Page 52 of Thug

Rooster’s hands shot sky high.

“You too, Ding-Dong, or whatever the fuck your name is,” I said to the shadow in the adjoining room. “I’ll shoot your dumb ass through the wall if you aren’t out here in three seconds.” I released the pistol’s safety for effect. “One…Two...”

The frail drug addict they’d dubbed Ding-Dong leaped into the room. “I’m right here, Price. Don’t shoot, don’t shoot.”

I grinded the barrel of my pistol against the side of Tiny’s fat head. I wanted answers, and I’d stop at absolutely nothing to get them.

“Where’s Gray?” I growled.

“Who?”

“Gray, you fat fuck!” I moved the barrel of the pistol to the center of his forehead. “The girl who runs Maggie’s place. Where is she?”

“How the fuck…how would I know?” he blubbered.

I shoved the pistol into the waist of my jeans. At the same instant that Tiny exhaled a sigh of relief, I thrust the web of my hand against his neck, just below the base of his Adam’s apple.

“Look me in the eyes and tell me you have no idea where she is,” I demanded.

Bug-eyed and breathless, he stared back at me, hoping he’d live to see another day. I could tell from the look in his men’s eyes that they had no idea where she was. Frustrated at my lack of options, I choked Tiny until he slipped from consciousness. When his body went limp, I released my grip.

All four hundred pounds of him collapsed in a pile at my feet. While he gasped to breathe, my eyes shot to Rooster. “Where’s the other three of your miscreant bunch?”

“They’re in…they went to Mexico,” he stammered.

“When?”

“Been there since…” He paused and counted the days on his filthy fingers. “Since Monday.”

I pulled my pistol and pointed it at Ding-Dong. “If I find out anything happened to that girl and it was of this club’s making, I’ll come back here, gather your dumb asses up, and spend the rest of my life torturing each and every one of you.”

I looked at Rooster. “Understood?”

“Don’t know what’s going on, Price, but it’s got nothing to do with us.”

“Gray’s good people,” Ding-Dong muttered. “We’d never—”

My eyes shot to Ding-Dong. “Don’t let her name pass your lips again,” I snarled. “Ever. I shoot your skinny ass for just saying her name.”

“Don’t want no trouble with the ‘Eights,” Ding-Dong said in an uneven voice.

“No,” I said. “You sure as fuck don’t.”

“If you hear anything,” I said on my way to the door. “Anything at all, get word to me through Brisco.”

I stormed through the splintered door and stepped beside a dying agave. I gazed at the toes of my boots and the dirt that surrounded them, searching for answers to a problem that wasn’t clearly defined. Each breath I took became more difficult. A feeling of helplessness slowly suffocated me. I had the same sinking feeling of powerlessness once in the past.

Thirty-two years had passed since then, but I remembered it like it was yesterday.

15

Gray

I knew very little about what my future held, but one thing was certain. I should have never asked about Randall Holderman’s whereabouts.

Despite the faint breeze blowing through the room I was in, I sat in a pool of sweat. I had nothing to do but think about what might have got me in the situation I was in. Exhausted, scared, and confused, I’d slept on and off for a few minutes at a time, fearful of what was going to happen next.

Although I hadn’t seen Brisco, I knew he was somehow involved. He was the only one I’d spoken to about Randall. For the two men who abducted me to have any knowledge of that private conversation meant that Brisco had to tell them.