“How’s it going, Sheriff Booth? What you doing here?” I asked him. We shook hands before mine went into my sweatpants pockets.
“I’m sorry what happened on your farm. These young niggas are getting out of hand. David gave me a call and told me that I might want to get here before?—”
His sentence was cut off by the loud voice of Beverly. “Where is my sons! Where is my babies!”
That’s all she got out before my mama was on her ass. “Bitch, fuck your sons! They came on my land on that bullshit.”
When one of the deputies went to grab her, I spoke with authority. “It would be against your better judgment to touch my mother. My brother will handle our mother.”
The deputy raised his hand. By the time my brother got to my mother, she had already punched Beverly in her face twice. My brother picked her up and moved her to the other side of the waiting room. I was more concerned with the little niggas that came in behind her. They looked really guilty.
Min stood from her seat. “You got to be shitting me. Y’all real bold to show up at the hospital after y’all came on my family land and shot our livestock.”
Beverly’s son, James, piped up. “Ain’t nobody did shit to nothing of yours. You shot my brother and Tron.”
He pushed forward toward Min like he really would do something. I still didn’t appreciate the affront. I stepped forward and did what someone should have done a long time ago. I punched him dead in his shit. “Who the hell are you playing with?”
“Lock them up! Everyone have been letting these Dawsons get away with shit since forever. They shot my boy and Tron.”
I would admit, we broke a few laws tonight. It was too bad that I didn’t think that any of us gave a fuck.
Sheriff Booth’s left ear dropped to his shoulder. “Yeah, perhaps I will lock them up. While I do that, I’ll go ahead and lock your son and his little entourage up. Son, if you weren’t there, then how do you know what happened?”
Before anyone else could speak, Jordan and Cheri Conners ran in. “Sheriff Booth, we got a call that our boy was shot. Where is our boy?”
I knew that they got their information from unofficial communication. The kids probably told them. Had they gotten the information from the sheriff, it would have been a death notification.
“I mean all disrespect when I say, I don’t give a damn about any of this bullshit or any of their sons,” I said flatly. “The fact is that your sons came on my land illegally, killed some of my livestock, caused my father to have a heart attack, and were dealt with accordingly. If you need to see the video evidence of such, Sheriff Crawford has it. That idiot back there basically admitted to being there. My family will be over there waiting to see what is going on with my father.”
We didn’t have time for the bullshit. My family moved down to the other end of the waiting room. The only thing that mattered to me was my father. All that other shit would come out in the obituaries.
A Short Time Later
The Aftermath . . .
It had been a time inPlasters. Like I knew, neither Minnow nor I were charged with the deaths of Kevin Cook and Jordan Conners Jr., and my father wasn’t charged with the shooting of Tron Smalls. Based on the evidence, we were covered under Georgia’s stand your ground laws.
Also, what I knew was that those young niggas were not about that life. As soon as they got those death notifications, shit got real. They were told that when they found out who the other five were, well four. We knew that James was there. Once they found out who they were, they would be charged with felony murder under O.C.G.A. § 16-5-1(c) (Official Code of Georgia Annotated), which stated: ‘A person commits the offense of felony murder when, in the commission of a felony, he or she causes the death of another human being irrespective of malice.’What that meant was because the two fuck boys were killed in the commission of the felonies, all involved with the crime would be charged with their murders. Those fuckas managed to kill six of my cattle. The cash value of that livestock was well over forty thousand dollars.
Once the kids got that information, Tron was the first fucka to tell all the business. Beverly’s ex-husband came up here on fire. I thought it would have been at me or Minnow, but it wasn’t. It was at his ex-wife. He blamed her, and so did the Conners.
The plan to infiltrate our farm was Kevin’s idea. He was embarrassed because of what happened at the movies, so he wanted revenge. He convinced them all to come onto the farm and kill some of our livestock. It was easy for them to access the firearms. Ninety-nine percent of residents in Plasters had firearms in their homes. This was a hunting county.
You would think that Beverly would finally take some accountability, but she didn’t. She blamed her ex-husband for leaving her and causing her sons’ abandonment issues. She would never admit to her part when she didn’t allow him to take them with him. It was Minnow’s fault for embarrassing Kevin at the movies. It was just everyone’s fault except hers.
“Baby, what time is Carson coming to get his order again?” Min asked from the cutting board.
I glanced over my shoulder from where I stood in front of the refrigerator at the clock on the wall, then her.She’s so damn beautiful.“It should be within the hour. How you feeling?”
Her eyes turned to slits. “I feel fine, Vic. Don’t ask me again.”
I threw my hands up in mock surrender. She knew I would ask again. Not sure why we had to go through this.
Tanner Carson was the new owner of the formerRosebuds Diner. It was renamedCarson’s Corner. In order to afford a lawyer for her sons, Beverly sold her diner. She’d been hidden away in her bed-and-breakfast since it all happened.
My mother was worried that we would lose business because of what happened. Surprisingly, we didn’t. The Cook boys had raised hell in the town for so long that there was little sympathy for what happened. It was unfortunate that the Conners boy was involved. A small part of me was apologetic for that, but I would never apologize for protecting myself or my family.
I finished organizing the refrigerator, then moved behind the counter. I stood next to the cutting board to watch Min work.“After Carson picks up his order, we’re going to close early. I want to lay up under you and watch a movie.”
