Page 93 of Ace of Spades
“That’s why I saved it. To give to one of you boys when ya decided to come callin’,” Harmon said.
“Thank you.” He pulled out his wallet, flipping it open to the bills in it. It was obvious the man had nothing to his name, and Nate meant to thank him as best he knew how.
“Don’t want yer money,” Harmon said, scowling at Nate. “Just go find yer mama and sister.” He walked into his house, closing the door behind him.
Harmon Baker had helped their mother escape the cruelest man Nate knew, and had apparently done it out of the kindness of his heart. That he didn’t have a pot to piss in was obvious. Nate jogged down the wobbly stairs, picked up a decent-sized rock, and then returned to the porch. He emptied his wallet of the four hundred dollars he had in it, put the bills on the floor in front of the door, then set the rock on top of them.
He returned to his car, and after sitting for a few minutes, considering his next move, he called Court.
“I’ll be at your place for a late lunch. Get subs or something. Tell Alex I want him there when I get back. In the meantime, see what youcan find on a Wanda Gentry in Gainesville.” He hung up before his brother could ask any questions.
“We have a sister,” Alex said for the third time, staring at the yellowed photo of the baby girl. He set it on the table between him and Court. “We have to find her and our mother.”
Court looked up from his monitor. “Nothing’s coming up on her from the day she left us.”
“Then she either stayed off the grid, or she somehow got a new identity.” Nate pushed his half-finished sub aside. “Our mother wasn’t an educated woman, nor did she have any friends to turn to. She likely changed her name but didn’t know how to go about getting a fake I.D.”
“You think she found jobs where they paid her under the table?” Alex said.
“Yeah. Motel maid, maybe a waitress at the kind of place that didn’t ask questions, housekeeper for a private individual, something like that.”
Court frowned. “If she didn’t have I.D., then she couldn’t apply for any kind of welfare, and with a baby, it would be hard to hold down a job.”
For so long, thinking that she’d abandoned them for a man, Nate hadn’t cared about what might have happened to his mother. Now the idea of her starving and trying to care for a child sat heavy in his chest.
“Keep looking,” he said, standing. “You two need to head over to Aces and Eights soon.”
“You’re not coming?” Alex said.
“Nope. I’ve ...” He paused, not used to baring his soul, but it was time to let his brothers into his life. “I’ve got a woman to win, if it’s not too late.”
Alex sprang up, wrapped his arms around him, and hugged him hard. “Finally.”
“I’m going to shoot you if you don’t let go of me, bro.” Nate rolled his eyes over Alex’s shoulder at Court’s smirk. “I mean it, Alex. Let go.” Opening up to his brothers was one thing, but this touchy-feely crap wasn’t going to cut it.
“Love you, man,” Alex said.
He patted his baby brother’s back. “Ditto. Now get the hell off me.”
Court laughed. “Ah, you’re gonna hurt his feelings.”
“I’m going to hurt a lot more than that the next time he goes all girly on me.”
Alex stepped back. And eff him. He knew that look in Alex’s eyes.
“Girly, huh?” Alex said, staring down at Nate after putting him on his back. “Want to call me that again?”
“Probably not.” And because his baby brother was his favorite idiot, Nate found himself laughing. He held out his hand. “Help me up.” As soon as Alex’s hand was in reach, Nate grabbed him by the wrist and scissored his legs around Alex’s with the intention of bringing Alex down to the floor with him.
“Knew you were going to do that,” Alex said, somehow twisting his body away.
“I’m getting too old for this.” Nate laughed again as he struggled up. Someday soon, he was going to have to accept that he’d never best Alex. The boy was that good. “Go on. Get out of here. Both of you.”
After they left, he showered, shaved, and then spent a stupid twenty minutes trying to decide what to wear to romance a woman.
Taylor dropped flakes of food into Henry Too’s tank. She’d spent a wonderful day with her girls, but the fun had been dulled because a certain frustrating man stayed on her mind. All day, she’d gone backand forth, one minute deciding she’d agree to see him when he called, and the next changing her mind.
“Life is so easy for you, Henry Too. All you have to do is swim around and wait for food to fall out of the sky.” He darted from flake to flake, gulping them up.
