Shine (Kentucky Outlaw Book 1) (16 page)

He was a few minutes out from the still when he thought he caught something in his rearview.
 
The night was dark and he couldn’t see anything past the reach of his taillights, but he could swear there was a car following him with its lights switched off.
 
He’d been keeping his speed within the limits in case the cops were around, but when the time came to turn right and head towards the still he kept going straight and hit the gas.
 
The speedometer jumped past eighty and Ethan felt the knot in his stomach tighten.
 

He rounded the bend in the road, and as soon as he cleared the turn he shut off his own lights and immediately slowed the car.
 
He could barely make out the lines in the road, his eyes not yet adjusted to the new darkness around him.
 
There was a small dirt road just ahead and he pulled onto it and drove down a few feet.
 
It was a tight fit and he heard the sound of branches scraping against the side of the car.
 

Ethan came to a stop and watched out the back window and saw a car drive past without its headlights on.
 
He counted a hundred then drove further down the dirt road.
 
He found a place to turn around and when the car was facing the road he shut off the engine and got out.
 

He walked to back to the paved road and tried to move the branches around the opening enough to cover his tracks.
 
It was a shoddy job, but there wasn’t much he could do before he saw the car coming back towards him.
 
He ducked into some bushes and watched it slowly drive by.
 
He stayed put and not more than two minutes later it drove by a third time.
 

The car stopped and in the darkness Ethan could see the car was something sleek and low to the ground.
 
The doors opened and two men got out.
 
Ethan was well hidden in the dark, but if they shined a flashlight around he’d been seen in the bare March branches.
 

“Where the hell did that prick go?”

“And where is the damn trailer?
 
I thought it was supposed to be coming up this way.”

“We’ll find that damn still one way or another.
 
There’s a dirt road right here, you want to head down there?”

“Hell no.
 
Don’t look like anybody’s been down there and I ain’t taking this car off road.”

“What if the still is down there?”

“They ain’t moving it.
 
We’ll come back tomorrow in the jeep.”

The two men got back into the car and drove off.
 
Ethan let go of the breath he’d been holding since they stopped.
 
He waited a full ten minutes before heading back to the car to make sure they were gone. He rolled those voices over in his head and even though they were low and muffled, Ethan was sure one of them was Avon Traxler.

When he got back he saw he’d missed several calls from Neil.

“Where the hell are you?
 
I thought you got pinched.”

“No, but something fucked up is going on.
 
Were you followed?”

“No,” said Neil.

“You sure?”

“Who do you think you’re talking to?”

“OK.
 
Just wait for me.
 
I’m on my way.”

Ethan made his way quickly but carefully to the still.
 
After triple checking that he wasn’t being followed, he headed into the woods and met Neil.
 
They unloaded the Mazda and got it stored in the garage.
 
Once it was locked away Ethan went into the store shed and brought out a jar for each of them.
 
They toasted and drank deeply.

“How you been?” asked Ethan.

“Not too bad.
 
Making money anyway.
 
Better than I can say for the rest of the family.”

“You still a delivery man?”

Neil said with a smile, “I decline to answer that.”

Neil ran packages for the Dixie Mafia.
 
When his boss, Ezekiel Lawson, needed something delivered he didn’t call Fed Ex, he called Neil Butler.
 
It was because of this that Ethan knew Neil could both drive and keep a secret.

“What do you think of this plan my brother cooked up?
 
The families joining forces, going legit.”

“Don’t know.
 
Nick’s side of the family always had the money.
 
My folks were as poor as anyone else.
 
Why I do what I do.
 
Before he kicked Nicky kept talking about some plan.
 
Said that once he married Julie Prescott everything was going to be OK. He said that the Butlers would be set for life and he even said the Daltons wouldn’t have to worry anymore.”

“I didn’t think the plan to join up happened until after he died?”

“Hell if I know.
 
Nicky kept his secrets close, Ethan.
 
I guessed that marrying a Prescott would give him access to money and that would help the Butlers, but I can’t even imagine how he was going to help you guys out, especially since you and him didn’t really talk the last few years.
 
Why was that, anyway?”

“People change.”
 
Ethan said, taking another drink from the jar before screwing the lid back on tightly.
 
“We should leave the truck here.
 
Better to keep the number of vehicles seen around here to a minimum.
 
Where’s your car, I’ll drive you back.”

Neil’s was parked on a side street downtown and they spent the trip reliving old memories, and when Ethan pulled up to Neil’s car he knew that all his time in Remington hadn’t been bad.
 

Before he took off, Neil said to Ethan through the window, “Stay frosty, and keep in touch.”
 

They shook hands and as Ethan coasted down the drive his phone rang.
 
It was Julie Prescott, surprisingly.
 

“Hey, it’s me.
 
Come pick me up,” she said.

“I can be there in ten minutes.”

She met him at the end of the driveway and instructed him to head up the hill.
 
When he reached the top Ethan shut off the engine and gave a low whistle.

“I know,” said Julie.
 
“This is a great view.”

They got out of the car and stared out at the lights of Remington.
 
For several minutes they just looked out over their town, watching the town twinkle below them.
 
They felt like gods watching over their creation.

“So what’s up?” said Ethan.

“This night is completely fucked up,” she said.

“Tell me about it,” answered Ethan.
 

Julie filled him in on the night.
 
From the campaign party currently going in her house to the very near sexual assault at the hands of one of her father’s friends, to the vaguely threatening comments from Senator Alexander.
 
