Page 13 of Quentin
“Yeah. Within a week of his release, he was at the bar…but I’m not telling you about that night. I’ve relived it enough already, and I’m not going back to do it again.” Maybe it was cowardly, but she was okay with that. If she told him the whole truth, he’d look at her differently. And she didn’t want his pity. Never that.
Changing the tone of the conversation, she said, “It seriously pisses me off that he got more time for cooking meth than he did for trying to murder me.”
“It more than pisses me off,” he said. “I promise you, Lowey, one way or another, he’s not getting near you again.”
“Don’t make promises, Quentin. We both know that’s not your thing.”
“I don’t make many promises, Lowey, but when I make them, I keep them. He’s never getting near you again. Count on it.”
She sighed then. “He’s been in contact—even from jail. Usually through his brothers and his cousins. For the past year, ever since he went back to jail. They blame me…all of them blame me.”
“It stops today.”
There was no point in telling him that she had her doubts. She’d accepted last year that when she died, it would be at Joey Barnes’s hands. But that didn’t mean she’d go down without a fight. Never again.
Joseph Allen Barnes sipped his beer and watched the rather long-in-the-tooth stripper sashay across the small stage and wrap her body around the pole. She might have been old, but she could sure as hell move, he thought with a grin.
Reaching into his pocket for a few singles, he waved them toward the stripper. He wondered what he could get her to do for the hundred-dollar bill he had tucked into his wallet.
After he’d tucked the bills into her G-string, she offered him a wave and a smile before sauntering back to the pole. His appreciation of the view she offered was interrupted by someone smacking the back of his head, hard.
“What the fuck did you do?”
Joey looked back to see his cousin standing behind him. Tommy looked pissed.
“What the hell did you do that for? I ain’t done nothing.”
Tommy sat down and took the beer Joey had been working on, draining the bottle. “Your mama called and says some dude came to the trailer looking for you. Claims to be a Darcy and says Lowey’s hooked up with another one of ’em.”
Joey’s fists clenched at his sides.Fucking whore. “She’s my ex. None of my damn business who she hooks up with, now is it?”
Tommy laughed. “Try that with somebody else, ass wipe. I know what you did to her bar, and I know you used my damn gun to do it. I found the empty box of shells!”
Joey shrugged it off. Silas was taking care of it. “They can’t prove it.”
“It’s the goddamn Darcys. They don’thaveto prove it! Do I need to remind you about the kind of people you got us tangled up with? These Russians are bad dudes, Joey. Takingover distribution for them was your idea…you and your damndeadcell mate. I shoulda known better than to listen to a fuck-up like you!”
Joey shoved him then, sending the chair tipping backward and Tommy sprawling on the floor. “Are you making money? Yeah, well then shut up! I hooked you into this deal…but I owe that bitch, and she fucking well owes me! She’s gonna pay. Whatever it takes!”
Tommy had just made it to his feet when the bouncers wandered over, looming nearby. They weren’t too interested in guys beating the hell out of each other. That was less of a problem than when patrons went after the girls. Dusting himself off, Tommy shook his head. “You’re gonna get us both killed. We’ve got bigger shit to worry about than who your ex-wife is fucking!”
“She sent me to prison!” Joey shouted. “You think I care whose dick she’s ridin’?”
Tommy shook his head. “Stay focused, Joey. Stay focused, or we’re both gonna wind up with a bullet in our heads!”
“I’m not fucking this up, Tommy! We’re gonna get the drugs, we’re gonna get ’em to the distributors, and when it’s done, that bitch will pay.”
Tommy sat back and scrubbed his hands over his face. “This ain’t gonna end well.”
Nine
Back at the carriage house, Quentin held the door for Lowey. They hadn’t said much of anything after her confession. He was still trying to process it himself. The harsh realities she’d laid out for him were beyond what he’d imagined. Yes, he’d known Joey Barnes was an abusive dick. But knowing her, how strong she was and how little shit she took from anyone, he’d just never stopped to consider that it might have been more than an isolated incident.
“Stop it,” she hissed.
“Stop what?”
“Stop looking at me like I’m some fragile little thing on the verge of breaking! I’m not. He did what he did, and I got through it. Ilived. End of story, Quentin.”
