Behold the Stars Page 9

  “Perfect. Thanks, Sport.” It would help to have some privacy for this. When Lilli headed down the hall toward the bathroom, Isaac took a deep breath and dialed Liza’s cell.

  She answered on the second ring, and she jumped right in. “What is it that you could possibly want now, Isaac?” Her voice was thick and raw. He tried to imagine what her morning had been like, and he found that he could—some semblance of it, at least. He’d imagined losing Lilli often enough.

  “I’m so sorry. God, I’m sorry, Lize.”

  “Are you? Are you really? What is it you’re sorry for, exactly? Leaning on Will not to sell? Using your friendship to guilt him into doing what was right for you instead of what was right for us? Making him think you’d have his back? Where were you, I wonder, when he was dying and our life was burned down? At his back?”

  No. He’d been in Springfield with Lilli, picking out curtains. He couldn’t tell her that. “Liza, you know how much I love Will. And you know how much Will loves that place. I…I’m just sorry. I want to know how I can help you.”

  On the other side of the call, wherever Liza was in Florida, whatever she was doing, she was laughing, a bitter, angry shatter of sound. “You’re gonna be sorry, yeah. Got a call from Mac Evans, not five minutes after I got off the phone with the Sheriff. That interested party who’s been trying to get the place? Made a new offer. Upped it a hundred grand. Guess that’s what Will was worth. Blood money. I’m taking it.”

  “Jesus, Liza, no. Let me try—”

  She cut him off. “Try what? To get the rest of us killed? I’m not fighting that shit. Nothing for us there now. I’m having Will shipped down here, and Signal Bend can kiss my ass. And as for how you can help me, well, that’s easy. You can die in a fire.”

  The line went dead.

  Isaac dropped the phone and laid his head on the table. For long moments, he didn’t even think; his head was white noise. When thoughts returned, they were bleak. So much of what she’d said was right. It was his fault. Fighting Ellis had put Will in danger. Continuing to fight him would put his family in danger.

  But selling now? If she sold now, Will’s death was for nothing. Nothing. And Signal Bend was lost.

  Signal Bend was lost.

  He was still sitting with his head on the table when Lilli came back from her shower. “Isaac? What’s wrong?” He opened his eyes to see her squatting at his side, her damp hair pulled back into a ponytail. He felt the light, loving weight of her hand on his back. Jesus, she was beautiful. And she was with him. He sat up and pulled himself together.

  “Ellis upped the offer. Liza’s selling. We gotta go.”

  ~oOo~

  The lot at Marie’s was packed, as Isaac had known it would be. Most of the townspeople were there, as were Len and Show. Isaac and Lilli were late, but he knew no one would leave until he’d gotten there. It was the way of things here. When big shit went down, people met at Marie’s. Before the Horde ran things, they’d met here to talk to the Mayor, whoever that had been. Before Marie’s, the story was that they’d met at St. John’s, across the street. But Isaac was sure that people had congregated somewhere in times of trouble for as long as there had been people to do so.

  Details about his call with Liza had clicked in Isaac’s head as they’d ridden to Marie’s. He went into the diner in a scarlet rage. The room went quiet, all eyes turning to him, and he scanned the room until he lit upon Mac Evans. He stalked toward the smarmy, shithead realtor and dragged him out of his booth by his pink-and-gold necktie. Evans squawked, but Isaac paid him no heed. He turned and started back toward the front door. He was going to kill the asshole, but he wasn’t going to do it within splatter range of Marie’s pie case.

  Showdown moved into Isaac’s path. “What’s up, boss?”

  “Step aside, Show. Mac and I have business.” The weasel at the other end of the silk noose whimpered and puled. Show stepped aside and then fell in behind them. He caught movement at his periphery; Len was joining their little caravan. That was fine. They could watch, long as they didn’t get in his way.

  Lilli was still standing just inside the door, blocking it. She gave him a meaningful look—she was asking if he knew what he was doing. He nodded, and she backed off, clearing his way. He knew exactly what he was doing. He was going to rip Evans’ arm off and beat him to death with it.

