Page 292 of Property of Whiskey

Twila looks at me. “No.”

She slides the Mercy House deed into a separate folder.

“We take this to Legend,” she says.

Amos’s face hardens immediately. “No.”

Twila doesn’t even look up. “Yes.”

“Twila.”

“The Kings already know pieces you don’t.”

“That don’t mean I hand an outlaw club twelve years of law-enforcement material.”

“Copies,” I say.

He cuts his eyes toward me. “Still.”

Twila closes the folder and finally looks at him. “Daddy, the Kings already knew Pearly Gates was tied to missing girls before Kaylee. Cider’s memories overlap with what you found. Kaylee came out of that old complex alive. Somebody connected to this mess was in Whiskey’s woods near his daughter, Wren, and your department has already lost reports and cleared access records.”

Amos’s mouth pulls tight. “That ain’t the whole department.”

“I know.”

“But?”

“But I trust Legend to protect these copies more than I trust whoever made your report disappear.”

Amos looks at me.

I lift both hands. “Her decision.”

Twila glances over, and something warm flashes through her expression.

Amos sees it too.

He hates it. “Copies,” he says finally.

“Copies.”

“Originals stay with me.”

“Fine.”

“Anything leaves that clubhouse without me knowing…”

“Daddy.”

“What?”

“You already agreed.”

By ten thirty, copies of Amos’s evidence are spread across the big table inside the Lockup, and everybody who matters is gathered around them. Legend and Sophie. Oaks with Brittany beside him. Royal and Becki. Derby. Cider. Bullet and Kaylee. Twila and me.

Sunlight pushes through the barred windows and falls across papers, coffee cups, beer bottles, property maps, and the scars carved into a table that has heard more bad news than most confessionals. With the women here, it feels less like church and more like a family reunion nobody wanted.

Brittany has one of Sophie’s older Pearly Gates files open in front of her, and Oaks keeps glancing at the page like he’d rather burn the whole ministry down than let it drag his woman back into this mess.