Play for Keeps (The Devil's Share #6)(18)

“We’re here, man.” Dash’s words were quiet.

I took a couple deep breaths and slowly opened my eyes, taking in the scene before me. I thought things might look different since the hurricane had hit this town pretty hard. But it was like the water lifted everything up, and then put it right back down where it originally sat. Even Katrina was too afraid to disturb this graveyard.

My childhood home was built on stilts, which had nothing to do with weather and everything to do with the fact that it sat on the bayou. The paint used to be white, but was now more of a washed-out gray and was peeling off in sheets. The screen door was falling off its hinges, and the moss from the trees swept against the roof in the breeze. John boats were tied up where they always were, just waiting for my old man’s drunk ass to stumble out and go night fishing.

When I was younger, I’d pray that he would drown. Fall off his pirogue and disappear in the black water. It never happened. There was what appeared to be a Rottweiler puppy chained to a decrepit doghouse. And at least half a dozen cars, in various states of rust, parked around the yard.

Jacks sat forward, his hands on my shoulders. “We’re right here with you, man. Right by your side.”

Dash turned the car off and looked at me. “It’s us against the world, bro.”

Luke cleared his throat. “Do you have any idea where your mom might have hidden the ring?”

I nodded, wiping my sweating hands on my jeans. “In my room, in my closet. There was a loose floorboard that we never told my old man about. We’d hide things in there.” I closed my eyes again, the memory of my mom winking at me every time we got away with it. “Money we came across, my favorite action figures, food, her jewelry.” I shook my head. “I should have taken it with me when I left. I should have never left those treasures behind. But after my mom died, I stopped caring. I stopped hiding things, I stopped having buried treasure. It wasn’t fun when she was gone. It was heartbreaking. It was just another reminder that I was all alone.”

I hadn’t intended to pour out some of my soul for them to see, but being here, staring at the house in front of me… It was all becoming too much. I opened the car door, slamming it with more force than necessary. I needed to get my mom’s stuff and get out of here. This place was starting to consume me.

The guys all climbed out and Dash rested his hands on the hood of the car. “You think anyone’s home? Could he be at work?”

I gestured to the rust bucket Ford pickup. “That’s his truck.”

Luke walked over to the puppy and unchained it. It looked hungry, and it was shaking even though it was warm outside. “Lo is going to kill me.” He opened the car door and put the puppy inside before shutting it again. “But no one deserves to live like that.”

I put my hands on my hips, looking up at the house. “My old man does. This is the hell he deserves, the one he created for himself.” I took one step toward the stairs. “My mom died in that prison, but her legacy isn’t going to.” I took another step, this one bolder. “Let’s go get that ring.” I headed up the steps leading to the front door. I could hear my brothers behind me the whole way.

I walked in without knocking.

“What in the flying fuck are you doing here, you little shit?”

I let out a humorless laugh. Little shit? I towered over his old ass. My dad was sitting on the couch, the coffee table in front of him piled with baggies of meth. So he was working, just not in the way my friends would probably expect. “Hey, old man.” I grinned. “How’s the foot?” My girl shooting my dad had been one of the highlights of my life thus far.

“Get the hell out of here.” He stood up, his beer belly hanging over his jeans and his wifebeater stained and dingy. “Don’t make me hurt you, boy.”

Dash cocked his head to the side and crossed his arms over his chest. “Hurt him? Really? It’s four against one. You think you can take us? You got some backwoods army stashed in this shithole?”

Luke stepped up next to me. “You could always call the cops on us. I bet they’d just love to see what you’re up to in here.” He gestured to the drugs on the table.

“I’m going to go grab what I need. You guys keep an eye on him.” I bent down and reached under the coffee table, grabbing the Glock I knew he’d have duct-taped under there. “Here.” I handed the gun to Dash. “If he moves, use this,” I called on my way down the hall. “If you kill him, we’ll just feed his fat ass to the gators.”

I heard Jacks chuckle. “Oh that’d be fun. Please move, old man. Please.”

Hanging a right, I walked into my childhood room and stopped short, taking in my surroundings. There were broken toys on the floor and faded sheets on my twin bed. But sheets that never belonged to me.

I opened the folding doors to my closet to see a few child-size t-shirts hanging from the rod and one pair of tattered tennis shoes on the ground. Who else was living here with my dad? Who the fuck would choose him, choose this life?

Quickly, I pried up the floorboard. Sitting right where she’d left it was my mom’s ring and a necklace that her father had given her on her sixteenth birthday. Beside it was my He-Man action figure and something else I’d never seen before. It was a shiny red Iron Man figurine. I closed my eyes and let out a sigh as I said a silent prayer for whoever the woman was who’d decided to shack up with my old man and bring her kid along for the ride. Then I shoved my mom’s things in my pocket and took off back in the direction of the living room.