  He dragged Evans to the side of the building and threw him against the wall. Released from Isaac’s twisting grip on his tie, Evans gasped and took great swallows of air, his color fading from vivid puce to a pastier, greying pink. When he had enough breath to speak, he rasped, “What the fuck, Ike? What the fuck?”

  Isaac punched him in the mouth with a fist full of heavy silver rings. Evans squawked again, his hands coming up to cover his split lips. Isaac leaned in close and snarled, “What were you told about carrying offers on the Keller place? What was our deal?”

  Mac Evans was a toad who thought of no one but himself, but he was town, born and bred, and that had kept him alive. Ellis had found himself a patsy in Evans, and had used him in his early, most straightforward attempts to buy the Keller property. The Horde had pressed Evans hard to get him to flip back. In the end, it had been Show’s offer of friendship and protection from the club that had done the job. Isaac had a strong kind of hate for Evans, who’d profited from dozens of foreclosures in and around town; he’d preferred force. But force hadn’t worked. Neither, apparently, had friendship, not well enough.

  “Jesus, Ike! It’s my damn job!” The words were barely intelligible over the swelling mush of his mouth and the hands that covered it. But Isaac heard, and cocked his fist again. As Evans drew back into the wall, Show grabbed Isaac’s wrist.

  “Boss! You want to bring us into the loop here?” At Show’s interruption, Isaac wheeled on him. Evans took the opportunity of Isaac’s divided attention to make a feeble break for it, but Len grabbed him by the collar and launched him back into the wall. Then he leaned his tattooed hand on Evan’s shoulder, holding him in place.

  When Evans started to try to say something, Len slapped him hard upside his head. “Mouth shut, asswipe.”

  Isaac wanted to beat Show’s head in for getting in the middle here. Undermining him. But it was his job to be the cooler head. Searching his own hot head and racing heart for some kind of control, Isaac found it and settled. He took a couple of deep, calming breaths and explained about his call to Will’s furious new widow.

  Show nodded and turned to Evans. “That’s bad, Mac. Breaking trust with us. That’s the kind of bullshit gets you hurt.” He looked back at Isaac. “What do you need from us, Isaac?”

  Isaac straightened his kutte. Waving toward the restaurant, he said, “I gotta get in there and deal with that. He needs a lesson. And we need to stop that deal from going through. Take him to the Room.” He turned to Len. “Get Havoc, tell him bring the van. It’s time to play.”

  Len nodded. “End result?”

  “A lesson. Make sure he learns it, but don’t end him. Anybody does that, it’ll be me.” He socked Evans in the gut to emphasize his point, then left Len and Show to deal with him.

  The quiet was thick and eerie in the overflowing restaurant. The only sounds were Marie, Dick, and the couple of girls they had working with them keeping the coffee flowing. Lilli was sitting at the counter, drinking her sweet, milky brew from one of the old-fashioned heavy stoneware cups, white with two thin blue stripes, that had been the tableware at Marie’s for its entire existence. He put his hand on his old lady’s back and nodded to Marie, who, like everybody else in the joint, had been watching him since he’d come back in. “I get a cup?”

  Marie smiled. “Comin’ right up, Ike. Get ya anything to eat?”

  “Maybe in a minute, hon, thanks.” He turned and put his back to the counter. This wasn’t the first time he’d been in a position to face the town in this way, but it was, by an order of magnitude, the most serious. Even the fucking mayor was sitting there, looking at Isaac, wa
iting for—for what? Wisdom? Solace? Salvation? Well, he had none to offer.

  He felt a hand patting his back and turned to take the coffee Marie held out to him. Her smile was warm and confident. Everybody thought he would have the answer. He smiled his thanks, took a long swallow of the hot, bitter, black liquid, and set the cup on its saucer. When he turned around, Lilli put her hand on his where it gripped the counter.

  He cleared his throat and started, not sure what he would say. “I know you’re all here because you heard what happened to the Keller place, and what happened to Will, rest his soul.” Most everybody bowed their heads at that. A few murmured prayers. These were a godly folk, even those who supported themselves by cooking crystal meth. Isaac didn’t much go in for religion, but he could respect the good that common bond did for a community. “I expect you got questions. I don’t know if I have answers, but I’ll tell you what I can, and then I got some things of my own to say.”

