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“Some bar about an hour south of here. You sure this is a good idea?”

“Michel said his information’s still good,” I said, “so it’s the best lead we have.” If our old arms dealer used Link as an information source, I could trust it would be accurate. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be a waste of our money.

Hawk drove. The roads were quiet, and it was nearly midnight by the time we arrived at the old roadside bar the coordinates Link had sent. Calling it a bar was a bit of an exaggeration. It looked more like a shack tucked into the woods with no identifying sign on it, just a hand-painted sign that said BAR. A few trucks and motorcycles were parked in the gravel lot, and dim yellow light shone in the dirty windows.

“Well,” Hawk said, “definitely looks like a good place to do an information deal.”

He was right about that. We stepped through the doors, and no one even looked up. A few patrons were slumped over the bar, and a couple of old guys crowded around a dartboard at the back. I took a seat at a booth against the far wall. Hawk stepped away to the bar and returned with two pints of beer. These regular drinks wouldn’t give us a buzz—not that I wanted one for this meeting.

I was halfway through my beer when the door swung open again. A skinny man in a dark beanie skittered inside and joined us at the booth. He was wearing dark sunglasses that he didn’t remove, and his jacket was zipped all the way up to his chin. If he was tryingnotto look suspicious, he was failing.

“Link,” I said. “Good to see you’re doing well.”

“Jesus Christ. Don’t say my name. It’s like you’ve never done this before.”

Link was a good source, but he’d always been a little antsy. But never quite like this. His hands twitched, and he shifted restlessly in the booth like he was moments from bolting.

“You have the info?” I asked.

Link unzipped his jacket just enough to reach inside it, and withdrew a brown envelope. He slid it across the table. I opened it and pulled out the papers inside.

“It’s all there.”

He’d managed to get a copy of Forrest’s recent bank statement. At the top, it confirmed the sheriff’s name and address. I furrowed my brow as I skimmed through the transactions.

“A lot of cash withdrawals,” Hawk said. “There’s two there—the day before the drugs were planted, and the day after.”

“Two payments,” I said. “Probably before and after the job was done.”

It was likely, but it wasn’t proof. I flipped the page and skimmed the second page of statements, brushing past a long list of gas tank fill-ups and fast-food stops, until one caught my eye. “Hawk, this familiar to you?”

He narrowed his eyes. “What is that? Some kind of refund?”

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” I said. A few thousand dollars had been deposited directly into Forrest’s account from Talon Drywall LLC. “That’s one of Sean’s shell companies.”

“Shit.” Hawk’s eyes widened in realization. “So, we were right.”

“Looks like it.”

“There’s something else there,” Link said. He jabbed his finger on a highlighted transaction at the bottom. It was an outgoing payment to a company I didn’t recognize.

“Lucky’s Towing?” I asked. “What’s this?”

“Another front,” Link said. “You might know the guy who runs this one. You remember Thames?”

“Jesus.” Hawk sat back in the booth and rubbed his hand over his forehead. “Forrest and Sean are mixed up with that old bastard?”

“Seems like,” Link said. “And you know he’s probably offering Thames something good since Thames wasn’t keen on returning to Lakeview after your clan ran him off the first time.”

I grunted in acknowledgment. I’d allowed Michel to be the only arms dealer in my territory, and when I had been in the business, he’d operated under my protection. Part of that was because Michelonlyran guns. Thames, by contrast, would take money wherever he could find it, and that meant he was involved in less savory enterprises—things I didn’t want touching the edges of my territory. Thames had agreed to my terms and left Lakeview behind.

Until now, apparently.

“This isn’t good,” Hawk said. “If Forrest and Thames are working with Sean, it’s because theywantto. You know Sean doesn’t have the resources to get them to agree on money alone.”

“Thames thinks Sean actually has a shot at taking the territory,” I said. “And that would triple his business.”

Hawk nodded. “Sean takes the clan, Sean suddenly has control of all the Lakeview businesses and connections, and then Sean is suddenly a lucrative new cash cow for Thames.”