Where was the gun? Where was it? Shit. He had to move. If he could get out of the car he could get their attention. They’d come after him and leave Mya and Arianna alone. He had to move. He was upside down but he had to move. Buddy Lee wasn’t much on seat belts but Mya had insisted he wear one when they had gotten in the car. It might have saved his life, but now it was a noose slowly strangling him as he hung upside down like a butchered buck. He reached for the clasp. His fingers felt confused. He tried to unlatch the seat belt but his digits didn’t want to cooperate.
He heard the sound of heavy footsteps on gravel, then the screech of metal against metal as the passenger door was forced open.
Grayson dropped down to his haunches.
“You must be the other daddy. Y’all like Ebony and Ivory,” Grayson said.
“I could’ve been … your … daddy but the line was too long,” Buddy Lee said.
Grayson smiled. He held his .357 by the barrel and smashed Buddy Lee in the side of the face. Buddy Lee felt something in his cheek give way. Pain coursed through his whole head like a runaway train. Grayson put the business end of the gun against Buddy Lee’s stomach.
“Where’s Tangerine?”
“I don’t fucking know. Ike took her away from here. You ain’t never gonna find her,” Buddy Lee said.
Grayson moved the barrel from Buddy Lee’s stomach to his mouth. He pushed it down his throat until the trigger guard was nearly touching his nose.
“Tell me where she is and I won’t shoot this half-breed in the back seat that’s crying her fucking head off,” Grayson said.
Buddy Lee started flailing his arms and squirming against his seat belt.
“You keep your fucking hands off her! You fucking cocksuckers leave that girl alone.” It came out like a garbled gibberish, but Grayson knew what he was trying to say.
“She mean something to you, huh? Who is she? Is she the Black’s daughter? Wait … don’t tell me. The two pansies had a baby. How the fuck does anybody let them have a kid? Jesus, what is this world coming to?” Grayson said. Grayson took the gun out of Buddy Lee’s mouth.
“Tell me where Tangerine is or I start using her for target practice.”
“I don’t know! He took her and he didn’t tell us where he was going. She’s just a baby. Leave her the fuck alone. You wanna kill somebody, kill me. Come on, do it, shit for brains. DO IT!” Buddy Lee screamed. Grayson stood.
“Dome. Get that brat out of the car. See if that bitch has a cell phone, too,” Grayson said.
He dropped back down to eye level with Buddy Lee.
“I think you’re telling the truth. That would’ve been smart, him not letting you know, and he strikes me as one of the smart ones. And don’t worry, I’m gonna give you what you want. It gonna be sooner rather than later. I’d do it right now but you’re lucky. I need you to deliver a message, and it looks like this bitch done broke her neck,” Grayson said.
“No, Nanny! Ganpa!” Arianna cried. Buddy Lee heard the door screech as Dome pried it open. Then there was the clink of buckles being unlatched. That sound broke him in places he thought were already shattered.
“Alright. We are gonna take this mongrel with us. Maybe that’ll motivate you to find Tangerine,” Grayson said.
“Arianna ain’t got nothing to do with this. Let her go. LET HER GO!” Buddy Lee howled.
Grayson laughed.
“This is Arianna? So, that’s who he was calling out for. I’m figuring the white one was yours, right? Yeah, right before I shot him in the face he said her name. I wondered why he’d be calling out for a girl. I thought it was his mama. Lots of people call for their mama,” Grayson said. The blood from the wound on his cheek was dripping into Buddy Lee’s eyes. He blinked hard as he strained his neck to look up at the big blond biker.
“You will. Before me and you is done I promise you, you will,” Buddy Lee said.
“Bring us the girl, Ivory. We’ll be in touch,” Grayson said. Buddy Lee watched as his boots walked away from the car. A few seconds later he heard the bikes tearing their way down the road, the thunderous rumble of their engines becoming faint echoes at they disappeared into the night.
THIRTY-SIX
Ike stormed past the receptionist at the emergency department desk and pushed through the heavy vinyl doors.
“Sir, you can’t just go back there!” she said as he did exactly that. Ike went straight to the nurse’s station. A young Latinx woman in light-blue scrubs got up and came from behind the desk as he approached.