Page 21 of Killer Moonshine

“I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head. “That’s the truth. He said he was gonna try to get the money for Mr. Hugo but wasn’t sure he could. I don’t have a phone, but he said he’d call Miss Irene when he was able. I-I’m real worried about him. Mama left a few years ago, and it’s just been me and Daddy. We were doin’ okay, then Mr. Hugo told him he could make a lot more money if he had the still. It was a lie. We’re still barely makin’ enough to keep the bar open, and lots of people get sick by the stuff.”

“Lydia? I need for you and Yar to stay here on the property for a few days until we get this settled,” said Gaspar.

“Can you at least say please?” she smirked.

“I’m not in the habit of it, but for you, yes. Please. Stay on the property.” She shrugged, laughing.

“I can see where he gets it,” she said, pointing to Trak. “I’ll stay, but I want my land. I’ll do whatever you ask if you can help me with that.”

“I’ve got a solution to that,” said Katrina, walking into the room. “My name is Katrina Redhawk, and I’m one of the attorneys here on the property.”

“Why do you need attorneys on your property?” she asked. “You know what? Never mind.”

“Good thinking,” smirked Katrina. “This document will actually sign over your land to Robicheaux Oil and Gas.”

“Wait!”

“Hold on. Let me finish. Mr. Matthew owns Robicheaux Oil and Gas. He’s willing to drill for the natural gas, then connect it to his pipeline, taking only five percent of your haul. You will run all decisions on the line, if…”

“If. There’s always an if,” she said sadly.

“If you go to college and get your degree, which Mr. Matthew will pay for.” Katrina smiled at the young woman as she stared at the room of people.

“Wh-why? Why would he do this? I’m no one.”

“You’re someone very special,” said Matthew, walking into the already overcrowded room. “I’d like you to get that degree in engineering, if possible, and then come to work for me. If you don’t want an engineering degree, do what you want, but I could use a young woman with your spunk. I don’t have nearly enough of those around here.” The room chuckled, and she stared at them.

“How many do you have?”

“Oh, two or three hundred. But I could use a few hundred more,” he smiled. “What do you say, Lydia?”

“What about my stepfather and the document that Hugo had drawn up?”

“You let me take care of that. We’re going to make sure that everything is legal. I found the original documents filed with the parish stating that the land belonged to you and was leased for use as a bar to the elderly woman you spoke of. There was never any exchange of land to your stepfather, and he has acted on your behalf without legal counsel or consent from you. That won’t bode well for him,” smiled Katrina.

“Sign this, and we’ll file it with the state then I’m going to send some friends out to your land to wait on Mr. Hugo.” Lydia smirked at the older woman, nodding.

“Will you take pictures?”

“Definitely.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The new still was up and running, and they’d found someone to operate the bar until they could find Lydia. The someone, or someones, were the bodyguards that had nothing else to do. Hugo was obsessed with many things, money being number one, fame being number two. But right up there with those two things was always having protection around him.

Hugo was pissed beyond belief that she was missing, but at least they were out of the office and enjoying the warm weather. Of course, there were also bugs, snakes, gators, and the small group of people who didn’t appear to have a full head of teeth between them.

“Did they find her stepfather?” asked Johnny.

“Yep. Dead. He was drinking three jars of this shit a day,” said Manuel, pushing the moonshine jar toward the man at the end of the bar. “We need to find the damn girl, though. She’s the one that has to sign everything over so he can have the land, and if he doesn’t get that land, he’s going to be impossible.”

“Y’all lookin’ for Lydia?” asked the man at the table. His ball cap was pulled low over his eyes, and he was slumped in the makeshift chair.

“Yeah. You know where she is? Bitch hasn’t been working lately, and the boss is upset,” said Johnny.

“That still blew and hurt her real bad. Some boys carried her outta here to a doctor,” said the man.

“Is that right? What boys? What doctor? She wasn’t supposed to go anywhere without our knowing about it. So, what doctor did she go see?”

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