by Naomi West
I raised my hand and twisted the gun up and away so Tambor knew it wasn’t pointed his direction. “Hey, we’re cool, okay? We just wanna take the girl and get outta here, Joseph. That’s all.”
“You do, huh?” Tambor growled at me. “Without paying your fucking debt, I take it?”
I groaned. “I see you haven’t forgotten about it, yet.”
“No fucking way I’ve fucking forgotten about it, you motherfucker. You think I’d forget anything? Think that’s how I got to where I fucking am? By forgetting even small debts?”
“What do you want, then?” I asked, my vision completely focused on Tambor. “You want me? You wanna make an example of me and let everyone else go? Is that it?”
“Know what? Yeah, yeah, that’s a fucking start. You guys interrupted me while I was having some fun with sweet little Kessa here. Might as well enjoy some time with you, Ford. What do you think? A couple hours tied to the rack, with a whip, then we take a trip out to the desert? Find a nice fucking rock to bury your ass under. Even if someone comes sniffing after you, cops ain’t gonna do a damn thing. Sheriff Watts’s up to his gills in debt with me.”
“If that’s what it takes,” I said, nodding as I walked closer. “If that’s what it takes. You leave them outta this, you got a deal.”
“Drop the gun, Ford. Right there.”
I stepped forward a couple more steps than I should have, set the pistol down on the ground between us, stood back up, and raised my now empty hands.
“Good enough?” I asked, showing him my empty palms. “You want me, you got me. Now let them go.”
Tambor laughed. “I said that’d be a fucking start, you fucking muppet. I’m taking it out on both these whores, too, and this other fucking jerk off. What’s his name?”
I lunged forward as he glanced towards Wilde, my elbow flying into his temple, my other hand gripping the gun and pointing it at the ground, away from everyone.
Tambor pulled the trigger twice, discharging the pistol into the floor. “Ford!” Micah screamed.
I slammed him in the temple again, and he dropped as I ripped the gun from his hand.
“Nicely done, Ford,” Daddy Williams said, clapping his hands softly. With all the ruckus going on we must not have heard him coming the stairs. “Nicely done.” He heaved himself down off the steps, gun clutched in one meaty hand.
“Thanks, Williams,” I growled, putting the gun on the floor for the second time in less than five minutes. This shit was getting ridiculous. “Guess we’ll be going now, like you said.”
Daddy laughed. “Y’all leaving? Fuck, no. Fool me once, shame on me; fool me twice, fuck you, you piece of shit. You and Micah have caused me no goddamned end of misery in the last forty-eight hours. Nothing but a goddamn nightmare. And you, Kessa? You used to be my best girl. Look at what you’ve done. Can’t even line up for the cattle call right, you stupid bitch.”
Daddy saw Micah eyeing the pistol on the ground. “Whoa there, now. You two back away from them guns. I don’t trust you two.”
Micah and I grumbled and stepped away from the pistols on the floor. I put a hand around her waist, pulling her close to me. “Well,” she said with a sigh, “it was worth a try, right?”
“Yeah,” I agreed solemnly as I squeezed her around the waist. “Right.”
He must have thought Kessa and Wilde were the lesser of the two threats, because the way he moved they were clearly out of his line of sight. “Know what I’m going to do to you two?” Daddy asked as he stepped up closer to us, his fat lips twisting and turning like writhing worms. “I’m gonna do exactly what Tambor was, but I’m gonna make a real show of it. Do it up right, right in front of everyone. Right there in the ballroom, front of all these guests, and make all the girls watch me. That way, Micah, they know exactly what crossing me gets them.”
Micah shrank back from his spittle-flying words, practically crawling into my side.
“Fuck you, Don,” I said, accentuating his name, one eye watching Kessa behind him as she crept closer. “Fuck you, and fuck your Mansion. These girls know how big of a piece of shit loser you are. Everyone in town knows you’re a fucking loser, and you stringing me and Micah up in front of them isn’t going to change that.”
His face twisted more violently, growing redder and redder.
“Yeah,” Micah chimed in. “You’re just a fat fucking has-been, Don. You’re lucky Tambor was able to loan you money, or else this place would have gone down the drain like your reputation years ago.”
His hand shaking in rage, Daddy raised the pistol and leveled it right at us.
God, I hoped Kessa could do it. I closed my eyes and Micah squeezed me more tightly, pushing the breath from my lungs. I drew her against me. If we were going to go out like this, I wanted to be holding her as tightly as I could while we did.
Micah and I both jumped as the gun fired, the shot filling the tight space like an explosion, sending my ears ringing. The smell of gunpowder filled the air.
“Fuck you, Daddy!” Kessa screamed as I opened my eyes.
Don “Daddy” Williams just stared at us blankly, his eyes focused on no point in particular. A little bubble of blood came up to his mouth, burst wetly, and began to trickle from the corner of his lips as he fell to his knees, then on his face at our feet.
