“Lower the gun. You’re not prepared to deal with the fallout if we start pulling triggers. You don’t want a dead cousin and you don’t want to die yourself. I’ve already been to prison and I’ve already killed, and I don’t mind doing it again. Lower the gun and listen.”
The cousin hesitates. Jaxson tries to say something but Nolan casually shoves the barrel deeper and gags him to make him shut up. The cousin’s face grimaces, and I think he’s about to kill Nolan, when he lowers the weapon.
“I’m fucking listening,” he says.
“Good. Your cousin’s been trying to blackmail his ex-girlfriend.”
“Kady? What the fuck did he do?”
“He has a video of him and the girl engaging in sexual relations. I’m here to tell him to delete the video and never bother her again.”
The cousin groans. “Jaxson, you scummy piece of shit. I told you to let that girl go and leave her the fuck alone.”
Jaxson say, “You don’t fucking get it, man, there’s more—”
But Nolan cuts him off. “You wag that tongue one more time and I’ll break your fucking teeth in.” He turns back to the cousin. “Now here’s how this’ll go. I’m gonna pull this gun from his face. I’m going to get to my feet and leave. You’re going to make sure your cousin here doesn’t fuck up and get himself killed, because if I hear he’s bothering Kady any more, I swear I’ll hunt you both down. Do you understand?”
“You shouldn’t be lobbing out threats like that,” the cousin says without much force. “We’re ORB.”
“I’m aware. You said that already. I still don’t care.” He slowly removes the gun from Jaxson’s mouth. “Do you understand me, Jaxxy boy? You bother Kady again and I will kill you.”
“Fuck you.”
Nolan slowly gets to his feet and steps away from Jaxson, who rolls onto his side and spits blood onto the grass. The cousin watches Nolan but keeps the gun lowered and they stand there, staring at each other.
“You know my people won’t let this go.” The cousin’s quieter now, almost contemplative. “It’s a real bad look for us if you people think you can come into our house and threaten our members.”
“I understand your organization will not be happy about how I handled this.”
“You’re really going to risk a war for some trailer trash whore?”
“Kady’s a nice girl and you both know it. Don’t make me come back here.” He turns to me and starts toward the gate.
The cousin tracks him, still not raising the weapon. Nolan hasn’t put away his gun yet either and I feel the tension in the air. The cousin turns slowly, and looks surprised to see me standing there. He takes a step back, eyes widening. “You’re her sister.”
“Cora,” I say, and Jaxson rolls onto his back, staring at me with wide eyes. “You deserved worse, you scumbag.”
Nolan takes my arm. “Come on. We’re going.”
He pulls me to the gate, opens it up, and pushes me out first. Nobody speaks as he follows, and we walk back to the truck. He doesn’t put the gun away until we’re driving.
I sit there shaking, trying to process what the hell just happened. Nolan says nothing, only stares straight ahead and rolls through the quiet Georgian streets, past the overgrown fields and the thick bug-filled forests, like the forests he and I used to spend so much time in back in the day, those muggy Southern nights, sweat rolling down my back, a stupid smile on my face. Those were good days, but those days are long gone now.
“You made it worse, didn’t you?” I break the silence.
He tilts his head. “Maybe. Maybe not.”
“Nolan.”
“Truth is, we’ve been on the verge of war with the ORB for a while now. Jaxson’s some low-level player in the group, and nobody will give a fuck that I broke his nose and roughed him up, but I recognized that cousin. He’s got some clout.”
“What’s the cousin’s name, anyway?”
“Craig, I think. But it doesn’t matter. He won’t be the one holding the gun when the ORB tries to get revenge for this.”
“Shit,” I whisper and shake my head. “You should’ve told me.”
“Would you have stopped this if I had? Would you really have cared if I was about to start a war? A bunch of gangsters and bikers are going to murder each other. Do you fucking care?”
I glare at him and say nothing, because he’s right, I don’t give a damn if he goes out there and gets himself murdered. So long as Jaxson stops bothering Kady and that sex tape goes away, I’m content.
But something’s bothering me. I can’t put it into words, at least not until he parks outside of the trailer and kills the engine and looks at me with that knowing smirk like he’s about to reveal the truth of the world to me, like he wants to blow me to pieces.