“You got a connect to a good cooker for ice. I want to get me a meet with him. I may be willing to take a few kilos off his hands,” Slice said.
“I hope to God you on a burner,” Grayson said.
“I have a phone for every day of the week. Now, can you set it up?” Slice asked.
“I can, but I can’t make no promises. That boy twitchy,” Grayson said.
“I can handle twitchy. A bag full of hundreds can do wonders for your anxiety.”
“Alright. What you got?”
“Damn, you rush your lady like this? Shit,” Slice said.
“You got something or not, man?” Grayson said.
“Yeah, I got something for you. I heard from a little birdie that she staying out near a place called Adam’s Road in Bowling Green. If you leave right now, you might beat the two dudes looking for her,” Slice said.
“Two dudes? Was one of them a big-ass hoss of a Black dude?” Grayson said.
“Yeah, you know him?”
“Me and him got unfinished business. Adam’s Road, right?” Grayson said.
“Yeah. Let’s make that meet happen next week,” Slice said.
“Yeah, I gotcha on that. Hey, the Black, he a friend of yours? Cuz he gonna get that work,” Grayson said.
Slice let a few seconds tick by. “Nah. Do what you gotta do.”
THIRTY-ONE
Ike pulled out of the parking lot and headed for the old Route 207 that would take them to the Powhite Parkway that cut through Richmond, then to 301.
Buddy Lee lay his head against the window as they rode through the rolling hills of Route 301. Acres of lush farmland that were dotted with miles of white fencing interrupted here and there by homes older than Ike and Buddy Lee combined. Where the land hadn’t been claimed for grazing or growing, dogwoods competed with pine trees and maples for the attentions of their mutual lover, the sun.
Buddy Lee flicked on the radio, and Merle Haggard’s rumbling baritone came warbling through the speakers singing “Mama Tried.”
“Mama tried but Daddy didn’t give a damn,” Buddy Lee said.
“I thought you said your daddy taught you all that travelers’ shit. Tells and all that,” Ike said. Buddy Lee closed his eyes.
“He did. He was also a nasty drunk who like to smack my mama around if the macaroni and cheese was too dry. He came and went so often he was like a friend who looked you up when he was in town. He had a bunch of outside children. Chet is one of them. So was Deak. I got a half Indian sister in Mattaponi. Shit, I always said I wasn’t gonna be like him if I had kids. Well, I kept that promise. I was worse,” Buddy Lee said.
“My mama and daddy died when I was nine. Hit a slick patch on Route17 and went flying off the side of the Coleman Bridge. Me and my sister moved in with my daddy’s parents. I put my grandparents through hell, and all they ever did was try and love me. I was so angry. I used to walk around waiting for an excuse to go off. Angry at God for taking my parents, angry at my parents for dying, angry at my grandparents for trying to pretend everything was gonna be alright. I was so messed up. Fell in with Luther and his crew. He let me use all that anger. Pointed me at a target like a gun and let me go off,” Ike said. He passed a truck pulling a horse trailer.
“I love Isiah, I really do, but there are days I think I shouldn’t have had a son. I was too messed up in the head to be a good father,” Ike said.
“I think if you loved him and did the best you could, you was a good daddy. That’s what I tell myself anyway,” Buddy Lee said.
“You really believe that?” Ike asked.
“Most days I do.”
“I got so mad when he came out,” Ike said. He eased the truck through a sharp curve that took them past a couple of horses lazily grazing in an expansive pasture.
“You didn’t know before? I caught Derek kissing another boy, but I knew way before that,” Buddy Lee said.
“I knew. I think deep down inside I always knew but I didn’t want to accept it. I couldn’t accept it. I couldn’t wrap my mind around it, ya know? Like what did that mean? It was like he’d told me he was an alien. Shit just seemed unnatural to me,” Ike said.
“But you still loved him. You never stopped loving him, right?” Buddy Lee asked. Seconds went by before Ike answered.
“I tried to stop loving him. For a while I couldn’t even look at him. All I could see was him doing shit with some guy. I’m sorry. Derek wasn’t some guy.”
“Nah, it’s okay. I mean, I get what you saying, but I never wanted to stop loving Derek. I just wanted him to be normal. I guess it took me a long time to get it.”