. Grimes must have found out about his death and figured that the coast was clear. That's why he came to the salon today, and that's why he took Sophia again. "
No one spoke for a moment.
"I've heard of Grimes," Phillip said. "Lives up on some mountain above Ashland, along with a bunch of his men. "
Phillip kincaid was more than just a pretty face. He was also the owner of the Delta Queen riverboat casino and one of the major underworld bosses in town. So Phillip knew practically everyone who was involved in anything illegal in Ashland.
I fixed my gaze on him. "Tell me everything you know about Grimes. "
He shrugged. "Not much. Just that he lives out in the woods in some sort of camp up on Bone Mountain.
Grimes and his men sell guns in and around the city, hire themselves out as muscle, things like that. Someone also told me that they even make their own moonshine, get all liquored up on it, come roaring into Ashland every once in a while, and tear shit up, despite some halfhearted attempts by the police to stop them. Only Grimes doesn't run from the law so much as put bullets in anyone who gets too close to his camp and his operations. "
Now that Phillip mentioned them, I realized that
I'd heard some of the same stories about a moonshine swilling, gun-running gang holed up on top of one of the mountains. I just hadn't realized that it was Grimes and his crew. The guns must have been the mysterious business that he'd been talking about earlier. The one that had been booming ever since I'd killed Mab. Yeah, I could imagine that a lot of underworld folks had bought a lot of guns in their efforts to kill one another these past few months.
Good to know, but I needed more information if I had any chance of rescuing Sophia, like exactly where this camp was. I had a feeling that I'd find all that info and more at Fletcher's house. The old man had kept files on everyone who was up to no good in Ashland, and Harley Grimes would have been sure to be at the top of Fletcher's watch list, given what he'd done to the Deveraux sisters all those years ago.
"Thanks for the info, Phillip. I appreciate it, but I'll take it from here. "
I started toward the patio door, but Bria moved to block my path.
"What are you going to do now?" she asked.
I shrugged. "What I do best. kill Grimes, Hazel, and everyone else who gets between me and Sophia. "
Bria lifted her chin. "Fine. But I'm coming with you. "
"No, you're not. "
She slapped her hands on her hips in defiance. "Yes, I am - " Bria suddenly winced and dropped her hands to her stomach, as though she'd pulled a muscle.
My eyes narrowed. "What's wrong with you? Are you hurt?"
She grimaced, but she didn't answer me.
"Bria . . . "
She sighed and pulled up her T-shirt. A large, nasty, fist-shaped bruise blackened her side to the left of her belly button. "While you were chasing after Sophia, one of the guys in the salon hit me a few times before I put a couple of bullets in his chest. It's no big deal. "
