Page 9 of Small Town Beast 2: Saverin's Duet

Maybe it wasn't just a kiss. Maybe she’d fucked Mike too. More than once? Possible. Maybe even right before she came up here…

“Abi,” she gasped, cupping his cheek. “How can you blame me when you did the same?”

He shoved her down to the bed with such violent force she screamed— and then the door to the room exploded.

Absalom pulled his Beretta and fired.

There was screaming downstairs; he heard none of it, partially deafened by the roar of the handgun. Wait, no. That was Lorrie, screaming.

“HOLD YOUR FIRE!” someone roared.

A man wedged himself through the splintered frame and seemed to split into four; four blots of darkness that slid to the corners of the room. The smell followed them: beer and cigarettes, sweat caked into the fibres of Carhartt flannels, dirty hair and old boots.

“Easy,” smiled Hiram Snatch Hill, aiming his KelTec at the couple in the bed. “Just take it nice and easy.”

Absalom’s finger twitched on the trigger. His other hand reached behind him and squeezed Lorrie’s thigh, warning her to stay still and quiet.

“I thought you were out getting my guns,” Absalom said to his brother-in-law and co-conspirator.

“I got your guns,” Hiram said. “But I just thought I’d come to the Greasy Hog to talk some strategy. And I come to hear you’re upstairs with a girl that ain’t my sister.”

“So now what?” Absalom asked, his voice level as his heart hammered violently. “You kill me, you don’t have a rebellion. No clan on this mountain will follow a Snatch Hill. Roman will take your head.”

“Maybe. Or maybe not.” Hiram spat tobacco juice on the floor. “You think you can dishonor my sister with some colored whore? You’re outnumbered, Absalom. Stand down or we all shoot.”

“Abi, please,” Lorraine whispered desperately.

“If I go down somebody’s goin’ with me,” Absalom said, ignoring her. He’d stared down the wrong end of a gun many times. It wasn’t something a body ever got used to. And now, with Lorrie here…

Hiram raved, “You cockroach sonofabitch. Tomorrow we kick off your war, but here you are breakin’ charity with the Snatch Hill clan.”

Slowly Absalom got to his feet.Step lightly, boy.Hiram was an ape, but to a Southern man, family honor was a killing matter if it came down to it. He’d been caught red-handed and there was no way around it but to talk.

He said, “Call off your war dogs. This is what Roman wants; us fighting each other instead of him.”

“Roman ain’t got nothing to do with you dishonoring my sister!”

“Let’s talk, then,” Absalom said quickly. “Outside.”

Hiram refused. “We can talk right here and now, Green Tree. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t shoot the both of you stone dead.”

“Wait!” Lorrie said suddenly, jumping out of the bed. “Excuse me. You got it all wrong, mister. You got it all backward. Absalom came to me tonight tohelpyour sister, and that’s the truth.”

The room went dead silent.What the fuck, Lorraine?Absalom tried to grab her but she danced out of reach. “It ain’t his fault,” Lorrie told the astonished men. “He was doing your sister a kindness.”

“Don’t pay her mind; the girl is addled,” Absalom snapped.

“She don’t look addled to me,” said one of the men. “An’ she’s a damned mighty prettier than your sister, Hiram, no offense.”

Now all their attention was on Lorrie. What possessed the fool girl to open her mouth?

“What was that about kindness?” Hiram asked her dangerously. “You think it’s kindness he’s stuck up your cunt makin’ a fool out of my sister?”

“Leave her out of it,” Absalom said.

“TALK!” Hiram bellowed, jabbing the gun at Lorrie.

“Your sister…ah…she’s pregnant,” Lorrie fabulated. “She’s pregnant and she can’t have sex no more. So Absalom came to see me to work off some tension before tomorrow. Right?” Lorrie prompted. “Tell him I’m right!”

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