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I took another sip of my water. “Thanks again. I’ll see you in the morning.Withthe nine bucks I owe you.” I began to rise.
“Sit down,” he said quietly.
I turned to look at him. “What, you suddenly have a change of heart about everything?”
“Charlotte,” he said in a tense voice, “sit down and be very quiet.”
That’s when I saw that a row of Harleys were parked outside the diner. I quickly sat back down, and seconds later came thedingof the door opening, and the unmistakable sound of boots walking inside.
I cradled my water in both hands and looked straight ahead.
“Look who it is!” one of the Copperheads announced loudly. “It’s our buddy Jayce.”
“Hey Jayce!” one of the others said in the same mocking tone. “You gone for a ride yet?”
“Too wet,” Jayce said flatly. “I drove the truck.”
The first Copperhead scoffed. “A little rain never scared away arealbiker.”
“Maybe I’ll ride tonight,” Jayce said. He sounded like a bored father half-listening to an annoying child. “We’ll see what I feel like.”
“Hope you have ablast!” said the Copperhead. He and his buddies roared with laughter as they continued walking down the narrow diner, past me and to a booth in the far corner. None of them so much as glanced in my direction.
I started to casually get up to leave, but then noticed one of the Copperheads had remained behind. A big guy with tattoos all over his neck and left cheek. He stood next to our two booths, eyes locked onto Jayce. I sat back down and pretended to look at my phone.
“What do you want, Brick?” Jayce said in a voice so low that the other Copperheads couldn’t hear.
“That call you made last night?” Brick whispered back. “Askin’ if anyone knows what Carl was up to? Don’t pull that shit on me again.”
“I don’t plan to.”
Brick leaned closer. “Because I haven’t said nothin’, but if Sid asks? I ain’t gonna lie.”
“Wouldn’t expect you to.”
Brick sighed, lingered a moment longer, and then joined his Copperhead buddies in the booth.
“Wait a minute or two before leaving,” Jayce whispered. “If they think you’re leaving because you’re scared of them, it’ll just egg them on even more.”
I tinkered with my phone to buy time. Remembering the rejected credit card, I pulled up my banking app and looked at the recent transactions. Maybe it had flagged my purchases in this town as suspicious.
But as I opened up the recent transactions, I saw that the truth was much, much worse.
“Son of a bitch!”
36
Charlotte
I cursed so loudly that the Copperheads glanced over at me. But I was too angry to even think about their reaction. Because on my app was a very large purchase made by a name I recognized.
“Damn, Peaches,” Jayce whispered in the booth behind me. “Whatever’s got you riled up must berealbad if you’re cursing.”
“I’ll talk to you later.”
“Want me to drive you home?” he asked as I passed the booth.
I shook my head, and not just because it was a dumb thing to suggest with the Copperheads watching. “I need to walk this off.”
