Page 29 of Bayou Knights

“I won’t sign. I don’t care about the money, but your grandson will need it for when he goes to college. Don’t you care about him?”

“Not really,” she shrugs, “but if you don’t sign it over, your life will be hell until you finally do.”

“Grandpa left that to me,” I point out.

“And left your sister nothing,” she snaps.

“She tried to steal from him and dad,” I tell her, though she knows that.

“You’re nothing. You don’t need that money,” she says.

“Again, Gage will,” I say, and she slaps me across the face.

“No marks on her face,” I hear a smooth voice from the doorway. A man in a custom suit walks in like he owns the place, grabbing my mother’s hand.

“She’s being insolent,” she whines.

“Plum, you have no choice. We will get what we want,” he says, looking down his nose at me.

“Who are you?”

“Ricardo Montesorri. I’ll be the one to break you before your new home takes you on,” he grins, and it’s not a nice grin.

“I’m not giving you anything,” I say, knowing I’m not being told the whole story.

“Nate,” the man calls out and a beast of a man enters, taking off his belt, smiling at me.

Is death too much to wish for?

* * *

Zion

We rode straight to Texas. I needed to get here as fast as I could. I need to see what’s going on and what progress has been made.

“Dad,” Ziggy gives me a hug when we pull up to the diner outside of the Texas town where Plum’s land is.

“Anything?”

“Ranger and Army are at the airfield. They’re going to do the initial area search. Trick says there’s nothing on the sister. What do you want them to do?”

“Call them here. I’ll call in a few favors to watch the sister’s house and work,” I say, and he types out the text.

“I can send some guys up there,” Dixon offers.

“That would be great. Have them link up with Capone,” I nod, accepting a cup of coffee from the waitress.

“On their way,” Ziggy says.

“What else?” I ask him.

“The others have searched the ground where Plum’s house is but haven’t found anything. Unless there are underground passages we don’t know about, we got nothing,” Ziggy says, giving a side eye to Dixon.

“This is Plum’s dad,” I say, “Dixon, this is my son, Ziggy.”

“You’re Plum’s dad?” Ziggy’s eyes widen.

“I am, which reminds me, I need to call Gage,” he excuses himself and goes outside to make a call.