Scott Andrews pulled into the gravel parking lot of Ray's and turned off the engine of his car. Ray and Jed's cars were parked near the front entrance of the bar, while John Norman's truck was still where it had been since last night. Scott closed his eyes and let out a long breath. He was way in over his head and he knew it. He'd known it since he saw Jed killed Howard Beggs... No, his name was Jerry Miller. A state trooper and a SLED sergeant came to the sheriff's office today and identified the dead man as an undercover SLED agent. The story Scott thought was bullshit turned out to be true. Jed, and by extension Billy, killed a fellow cop. All the heinous shit Scott had been asked to do over the years, this was going over the line. He'd witness and murder and was trying to frame an innocent man while the fucking scumbag who did the crime acted like he was Scott's boss. He no longer cared about the money or Billy's promise to make him sheriff. He had to get clean. Scott climbed out the car and walked into the bar. The chairs were already up on the tables. Jed was busy wiping down the bar while Ray counted money in the cash register. Both looked up as he entered. "There's my boy," Jed said with a smile. "I ain't your boy," Scott snapped. "And I ain't Billy's boy, not no longer." "The fuck you say?" Ray said with a grimace. "You mind your goddamn mind, son." "Fuck you," Scott said, pointing his finger at Ray. "And fuck Billy! You killed a goddamn state police officer, Jed. I'm out. Fuck all of y'all." "You ain't out, nigga," Jed said as he walked around the bar. "Until Billy says you're out." "I'm out of this deal and I'm out of the fucking sheriff's department," Scott said. "I'm calling SLED first chance I get and I am telling them every fucking thing. All of you motherfuckers are going to burn. The two of you, Jim Brown and DJ, even Billy goddamn Brown!" Scott pulled his service pistol as soon as he saw Ray going for something behind the counter. Scott knew the old man kept a Colt Python down under the register. He kept a gun trained on Ray while looking towards Jed. Slowly, Scott started to back out towards the door. "You sons of bitches forgot who the law was around here, and now you're all gonna fucking pay." -- Gene Parker stood at the midfield point on the football field, smoking a cigarette while he waited. The grass was yellow and dead in the early winter air. It wasn't much of a stadium, just a pair of metal bleachers on two sides of the field and an electronic scoreboard on the opposite end of the field house. Gene never played on this field when he was in school, back when he went to school it was across town near the mill and the football field was a patch of land that was mostly dirt and sat right beside the school. The man walking towards him had never played on the field either. Though he was just a few years younger than him, Billy Brown's graduating class, class of '72, was the last to come out of the old high school. They both played varsity together, Gene as a noseguard and Billy as a defensive back. Unsurprisingly, Billy always played with a chip on his shoulder. He was rough and mean when it came to the game. He almost got kicked off the team when they played Dixie and he stomped on a boy's leg after the play was over. They had damn good defense Gene's senior year, and it only got better when Billy was a senior. Gene remembered watching from the bleachers while Billy's '71 Pickett Panthers won the state championship. "Billy." "Gene." "Sheriff calls in the middle of the night wanting a meeting, I got to know what's going on." "Your boys killed a man a few nights ago. A guy who went by the name Howard Beggs." Billy looked at Gene passively. Gene sighed and unzipped his jacket, pulling his shirt up and showing his flabby and pale stomach. He turned out his pockets and showed Billy that he wasn't wearing a wire. When he was done with his show, Billy just shrugged. "Admit it or not, I don't give a damn. The fact is they done it, and the fact is he was an undercover state policeman. Sent in to investigate your businesses and my sheriff's department." "Why are you telling me this?" "Because either tonight or tomorrow, John Norman is going to do something very stupid because he has no choice in the matter. He thinks I can snap my fingers and make evidence disappear. He thinks you have blackmail on me, and that I work for you." Billy let out a deep laugh. "You work for me? As if I'd want your sorry ass." Gene bristled and stuffed his hands in his pockets to hide his balled up fists. "I'm just giving you this warning, Billy. Take it serious or don't, I could give two shits. What I do care about is Scott Andrews. I know he's your guy inside the sheriff's department. If this SLED guy coming to town is the first wave of a serious state investigation, then something has to be done about Scott. His involvement with you hurts the both of us. You could go to jail and I could be run out of office." "I see," Billy said with a nod of his head. "Want me and my guys to do your fucking dirty work, Gene?" "I like the status quo, Billy. Scott and John can alter that status quo. I'm just suggesting ways to keep everything the same." "And what about us?" Billy asked. "What about the shit between you and me. What about Re--" "Don't you say her fucking name," Gene hissed. "You don't get to go there, Billy." Billy smirked in a bit of self-satisfaction. He shrugged again and Gene had to take a deep breath to calm himself. "Like I said, status quo. I keep getting elected, you throw me and my guys a few busts every so often to make us look good and we'll call it quits. What happened between us back then... it's the past." "Past ain't never past around here, Gene. You know better than I do that the past is just waiting to come back around. The shit between us will always be between us until it ain't." "I'm done, Billy. You got your warning and your advice. That's it." Gene turned around and started walking off the field. He could hear his pulse throbbing in his ears with each and every step. He knew Billy's eyes were barreling down on him. Those little eyes that saw everything could see Gene's frustration and impotence as clear as day. He was right and Gene knew it. What was between them would come to light eventually... but not tonight. Tonight was about taking pragmatic measures. Tonight was about survival. -- Mike pulled up to Ray's parking lot. John saw an unmarked car in the parking lot, the same one he was out by Reid Creek last night. Nail it as Scott Andrews' unmarked car. "Shit, police," Mike said under his breath. "It's Billy's guy." "Let's go," Mike said as he started to put the car in reverse. "No. I don't care if he's in there or not. If I can get what's in that safe, who gives a fuck?" Mike stared at John for several seconds before shaking his head. "This is suicide, you know that?" "Better to die here than on a slab at a state prison, needle in my arm." "Look..." Mike gripped the steering wheel and sighed. "The stuff between me and you... it ain't never been easy. I've been like I've been to you because... goddammit, you remind me so much of your daddy. Daniel was my pride and joy, I loved that boy something fierce. It hurt me so bad when Billy took him from me. Just looking at you reminded me of all that I lost and wouldn't ever get back. That's why I was never around, why I was so nasty to you. I never got over your daddy's death, and the last thing I want is to see you wind up the same. I... love you, boy. I do." "I love you too," John said softly. "Which is why I hate doing this." John brought the shotgun off the floorboard and struck Mike in the temple with the butt. The blow smacked him against the door and dazed him. He groaned and tried to form words as John climbed out the Cadillac. He walked towards the front door of Ray's with the shotgun in his hands. To John, this slab of concrete in the South Carolina backwoods looked an awful lot like the Alamo.