  First, he reported what had happened, to get the record straight and clear of the warping ways of gossip. As if he were covering a news story, he spoke dispassionately and without extraneous detail, but he gave a full report.

  It was the mayor, Martin Fosse, who spoke out first. Mayoring a town like Signal Bend wasn’t a gig that paid a full-time salary. Fosse owned Fosse’s Finds, one of the Main Street “antique” shops. “This is bigger than us, Ike. How the hell are we supposed to fight off the kind of evil that does what it did to the Kellers?”

  There was a undulating wave of approving sound at the question.

  “First off, you’re right. No mystery that what happened at Will’s wasn’t an accident. Outside these walls, though, that’s not the story. You know why we don’t need outside eyes on our town, and I know you know better. We keep to ourselves, right?” As one, the people listening nodded. “But in here, you know, and I’ll be straight.

  “You all know we’ve had this trouble moving in on us for a while now. We’re moving fast as we can, doing all that we can to keep it at bay, and a lot of you have been helping with that, riding patrols and whatnot. Well, we’ve been doing a good job, and now our enemy is coming at us harder. But don’t think of him as evil. He’s not the Devil. He’s just a man. An asshole with reach and pull, but just a man. We need to stand strong. Bad as it is to lose Will—and everybody here knows who Will Keller was—is—to me”—his voice cracked, and he took a breath and cleared his throat. This was not the time to give in to grief. “We can’t let it shake us. That’s what our enemy wants. Stand strong. Come to the Horde if you need help. We stand together. I know it’s askin’ a lot, but I’m askin’.”

  Jimmy Sullivan, the cooker who’d first flipped for Ellis, still wearing a brace on the wrist Isaac had broken the night he’d found out, stood and faced him now, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “What’s that mean, Ike? How do we stand together? Seems like you’re just askin’ us to make ourselfs a easier target. Maybe it’s time we take a seat and let it play out.” Another rumble, this one lower, and not as obviously in agreement. Isaac turned a hot glare on the little rat until he put his bony ass back in his seat.

  Taking a beat to secure control over himself again, Isaac answered the challenge. “We stand together by watching out for each other. The Horde need to meet today and work out some details, but we need to beef up patrols, and we need to stick together. Nobody’s alone. Until we get a handle on what we’re facing, nobody’s alone. Ever. You see a car or truck you don’t recognize, you call me, Showdown, or Len. Don’t send your kids to the bus without an escort. Watch out for each other, keep each other safe. And when we call, you come. You come, and you come armed.”

  The front door opened, and Show came in. Isaac met his look, and Show nodded. Evans was handled. Show took a step to the side and leaned back against the wall next to the door, his arms crossed over his broad chest.

  “Years now, we’ve been keeping this town rolling by will power and devil’s bargains. A good friend and a wise man told me that after times of trouble, you look around and see who’s left. Those are the people you know will stand and fight. Well, we’re who’s left. Most of us sitting here live in the houses we were born in. Hell, some of you sleep in the beds you were born in. This is the only place we have that. It’s only here, and we give a shit about keeping it. If we were going to fold, we’d have folded when everybody else did. I’m askin’ you to remember that and to keep fighting for what’s ours. Our birthright. Our legacy. And I’m tellin’ you that the Horde will fight for this town to the last man.”

  ~oOo~

  It was almost an hour after he was done speechifying before he, Lilli, and Show were able to get out of there. Show grabbed his arm as they were walking to Isaac’s bike. “I’m going to follow Holly home, boss. I’ll meet you at the clubhouse.”

  Isaac turned. When he’d said nobody alone, he’d meant it. He wasn’t leaving Show to ride back from his place on his own. “We’ll ride with you.”

  “Nah, I’ll be fine. Holly’ll flip if she’s got both of us on her tail.”

  Holly needed to get up over herself, and, in Isaac’s opinion, Showdown needed to get his old lady in hand. Show was a tough son of a bitch, but he liked a quiet home, and he gave his wife, prone to histrionics and ill-suited to club life, wide leeway to keep her drama down. “We’ll ride with you, Show. Statement, not a question. Holly will deal.” Isaac pulled his burner out of his pocket. “And I’m callin’ Erik to meet us there, keep with her and the kids today. I’ll have Dom ride with him, then he can follow us back.”

