Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 122097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
“Calm down, Collin. And take a fuckin’ seat.” He points at the chair again. Still using his unlit cigar.
I sit. But I protest loudly with a sigh as I do this.
Jim Bob leans back in his chair, smiling. “I know you think I didn’t tell you everything the other night.”
“Think? I don’t think, Jim Bob. You didn’t tell me everything. And now you’ve got some stupid show running about my past that is way too close to my real past, and I don’t like it. I don’t wanna be a part of it. And I think you should let me out of that contract. If Amon wants to play your game, that’s his business. But I’m out.” I sit back and fold my arms across my chest to punctuate my point.
“It’s just a show, Collin.”
“It’s a show about me! Why me?”
“It’s not really about you, son.” He sighs. “It’s about where you’ve been. And what you did that fateful New Year’s Eve night. It’s about who you come from, Collin. And how I need that reputation of yours right now.”
“Jim Bob. What the hell are you talkin’ about?” He opens his mouth, but I already know he’s about to lie. So I point at him and my words come out low and mean. “Listen. And you listen good. I’m not waitin’ no year for my answers. I want to know what the fuck is going on. And before you get all high and mighty and start thinkin’ you know me because you know where I’ve been, you had better think hard, Jim Bob Baptist. Because you have no idea at all about what I’ve been doing.”
I pause and take a breath. I hate gettin’ angry.
“Now,” I say, my anger toned down a bit. “Let’s hear it. And let’s hear it from the beginning.”
Jim Bob sighs mightily. “I can’t tell you everything.” I start to protest, but he puts up a hand. “Calm down. I can’t tell you everything, but I can tell you some. Because this part is common knowledge.”
“If it’s so common, then why don’t I know about it?”
“You do know. Some. You know a stranger came into your house on New Year’s Eve when you were just a teenager. You know that man was tryin’ to kidnap your sister.”
“Go on.”
“Collin, do you know the difference between a gang and a cartel?”
“What’s this got to do with my sister?”
“Do you, or don’t you?”
I huff a little bit of air. “A gang is… a group of likeminded people doing likeminded things.”
“And a cartel?”
I look him in the eye. Because the pieces are startin’ to fall into place. “A cartel is a group of likeminded organizations, not people.”
“That’s right, Collin. That’s exactly right. A group of likeminded organizations. A group such as… a trinity of towns.”
“Disciple, Revenant, and Bishop.”
“You’re a smart boy.”
“I’m not a boy, Jim Bob. I haven’t been a boy for twelve years now. And now I’m gonna ask you again, and this time I want an answer. What’s this got to do with my sister?”
Jim Bob blows out his own breath now. “I’m getting precariously close to the edge here, Collin. I’m at the boundary. But I will tell you this—her kidnapping was a redress.”
“A redress?”
“Vengeance? Retribution? All good words, but not technically accurate. Redress really is the proper term. If you’re not familiar with the dictionary meaning I suggest you go look it up. Now. What I’m really trying to say here is that there are contracts in place, Collin. Big, important contracts in place. And you only know about some of it.”
“What’s that mean?”
“The trinity. It means three. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, right? Well, a cross has four points, ya know. Not three.”
“What? How did we go from the dictionary meaning of redress to the points on a fuckin’ cross?”
“That’s all I’m gonna say. There’s more. A lot more. But you’re not gonna get a single bit of it from me until your year is up.” I make to protest, but he keeps going. “I don’t care how much you threaten me, I won’t give that information up early. You can kill me if you want, this is a thing I will take to the grave.”
He stands, looming over me like the considerable man he is. I haven’t seen any pictures of him as a young man in a long, long time, but I can pick them out of my memory. He might be big, but Jim Bob Baptist is not soft. And if my memory serves, he was military police when he was in his twenties.
“Why Grimm?” I ask him.
“What?”
“Why Grimm? Last night you said the only people who know what the contracts are really about are Ester, Joseph, Ruth, Tommy, Able, and Grimm. So why Grimm?”
“Because his granddaddy and I came up together. Just like your granddaddy and I came up together.”