The Forsaken

No swagger, no cockiness left. But there was no doubt he was staring right at Craig Houston.

•   •   •

“When’s the last time you saw Hank Stillwell?” Qui

“He’s not part of the club.”

“He’s not part of any club,” Qui

“Shame.”

“He rode with you for a long time,” Qui

LeDoux blew some smoke out of his nose. He looked hard at Qui

“You must’ve hated him pretty bad.”

LeDoux rubbed his beard, thinking on it. He shrugged. “You ride with a man, you become a brother. If you don’t have that, you ain’t nothing but a fucking animal.”

“I understand,” Qui

LeDoux rubbed his beard. His face twitched into a sort of smile. “What’d your daddy tell you about me?”

“Nothing,” Qui

“Fear will do that to a man.”

“What’s that mean?”

Chains shook his head, kept on rubbing his beard. A Tibbehah County patrol car circled the Square, Art Watts on duty. Art knew where Qui

“Did your daddy tell you I once tried to kill him?” LeDoux asked.

Qui

“Thought he was the fucking snitch,” LeDoux said. “I just fucking knew it. The Feds were knowing things coming from inside our own goddamn clubhouse. If it wasn’t for Big Doug, your daddy would have had a hole in his chest as big as a di

Qui

“I was wrong,” LeDoux said. “Took me twenty years too long to learn it.”

“Good for you.”

“I want you to tell Jason that I fucked up,” LeDoux said. “I turned on my own brother.”

“Tell him yourself.”

“Goddamn snitch was right there,” LeDoux said. “Standing right by me when I had a gun on your daddy ready to blow his ass off this planet.”

Qui

“The son of a bitch made your daddy leave Mississippi with his tail between his legs to protect your family. Isn’t that fu

“When was that?”

“Strange days, back then,” LeDoux said. “My head fucked-up on eleven different herbs and spices, knowing the Feds had us close and Joh

“Then you found out it was Stillwell?”

“I never said that,” LeDoux said, gri

“My father’s affairs then are none of my concern or yours.”

“He’d come back from out west wanted to ride again,” LeDoux said. “Hung out at the clubhouse, racing bikes and doing crazy shit.”

“I’ll nail you for Stillwell,” Qui

LeDoux stood, cupped a new cigarette in hand, and fired it up. “Nice to see the law hadn’t changed much either,” he said. “Your uncle took money from us and now you take it from Stagg.”

Qui

The cigar and cigarette smoke intertwined and blew away from the gazebo.

Back in his truck, Qui

He’d wanted them to go somewhere; Qui

And Jean saying she’d never leave Jericho.

Why didn’t you tell me?” Qui

“Tell you what?” Jason Colson said. “That a motorcycle gang wanted to crucify me to a barn door? Pretty heavy stuff for a twelve-year-old.”

“Maybe,” Qui

“Talk to your mother about that,” Jason said, long gray hair combed straight back, neat and pushed behind his ears. “She had a say in all this. She was married to this shit town more than she was married to me.”

They’d called Jason back to Jericho for more questioning about the lynching. He’d shown up with his attorney, but Qui

“What I don’t understand is why you went back,” Qui

“I came back to see Doug,” Jason said. “He was sick. The cancer had him the first time. I had gotten him some drugs down in Mexico. Same ones Steve McQueen had tried.”

“LeDoux said you came back for the Born Losers.”

“LeDoux is fucked in the head,” Jason said. “He’s a diseased individual.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Whatever you think of me is fine,” Jason said. “But I wasn’t a part of what happened, or Big Doug, or even Hank Stillwell. There were some of us that stood down when they threw that rope up into that big tree and looped it around that man’s neck.”

“But y’all rode anyway,” Qui

“I can’t talk about this,” Jason said. “I’m just telling you I wasn’t a part of it. You can believe me or not, that’s your own business.”

“Did you see the killing?”

Jason gri

“You should put that bullshit on a bumper sticker,” Qui

“Talk to your mother,” Jason said. “I’ve tried to make contact over the years. I tried to find out if she was all right after the storm. You know I rode over to Tibbehah and helped out with the cleanup? Nobody even knew who I was. I saw Caddy handing out ice, almost went to say something. But—”

“Maybe you could have jumped your bike over the wreckage,” Qui

“I can’t make what I did right.”

“But you can do what’s right with this,” Qui

“I don’t care about any of it but y’all.”

“We can get LeDoux on murder,” Qui

Jason dipped his head into his hands and stared down at the table. He groaned. And ran a hand over his neck to work out the kinks and soreness. “Better bring my lawyer back in here,” Jason said. “This wasn’t what I thought you wanted to discuss.”