I looked past him at Kessa, still holding the smoking gun, her eyes alight with rage as she shook uncontrollably. Wilde had already come up behind her and was soothing her. “Kessa, baby, it’s all right, honey. It’s all right.”
“Yeah,” I agreed with him, stepping forward and easing the gun from her hand. “It’s okay, Kessa. You did what you had to do.” I wiped down the trigger guard, the handle.
Fresh tears burst from her eyes and she turned to Wilde, throwing herself at him. He wrapped her up in his arms, held her close, and stroked her hair. “It’s okay,” he murmured in her ear. “It’s okay, baby. We’re going to get you out of this, okay?”
“Yeah,” Micah piped up. “You’ll see. Everything’s going to be okay. Right, Ford?”
“Of course it is,” I said as I stuffed the pistol that had shot Daddy Williams into Tambor’s unconscious hand.
“Hey!” called a man’s voice from the top of the stairs as they came rushing down the stairs. “Williams? You down here? I thought I heard gunshots!”
I glanced up over at the stairs, and who should be there but Sheriff Watts, gun drawn. From the mariachi costume he was wearing, he’d clearly been in attendance at the party. He swept his gaze over the four of us, then settled on Don’s corpse on the floor and the passed out and groaning Joseph Tambor. Before I could say anything, Micah was already swinging into action.
“Sheriff Watts!” she called, running to him. “Thank God you’re here! Kessa and I came down here with these two nice men for some, well, you know, and we saw them fighting it out!”
“Oh, yeah,” Kessa said, wiping her tears away with the heel of her hand. “Just awful! They were fighting over money or something, that man saying Daddy owed him a lot for this place, and he was going to have to pay up. Daddy knocked him to the ground and went to turn away, and the man just pulled the gun from, uh, somewhere and shot him right in the back!”
Watts looked back and forth between the women, then looked past them to Tambor, who was trying to get up from the floor, pistol still in hand. “Joseph Tambor, huh? Well, no surprise on the money part; everyone in town owes the bastard money.” Watts looked to me and Wilde.
I shrugged. “Pretty much. I mean, I’d say it’s pretty open and shut. He shot Williams in the back. I’d say looks like murder to me. Bet there’s gonna be a lot of people happy Tambor’s going away, though. Like you said, everyone owes him money. Isn’t that right, Sheriff?”
Sheriff Watts smiled knowingly and scratched at a long sideburn. “Don’t I know it. And Daddy was a good friend, too. Sad to see him go.”
“Need anything else from us?” I asked.
“We’ll be in touch,” Watt
s said with a smile as he pulled his phone from his pocket. “You kids get out of here. I’ll get this locked down.”
The four of us headed up the stairs, without even a glance back over our shoulder. As I got to the top of the stairs, I heard Sheriff Watts say something. “Well, well, well, Joey, you little sack of shit. Looks like I got something to finally nail you to the fucking wall, you slimy sumbitch.”
I grinned and shut the door behind us.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Micah
“Kid, you’re beautiful! Those headshots you sent over, they didn’t do you justice. I can just imagine how wonderful you’ll look on the screen, that shining smile of yours, those beautiful curls. And is that a natural red?”
I smiled from across the desk at the producer, nodding. “Natural, through and through.”
This was my first real audition that Tanner Wilde had set up for me, and I’d made it through the first round. The producer here had called me back for a second one. It was for a small part in some action film, but Tanner had been pretty adamant that I take it, saying that I needed to get my foot in the door somewhere. “Listen, baby,” he’d said, “you gotta hit every audition you can. That’s your job right now. You’re a beggar here, not a chooser.”
And so, here I was.
“Why don’t we get a little more comfortable, though?” the producer asked as he got up from his desk, walked around, and headed to the couch at the back of his office.
I got up from the chair and followed him over to the black leather couch. “Now, Tanner said I wasn’t an exact fit,” I said, settling down on the couch next to the producer, “but that I’d still be as close to perfect as you were going to get.”
He scooted a little closer to me on the couch, took off his glasses, and gave me a look. “Well, your agent’s mostly right. We’re really looking for a blonde for this part, but I think we can swing a redhead for it. What do you think? You got what it takes, sweetie?”
“Well, this would certainly be my first real role,” I admitted. “But I’ve been in all the classes Tanner recommended, and I feel like I’m finally ready for my first substantial part.”
“That’s great, sweetie,” he said, easing his hand down till it came to rest on my knee. “Real great. I’m sure you’d be great in the part, real great. But, you know, I got a hundred girls trying for this role, and they’ve all got the same chops you do. Which is to say, none.”
I looked down at his hand on my knee and cleared my throat uncomfortably.
He squeezed my knee a little. “So, you know, I might need a little encouragement to get you in this flick. You know what that means, right, sweetie?”
I tilted my head a little to the side and bit the inside of my cheek, just as someone knocked on the door. Loudly.
“One second,” he said, then leaned back without taking his hand from my knee. “Cheryl?” he called through the door without getting up from the couch. “Cheryl, I told you no visitors.”
