Page 10 of Phoenix

“They don’t leave the bedroom. How is anyone going to catch him?”

Tor cringed. “Anyway, I’m pretty sure John Jones knows Vickie’s seeing someone and that’s why he’s raging.”

“Isn’t he married to a lady who lives in Tucson?”

“I don’t think he’s married to anyone.” Tor shook his head. “But, yeah, he lives with someone there sometimes when he’s not in prison. I think he’s got the same thing going with a woman in Avondale. Maybe there are others. Who knows. Doesn’t matter though. He thinks Vickie belongs to him, so when he feels like fucking her, he expects her to be single and excited to see him.”

“That’s fucked up.”

“That’s John Jones.” Tor sighed. “Anyway, tell your father, okay? And you shouldn’t come over for a while either. He’s notsafe to be around. My brothers are shacking up in other places too. They’re living, breathing reminders that Vickie fucked other people, and if that’s thrown in his face right now, there’s a solid chance he’ll try to eliminate the living and breathing parts.”

“Damn,” Jule said. “Why are you letting her stay at the house? She’s never done anything for any of you and she’s nothing but trouble.”

Tor went still and looked him in the eyes. “Vickie’s a fuckup but she’s family. Family takes care of family.”

“Right.” He dipped his head. “Maybe you should get out of there until John Jones is gone.” Jule stepped even closer, curled his hand around Tor’s hip, and moved his thumb back and forth over him. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I’m probably the only person he’d never hurt.” Tor paused and touched the bruise under his eye. “Well, on purpose anyway. I’m his only son and that seems to mean something to the bastard. If I take off, he’ll probably be even madder at Vickie, and the way he was last night, I already thought he was going to kill her.”

“If he cares so much about you, why was he okay with Vickie not giving you his last name? All your brothers have their fathers’ last names.”

“That was his idea. John Jones has a ton of enemies, and if they knew he had a son, they could use me against him, so he made sure that wouldn’t happen.”

“What kinds of enemies?”

“Vickie never said, but I have some idea. It’s too much to talk about right now. What’s important is that you and your father keep far away from the house while he’s here. He never stays long, and once he’s gone, things can go back to normal.”

“I don’t like this.”

Tor pressed his lips together, arched his eyebrows, and shrugged. “Nothing we can do but wait it out. Come on, we’re already late to next period.”

***

“Did Vickie give you any details about what set John Jones off?” Tor asked. He was lying on his back in a trench they had dug across the yard, head under the trailer. He wore jeans with the legs cut off and a T-shirt with the sleeves cut off, both of them stained with grease and dirt, and he looked so hot that Jule wanted to jump him.

“Not really,” Tyson answered, a cigarette perched at the edge of his lips. “She said some shit but most of it didn’t make sense.”

“The bitch is so fucked up all the time it’s a wonder she can talk at all,” Trey said. He was sitting cross-legged in the dirt, drinking a beer. “It’s hot as balls out here.” He took off his cap and wiped it across his brow.

“It’s July,” Tyson said.

“What kind of shit?” Tor asked.

“Something about her being a snitch, I think.”

“What’s she going to snitch about?” Trey asked. “The only intel Vickie has is the name of her dealer and there’s no way she’s giving that up.”

“That is strange,” Tor said. “Jule, hand me the coupling.”

He looked around at the various parts and tools strewn around them.

“That one.” Tyson pointed at a black rubber cylinder at Jule’s feet. “Yeah, like I said, it didn’t make sense.”

Jule squatted at the edge of the trench and handed Tor the coupling. “What does that do?”

“It’s going to make the bathroom in this thing useable, so we don’t all have to share the one in the house.” He started attaching the coupling to the trailer, his arm flexing from bicep to forearm. Tor wasn’t especially big, his brothers and Julewere all taller and weighed more, but he was powerful, his body comprised entirely of sinewy muscles. He had no trouble holding Jule down when he had him bent over. “I’m connecting this to the waste outlet on one end and then I’ll connect it to this PVC pipe we laid”—he tapped his foot against a white plastic pipe that ran down the entire trench—“on the other end. I’ve already got the pipe tied into the sewer.”

“How’d you learn to do that?” Trey asked.