“There was a time I practically worshiped him,” he said casually, like he was discussing the weather. “He was everything I wanted to be. Rich. Respected. Lived in a big fancy house and drove a big fancy car. It made an impression on fourteen-year-old me the first time I met him. It stuck, long after I started working for him.”
I gasped. “You started working for J.R. Simmons when you were fourteen?”
He chuckled. “No. That’s when I met him. He was filling up at a gas station outside of Henryetta. I was impressed with his car, and for some reason, he was impressed with me.” He lifted a shoulder. “He gave me his business card and told me to find him when I turned eighteen. Said he’d give me a job.”
“And you did.”
“You bet your ass I did.” His voice went matter of fact. “I was dirt poor. Our family was looked down on. Even if I’d wanted to go to college, I couldn’t have afforded it, and I sure as hell wasn’t qualifying for scholarships with my grades.” He cut another bite. “And truth be told, while most kids were planning on going to college or getting jobs in their family businesses, my goal was working for J.R.” He let out a snort. “It was a stupid plan. He was probably humoring me.”
“But he wasn’t,” I said. “He gave you a job.”
“Even if he hadn’t meant it, I suspect he would have given me a job just for having the tenacity to show up at his house.” His gaze went distant. “But when I walked in, he gave me a knowin’ smile. Like he’d been waitin’ on me.”
“You said you worshipped him,” I said carefully. “I take it he was good to you.”
“He was, at first. He said he saw potential in me and was going to help me become a man of importance. My own father was a piece of shit who only found potential at the bottom of a whiskey bottle.” He swallowed. “For a man of J.R.’s stature to see something in me…” He drew in a breath. “Let’s just say before him, I’d never been treated as anything other than a waste of air. I would have done anything for him.” He paused. “Well, almost anything.”
I knew what he meant. He’d stopped working for J.R. because J.R. had asked him to kill a child who’d witnessed a murder. James had refused, and J.R. had seen it as a betrayal.
“Did you know he was a criminal when you first started working for him?” I was surprised he was opening up to me, but if he was sharing, I wasn’t going to waste the opportunity. “I mean, everyone else thought he was a prominent businessman, right?”
“Yeah.” He gave a short laugh. “That’s what the good, God-fearin’ Christians of El Dorado thought. He made a good show of it too.” He speared another bite. “And that’s who I thought he was too, at first. He had me doin’ above-board scut work, not that I complained. He paid me well enough that I didn’t have to worry about my next meal, and that was a first.”
“James…”
He snorted and turned to me. “Don’t go feelin’ sorry for me.”
“No child should go hungry.”
He shrugged, then took another bite of his steak, and I couldn’t help thinking it was in defiance of his past.
“After a couple of years, J.R. started me on small questionable jobs,” he said. “Probably to gauge how far I was willing to go. What I was willing to do for him … turns out, it was quite a bit.” His voice went flat. “He gave me more and more work, and I followed through every time. I earned a reputation with his other men. Before long, I was taking the lead, not following orders.”
He cut another piece of steak. “Then one day he called me to his office and told me he was sending me back to Fenton County.” His mouth tightened. “I thought he was jokin’. Or that I misunderstood and he was sending me to do a job. But no. He was sending me back to live there.” His gaze went distant. “He said he wanted me to get a foothold in the county and take over. To become one of his Twelve.”
“That had to be hard to hear.”
“I thought it was a test. And I still worshipped the guy, but it’s fair to say I wasn’t happy about it. And he knew it. I think he got off on me bein’ unhappy about it.” He set down his fork. “He gave me seed money and told me to go out and make my way in the world.”
“As long as it was in Fenton County.”
“Yep.” He paused. “So I went back, opened the pool hall, and hired Jed to be my right-hand man. We’d grown up together. He was younger than me, but we both understood what it was to be poor and hungry.” Emotion flickered in his eyes. “I knew he was a hard worker, and he felt a loyalty to me that I exploited.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Why did he feel a loyalty to you, and how did you exploit it?”
“His sister…” He dragged in a deep breath. “We had a pond near where we lived. Us boys fished there, always hoping to get something to fill our bellies.” His gaze went distant. “One time, Jed and I and a few other boys were fishing. Jed’s little sister was there too, and she fell in.” He swallowed hard. “I jumped in and got her, but it was too late.” His voice broke. “I didn’t save her. But as far as Jed was concerned, trying was almost the same.”
He turned to me, his eyes glassy. “His parents were shit parents too. And just like I had my little brother Scooter, Jed had Daisy. Until he didn’t.”
My breath caught. Jed had named his daughter after his sister.
And James had a small daisy tattooed under the tree on his chest.
“After she died,” he went on quietly, “I kind of adopted him as an honorary brother. But it wasn’t the same. Not by a long shot.”
“You blame yourself for not saving her.”
“She was six. Practically a toddler. I should have been watchin’ her.”
