“I know who that is. One of my informants said several people are looking for your brother to make him pay.”
“It wasn’t him. We’re on the run now, but I’m afraid of what will happen if anyone catches up with us.”
Brian sighs. “Talk to your brother. If you two are willing to turn on Nelson and his family, I think I can offer you both protection.”
Duke steps up to the counter inside and then glances out.
I turn so he doesn’t see the phone. “I’ll ask and get back to you.”
I end the call and pocket my phone just as the tank fills up. By the time Duke gets outside, I’m in the car.
He tosses a bag into the back seat, then hands a wrapped sandwich to me. “Lunch.”
“Thanks.”
“Who were you talking to?” he asks as he gets into the car and starts it.
There is no way he is going to be okay with this idea, but it might be the only way to stay alive. I think through how to approach this with him as I unwrap the sandwich and take a bite.
“Hey, are you ignoring me?” he asks.
I shake my head and point at my mouth as I chew. He rolls his eyes and then turns onto the highway.
Finally, I swallow. “You aren’t going to like this, but I do have a way for us to stay alive.”
Duke stares straight ahead and doesn’t say anything. About a mile later, he turns off onto another highway. Finally, he turns to me. “Tell me.”
I explain how I called Brian and what his offer entails. Duke sighs several times.
“Are you serious? You called the fucking FBI? Have you been talking to him?”
“No!”
Duke turns his gaze to me for a moment. “Okay, then, why is his number on your phone?”
And as much as I don’t want to tell him about Logan, I don’t have a choice. “I thought I sensed Logan around me a couple of times, so I went to his brother, Brian, to find out if he was in town.”
Duke’s eyes nearly pop out of his head. “You saw Logan?”
I stare ahead. “No, I just thought I did,” I lie. “That’s why I have Brian’s number on my phone.”
My brother has made it clear he despises Logan for how he left me all those years ago. No need to tell him Logan was here. Although I’m still unsure if that was Logan at my father’s funeral. But I asked Duke, and clearly, he isn’t going to tell me the truth on that one.
“So, your suggestion is that we turn ourselves over to the FBI and tell them everything we know?”
It sounds simple when he puts it like that. “Yes, then they can put Nelson and his family away and we can be free.”
Duke laughs. Then he laughs harder. “Delaney, you naïve fuck. I love you, but damn, you don’t get it. We wouldn’t go free. Once people find out we turned on a family, we’d have targets on our backs. The fact you think anyone would let us walk around free, wow. I don’t know what to say.”
I turn in my seat to face him. “Why not? It’s only Nelson’s family we have issues with.”
He shakes his head. “No, it’s not. It’s Ruiz now, too, and he is someone you don’t want to mess with. I know a lot about a lot of people in our town. And if we turned on a few, why should they believe we wouldn’t turn on them, too?” He glances at me. “I’ll save you the time to think it through. They wouldn’t believe it. That would make us a threat. And there is one way they deal with threats.”
He doesn’t need to say it. I know what he means.
“Give me your phone,” he demands.
I hand it to him, and he throws it out the window.
