“Cletus Boone,” Nav said.
“He alone?”
“Yeah.”
“Where? Never mind, send me the video,” I said, standing up.
“No.”
I froze halfway to the front of the house. I didn’t bother going back inside. I didn’t need anything but my fucking hands.
“What do you mean, no?” I asked, my voice dropping to a deadly tremor. “What did he fucking do?”
“He hit him a couple times,” Nav said, and I knew he was lying.
“What else?”
“Matlock, listen.”
“What the fuck did he do, Nav?”
My anger boiled over as I waited for Nav to tell me the truth. “You’re only making this worse for Cletus the longer you take to tell me the truth.”
Nav sighed heavily on the other end of the line and said, “Brother, you can’t fucking kill him.”
“What. Did. He. Do?”
“He pushed Simon’s chest against the wall and thrust into him a few times. His clothes never came off, Matlock. He never even attempted to undress Simon.”
I couldn’t speak. My fingers clenched the phone in my hand. I closed my eyes and tried to swallow down the rage.
“Let me send someone else.”
“No.”
“I’ll send Mimic. He’ll put the fear of God into Cletus.”
“No,” I repeated, then hung up. I slowly walked to my bike. The prospects followed me over with it this morning when I went to get my clothes.
I swung my leg over the bike and then started her up. I backed out of Simon’s driveway and rode through town. My eyes scanned the street for Cletus’ truck. When I couldn’t find it, I turned back toward the west side of town.
The thing about small towns and everyone knowing everybody else was that you also knew where everyone lived. And Cletus lived in a run-down trailer on the outskirts of Diamond Creek.
I pulled up in front of his place and found Mimic and Indie waiting for me.
“What are you doing here?”
“Making sure you don’t do something stupid.”
“If you think you’re gonna stop me from kicking his hillbilly ass, you’re out of your mind.”
“We’re just here to make sure you don’t kill him,” Indie said. When I glared at her, she smiled. “Prez’s orders.”
I walked past them both and stomped up the rickety stairs, kicking the door in. Cletus jumped up from his recliner andreached for the shotgun next to him.
“Don’t fucking try it,” Mimic said right behind me.
Cletus’ face paled when he saw Mimic, and he gulped before looking at me.