“Ain’t Cheryl,” a man’s gruff voice replied.
The producer got a perturbed look on his face and hopped up from the couch. He opened the door and immediately stepped back when he saw the man on the other side.
“Sorry to disturb you, but I’m here to pick up Micah.” Ford popped his head in the door and looked at me on the couch. “Micah, you almost ready, babe? You got another appointment in thirty, and you know how traffic is.”
“Just a minute, Ford,” I sweetly replied. “Be out in two shakes, honey.”
The producer nodded and shut the door, swallowing so hard his Adam’s apple looked like it was bobbing like a cork in water. “That your boyfriend?” he asked, not returning to the couch.
I smiled. “Sorry, he’s just real protective. So, you said I’m perfect, right?”
The producer nodded. “Perfect.”
“Good,” I said, smiling as I got up from the couch. “I’ll let Tanner know you’re not nearly as sleazy as he thought you were. Deal?”
The producer glanced back at the door as if Ford might come bursting through any moment like the Kool-Aid man. “Uh, yeah, sure, sweetie. You got it.”
I smiled, took his hand, and said my goodbyes, before slipping back out of his office.
Ford was waiting for me outside in the parking lot in his new car. Well, new to us, at least. It was a hell of a lot nicer than that old Pontiac of his. It had barely even made it into town.
I climbed into the passenger seat, leaned over, and kissed Ford on the cheek. “Which restaurant are we meeting Kessa and Tanner at?” I asked.
“Same place we always do, honey.”
Epilogue I
Eighteen Months Later
Micah
It was late as I came off the set. Filming wasn’t nearly as easy as I thought it would be. You always imagine it to be catered lunches, pampering, fancy dinners, and glamorous parties. The reality was more like hard labor. Up every morning by four and out the door so you could be in and out of makeup by the time the sun was up. Then, you filmed till the moon hung high over the LA landscape.
The film wasn’t a big deal, but it was my first lead role. A small little indie picture, low budget, but the word from Tanner was that the director was going places. And, if I played my cards right, and the reception was good, then he’d be dragging me into the limelight right alongside him.
Acting was surprisingly brutal, and harder than any kind of work I’d had to do at Daddy’s Mansion. But I wouldn’t have traded it for the world, and I’d never go back to relive any of that time. Except for, maybe, the first night I met Ford Taylor. As rough and dirty as that had been, it was still the most magical night of my life when I looked back on it. Maybe it was just because I was looking back with rose-colored glasses and all, but it was still something special. The first night of the rest of my life.
A car honked at me as I reached the street, and a hand waved out of the driver side window. Ford, with his new car. This time it was new to everyone, not just us. A brand new BMW, one that made him look as successful as he actually was.
I walked over to him in my tennis shoes and jeans. Coming off a set this late, it didn’t matter what you wore. You could come dressed to the nines every morning, and wardrobe would just drop you into whatever was needed anyways.
I opened the passenger’s side door and climbed in. As soon as my butt hit the leather car seat, Ford had his strong, capable hands on me. He touched my cheek, leaned in, and gave me a kiss.
“How was your day, beautiful?” he asked.
“Long, hard, and I’m starving.”
“Well, you’re in luck.”
“Luck, huh? Why’s that?”
“Look in the backseat.”
I craned my head and looked back at the picnic basket sitting right in the middle. “Oh, Ford,” I said. “You shouldn’t have. What’d you get?”
“Fried chicken, coleslaw, biscuits, some corn.”
“Oh, my God!” I nearly screamed. I was born in East Texas, and all I could get out here was vegan and gluten-free crap. “Ford! My favorite!”
He laughed. And, just like that, we were off.
Epilogue II
Ford
We sat there together on the blanket I’d spread out for the two of us, looking down over the perfect grid of the city of LA. It was so different here compared to the desert. Rather than having the millions of stars in the sky over our head, they lay spread out our feet as we looked down on them from this hilltop.
The last eighteen months had been good to me and Micah, even to Kessa and Tanner, who’d been together since that night. When it came to the case with Joseph Tambor, Sheriff Watts must have realized what kind of a powder keg he was sitting on, and what kind of opportunity he’d had. Tambor had “tried to escape custody” that night. Needless to say, none of us had to go back to that shitty small town to testify against him, and no one ever came looking for the money.
As soon as we got out here, I used Tanner’s connections to set up a
personal security firm. The way it turned out, apparently, it was just who you knew in this town. With his contacts to start with, and my own reputation and professionalism, I soon had a staff of guys I managed.
Business was good.
Micah’s career was about to take off, too. Her skill as an actress spoke for itself, and she didn’t have any more problems with the casting couch, like she had early on. Especially not after they heard about me.
But, goddamn, just getting to see her happy every day, happy even with the early setbacks and minuscule successes, made it all worthwhile—all the shit we’d had to put up with back at the Mansion, everything we’d had to go through in the early days as we scraped by on her savings.