She was feeling the chill from the night air, so Ethan pulled a heavy coat out of the trunk of his car and put it around her shoulders.
 

“Why didn’t you tell your father?” asked Ethan.
 
“I can’t believe he wouldn’t do something about it.”

Julie shrugged and said, “He would’ve if I had told him.
 
He’d have taken Reg out back and kicked the shit out of him for touching one of his daughters, but I don’t need him to fight for me anymore.
 
Asking him for help would just be reinforcing the idea that he has to protect me.
 
I’m just so tired of men thinking I’m a weak little girl who can’t take care of herself.”

“I don’t think you’re weak,” said Ethan and leaned against the hood of the car, getting close enough to her to smell the shampoo in her hair.
 
It had tinges of strawberries and the smell gave her a uniquely feminine quality in contrast to the fierceness in her voice.
 
Ethan realized his heart was beating a little faster than normal.

“I know.
 
Thanks for that.”
 
She pulled the coat tighter around her and said,
 
“I come here a lot.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.
 
You’re the first person I’ve ever brought up here, though.
 
I just sit here and watch the lights.
 
It’s comforting, even if I can’t say why exactly.
 
I like watching the headlights on the highway, especially in the middle of the night, I just wonder where the hell someone is going at three in the morning.”

“Where do you think?”

“I make up stories about them sometimes.”
 
She pointed to a particular set of lights and said, “That car there, she’s on her way home from seeing her lover.
 
Her husband just isn’t the same man she married, and she met a man at work. They started flirting and that flirting turned serious and before she knew how it happened they were meeting in motel rooms.
 
She feels guilty, but not enough to stop.”

“Are all your stories that happy?”

Julie laughed a little even though Ethan thought she might be on the verge of tears.
 
“Wish we had a drink,” she said.

Ethan went back to the driver’s door and pulled out the jar of shine he’d taken when talking with Neil.
 
He popped the lid and handed it to her.

“Dalton homebrew, I take it?”

“Yeah.”

She took a drink and made a satisfactory sound.
 
“You’re a mystery to me, Ethan Dalton.”

“How’s that?”

She took another drink, then handed the jar to him.
 
“All my life I heard about what trouble the Daltons are.
 
Bootleggers.
 
Criminals.
 
Outlaws.
 
Everyone I know has got an opinion on your family and not many of them are good.
 
But here you are, standing next to me as we try to solve the murder of someone who at one time meant the world to us, but meant next to nothing by the time he died.
 
Why’re you doing this?”

Ethan took a drink from the jar.
 
He was glad she asked.
 
“When I heard Nick died I didn’t feel much at all.
 
I didn’t feel sad or remorseful.
 
I felt irritated that I had to come back to Remington, but that’s about it.
 
You’re right when you said he meant the world to me at one point, but not when he died so I think, I don’t know, I think maybe if I solve the murder I can put him to rest and finally move on.
 
Like I can atone for not feeling anything for him.
 
What about you?
 
Why are you doing this?”

“What do you mean?
 
He was my fiancé.”

“Bullshit,” said Ethan.
 
“What’s the real reason?”

She took the jar back from him and took a long drink.
 
“Pretty much the same as you.
 
Nick and I were together for two years and then we were engaged for another year.
 
I loved him for all but about eight months of that.”

The night was dark but Ethan saw her raise a hand to her face to wipe away a tear.
 
He wanted to put an arm around her, comfort her, somehow ease some of the pain from her and put it on her.
 
He wanted to feel her close to him and for a second he allowed himself to imagine what her lips would feel like against his, but he shook off that fantasy almost as soon as it was on him.

“It was good in the beginning, I can admit that much.
 
I really loved him first off, but after some time he changed.
 
I changed too, but we didn’t change together.”

She took another pull off the jar.

“You should take it easy with that stuff,” Ethan said.

“Don’t ever tell me what to do,” she said without a hint of amusement in her voice.
   
“I found out his family is broke after we’d been dating for a while.
 
It didn’t matter to me, but the longer we were together, the more pressure our families put on us to get married.
 
The Butlers needed my family’s money, while my dear father needed the Butler’s political connections.”

“Politics?
 
That’s your father’s goal?”

“He needs political connections to wipe out any remaining trace of his criminal background.
 
That’s why he’s in so good with Alexander.
 
He needs someone in the statehouse to back him.”

“So Mark Alexander plus Nick Butler equaled your father running for office?” said Ethan, more to himself that to Julie.

“That’s right, he’s running for governor.
 
Except there was one problem.”

“You’d changed your mind about marrying Nick.”

“It took me a long time to make up my mind.
 
We’d decided early on to move away from Remington—maybe to Lexington or Asheville, maybe even out of state. But with my family’s money going toward his family’s revitalization, he was going to have to remain and work in the family business.
 
It wasn’t what I wanted, but I told myself that relationships require sacrifices. We’d still have our own house, away from everyone else, and we’d be able to have our own lives.
 
Then he told me that we would be moving onto his family’s estate after the wedding.
 
We fought about that, and we fought about a lot of other things, especially my job.”

“He didn’t want you working?”

“At first he was fine with it, you know, when we needed money, but once our parents had worked everything out, he decided it wasn’t a woman’s place to work.
 
I swear to God, I get pissed off now just thinking about that.
 
That money ruined him.
 
It was like watching a drug addict fall off the wagon.
 
He was great until he got a taste of money, and then he became a different person.
 
And now, now he’s dead.”