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There weren’t any.
What the hell? I thought, and then across the room, Mac stood up and waved me over, and I realized that Jill’s bar was full, people from town and workers from the development and some strangers I’d never seen before gaping at me and Vince and Cash, so probably some Thacker fans. Plus, Burney had made the news for busting a drug-running biker gang. Burney, the Reality Show. The realSurvivor. Come for the drama, stay for the beer and tenderloins.
And now every booth and table was filled.
I looked back at Jill. “You are popular.”
She grinned then. “Yeah. How about that?”
I looked back at where Vince and Cash were still squared off, the center of all the attention now, and then Mac was beside me.
“Go sit with Olivia,” he suggested quietly, and then Mac, Cash’s best friend from birth, went to stand beside Vince.
I went over and sat down across from Olivia.
“This damn thing is huge,” she said, gesturing to her tenderloin. “You want half?”
“Yes,” I said, and kept my eye on the bar while she sawed her sandwich in half.
CHAPTER 52
Cash was coked up. But as best as I could tell, he wasn’t packing.
Cash looked from me, to Mac, then back to me. “Get out of my face, Cooper.”
“I’m not in your face,” I said. “But it might be best if you leave.”
“I have every right to be here,” Cash said. “More than you. This is my town. Not yours.” He shifted to Mac. “What’s your problem?”
Mac shook his head sadly and when I said, “I got this,” he walked back to join Olivia and Liz.
“You’re high,” I said in a low voice that only Cash could hear. But everyone was watching. “Go home and sleep it off. Your drug dealers are in jail, so you better get your act together. And your business. No more money laundering.”
Surprisingly, Cash laughed. “Hey, buddy. You did me a favor getting rid of OneTree and his goons.” He smiled and leaned close. “I don’t have to pay them back now, do I? You just made me a boatload of money and got rid of a pain in the ass. Hell, they wanted me to pay them to keep them from fucking things up at River Vista.” He raised his voice so others could hear. “Let me buy you a drink, Detective Cooper, for a job well done.” He looked around at the people staring at us. “We all owe Detective Cooper a debt of gratitude for ridding the town of the Iron Wolves. What a brave man!” He turned to me. “What were there? A dozen sheriff’s deputies backing you up?”
No one applauded.
Cash scanned the room as if marking each person on some list inside his head. He paused as his eyes raked over Liz sitting with Olivia and Mac. Liz was the only person eating, focused on the tenderloin in front of her. Cash’s face twitched.
He turned back to me and leaned close. “You’re done, Cooper. Liz is mad now, but she’ll get over it. She always gets over it. Her temper burns hot and fast and then she’s done and she comes back to me. She’s mine. This town is mine. You fucked with the wrong person. I own this town.”
And then he made his grand departure by pulling a wad of bills out of his pocket, peeling off several hundreds, tossing them on the bar “Drinks on me,” and sauntering out the door.
I knew men could be assholes about the women they wanted. I knew stalkers were blind in their certainty they could get their victims back. But I’d never seen anyone as delusional as Cash Porter. He’d had a lifetime of things going his way, people falling all over themselves to save him, and now in his coked-up haze, he couldn’t see that things had changed. He really believed he was going to come out of this with Liz and the factory and the town behind him. And I’d be gone.
I went to the table and Liz scooted her chair over so I could pull a new one in.
“I don’t understand,” she said, putting my coke in front of me. “I can’t make it any plainer.”
“I know. That was bravado. But he still thinks you’re coming back. It’s part ego and part coke.”
She shook her head. “I was as mean as I could be.”
I smiled at her. “I’ll be meaner.”
“Try not to shoot him,” she said. “It would upset Kitty.”
“Of course,” I said, and thought about shooting Cash while I drank my Coke.