  Show and Isaac stared at each other for a couple of seconds, then Show nodded and turned to his bike. Isaac handed Lilli her helmet; she took it and then grabbed his hand. She’d been quiet all the time they were in Marie’s. Every time he’d turned to her, he’d met her eyes. She’d seemed thoughtful, considering.

  “Hey. You did great in there. I’m a little in awe of you right now.”

  He pulled her close and leaned down to kiss her. “I had no fucking clue what I was gonna say. Wouldn’t be able to repeat it if I tried.”

  “Well, then, I’m a lot in awe of you, because I don’t think you could have said anything better.” She ran her fingers through his beard and then onto his cheek to trace his scar. It felt strange that she knew its story. Strange, but good. “Hey, can we talk before you go into the Keep? Is there a few minutes for that?”

  He turned his head to kiss her palm, then stepped back and put his helmet on. “Sure, Sport. What’s on your mind?”

  Fastening her own helmet she said, “I’ll tell you when we get there.” He nodded, and they mounted up and followed Show and Holly.

  ~oOo~

  Isaac took Lilli’s hand and led her into the clubhouse, Show and Dom coming in behind them. Most of the Horde were in the Hall, waiting. Isaac scanned the room and didn’t see Len, Havoc, or Dan. He turned to Vic, sitting at the bar next to Bart, who was on his big laptop. “Len and Hav in the Room?”

  Vic nodded. “Yeah, boss. Want me to get ‘em?”

  “Yeah. Tell ‘em to put their friend on ice for awhile. We’re in the Keep in ten. Where’s Dan?”

  Vic stood up, on his way to the Room. “Ain’t seen him yet.”

  Bart looked up from his screen. “Want me to call him?”

  Isaac nodded. “Yeah. Don’t like strays right now. You find anything?”

  “Some. You want it before the Keep?”

  “Just bring it to the table.” Isaac pulled gently on Lilli’s hand and headed toward his office.

  Once there, he led her to the couch and they sat down together. He was curious; Lilli had been quiet and thoughtful since they’d left the house. He thought he understood; this was his show, and she was learning that it would take her some time to earn the regard of the town. That she would earn it Isaac had no doubt, but until then, she was an outsider, and she knew to be careful where she lay down her two cents on town business.

  He picked up her hand and pulled it onto his lap. “What’s going
on in that head, Lilli?”

  “Do you know what the offer on Will’s place is? How much, I mean?”

  The question threw him completely. At first he just sat there dumbly, not sure what she even meant by asking and certainly not sure why it mattered so much it earned a detour from the real work of the day. Finally, he just answered. “I don’t know. It’s high—way over market. Last one was about $420,000. Liza said he upped a hundred, so $520,000, I guess. Way too rich for the Horde to match.”

  “I can match it. I can beat it, if necessary.”

  No, now Isaac was thrown completely. “What the fuck are you talking about, Sport?”

  Lilli took her hand from his and got up from the couch. She walked the few feet to the bookcase and just stared down at it for a few seconds. She couldn’t have found anything interesting in a bunch of binders and Harley guides. Still with her back to him, she said, “When my dad died, he left me a big life insurance policy. He didn’t have many debts, and the house was free and clear. I couldn’t stand dealing with almost any of it without him, so I sold the house and most of the contents. All the money—the insurance payout, the house sale, all of it, has been sitting for ten years. I haven’t touched a cent. There’s about a million and a half in it now.”

  “What?” Isaac stood. He didn’t know what to think. Here was a chance to save the town, or at least to strengthen its position markedly, and his old lady was serving it up to him on a silver platter—no, on a fucking platinum platter. Diamond-encrusted. His stinkin’ rich old lady. How had he not known this? Why had she not told him? It was a big secret to keep. Too big.

  Lilli hadn’t responded to his one-word question. She hadn’t even turned around. Isaac was beginning to think that there was new trouble between them. He walked to her and put his hands on her shoulders. “Lilli, fuck. Why didn’t you tell me? Why keep it from me? Do you not trust me?”