The boys had a lot of questions on the way over. Why Colton couldn’t come was one of the first. That was put to rest when they noticed Madison running behind the car, yelling at Janie to pull over. The questions only intensified after that.

“Right.” Janie reached over Noah’s lap and pulled Betty’s revolver out of the glove box. It wasn’t a great place to put it, as evidenced by the way Noah jolted away, but she hadn’t had many options. “Now shit gets real.”

“Whoa.” Ethan put his hands on the front seats, leaning forward from the back seat. “What?”

Janie laid the gun in her lap and crawled through the trailer park, her car fitting in perfectly. They wouldn’t know who she was, and they wouldn’t suspect what she was about to do.

“Here’s how this is going to go down—”

“Is it too late to back out?” Ethan asked.

“Ethan.” She clicked off her lights. Semidarkness fell around them. Soon it would be full night. “I am about to give you a horrible surprise. It’ll be worse than the snake I wasn’t concerned about, and it’ll make those nipple clamps look like a good gift. You’re welcome.”

“I now see why everyone hates my surprises.” Ethan looked out the side window. “The anticipation is the worst part.”

Really? Had no one paid the horrible surprises back in full before?

Janie crawled forward, stopping a few trailers down. “Okay. Here’s how it is going to go. I’m the mouth. I go in with bravado and fuck-you. I get things done crazy style. You guys are the muscle. You stand around, acting important. Got it?”

“No.” Ethan ducked to get a better look at the trailer she had parked in front of.

“Do you know what you’re doing, Janie?” Noah asked softly, his eyes rooted to hers.

She felt bad for him. He was such a good, steadfast guy. Wanting to help his friends in any way possible. The only problem was, he’d clearly grown up middle class or better. He had no idea of how the dredges of society got things done. Because this wasn’t the type of situation cops could help fix.

“Yes.” She pushed the door open and stepped out.

“The actual surprise is always good, though.” Ethan did the same and then quietly shut the door behind him. “So I should count on that.”

“What the hell is good about clipping something on your nipples that is horribly painful?” Janie whispered.

“Now you know you aren’t into it.” He lounged against the car. They were about to threaten someone, and he was lounging. The man was truly crazy. No two ways about it.

“I already knew I wasn’t into it,” she grumbled.

“Did you?”

No, she hadn’t. Not with proof. The jerk.

“Noah, you can stay in the car.” She adjusted the gun.

He got out and softly shut his door, his expression saying he would really like to take her up on that offer. “No. I’m good.”

“Why are we doing this without Dave?” Ethan asked.

“Because Dave follows rules. He won’t do what needs to be done to protect his mom. Because rehab and moving won’t mean much if this crowd wants to ruin her life. They’ll go after her. Once a dealer or pusher senses weakness, they exploit it. Add a jealous cow to the recipe and you can see the problem.” She started walking, glancing at the places around them. “You don’t know my past, or the lengths I’ll go to help a friend. Long story short, if you mess with my friend, it is worse than messing with me. I do not tolerate it. This bitch”—she gestured at the trailer two doors down—“is up in my business. She, and maybe her husband, are pissing on my parade. You either take it, or you end it. I intend to end it.”

“I don’t know what’s about to happen, but I love your rage.” Ethan nodded.

“I know how to shoot a gun, Janie. Do you?” Noah clearly didn’t want to learn that answer the hard way.

“My lack of experience is what seals the deal.” She patted the revolver tucked into her belt loop. It wasn’t comfortable, but it was necessary. She’d learned that growing up.

Light glowed in a strip in the front window. She trudged across the weeds and stood close, trying to get a glimpse of what she was walking into. Movement interrupted her line of sight. Something fuzzy in the shape of a head. Since all the trailers probably had the same layout, it looked like someone was in the living room.

“Here we go.” Janie hurried to the front door and gingerly tried the handle. Adrenaline raged through her blood, pounding in her ears. It had been a long time since she’d run around carrying a gun she wasn’t totally sure how to use. She’d hated those days. That life.

Dave was worth returning to it for one night. Hell, he was worth ending up in jail for. He’d stood up for her, and she was going to do the same for him.

The handle turned slowly. Not locked. They weren’t worried about crime in the area.

She jerked it the rest of the way and shoved. The door swung open before banging against the side of the trailer. An older woman with stringy, wispy hair startled on the couch and reached for her chest. Thankfully, her first instinct wasn’t to go for a gun. Better and better.

Jane pointed toward the kitchen. “Guys, go make sure no one is going to jump out with a shotgun.”

“I am not entirely comfortable with this, Janie,” Noah muttered as he rushed to follow her directions.

“I was wrong. The anticipation was not the worst part of the surprise.” Ethan divided the distance between the retreating Noah and Janie, ready to help whichever of them needed it. “That would be prison.”

Janie ignored him. She pointed at the round-eyed woman dressed in something resembling a sheet. “Are you Nora?”

The woman swallowed. “Who are you? What do you want? I don’t have any money.”

“Are you Nora?” Janie walked toward her while pulling out the gun.

The woman’s gaze found it immediately. Her eyes widened even more and the color drained from her face.

“I won’t ask you again.” Janie sat next to her as though she’d been invited for tea. In the movies, that move always seemed to inspire fear. She hoped those screenwriters had done their homework.

“Y-yes,” Nora said, shifting away.

“Do you recognize this?” Janie pointed the gun past Nora’s face. If it accidentally went off, it wouldn’t kill anyone. Despite the strong-arm tactics, Janie really didn’t want to go to prison. She also didn’t want to actually hurt anyone.

Nora shook her head. Her second chin wobbled like a turkey’s.

“No?” Janie stroked the trigger lightly. “You don’t know where Betty got this?”

Understanding dawned on Nora’s face. Fear immediately followed. She hadn’t recognized the gun at first, which told Janie two things. The first was that she probably hadn’t been the one to buy it. She clearly didn’t have an intimate knowledge of weapons. The second was that she was about as sharp as a marble. “Betty is a liar. And a thief. She’s always stealing my pills!”

Anger pumped through Janie’s middle. She could see the lie in the woman’s eyes. The glint of malice. This chick did not like Betty. Petty jealousy of some sort, if Janie had to guess. It had blinded Nora to how ardently she’d crossed the line with that gun, which had surely been purchased legally. These people weren’t hard-core enough to get a gun on the black market.

Chatting to Nora wouldn’t accomplish anything. She’d clearly go to great lengths to take out a perceived enemy. Janie had to find the brains of this operation and hope he had some sway over this woman.

“I don’t believe you, Nora.” Janie got up, crossed the room, and closed the door. She threw the lock. “Keep her put,” she said to Ethan.

Past the kitchen, she found Noah standing in the doorway of the bedroom. A man sat on the bed in boxers and a shirt, his hands up. It looked like Noah’s big guns, a.k.a. his arms, were the only weapons he needed.

“Are you Sam?” Janie patted Noah’s shoulder so he would move enough to let her slip by.

“We woke him up,” Noah muttered.

“Please don’t hurt me,” the man said.

Janie glanced at the nightstand, spotting a pill container. She read the label. Sleep meds for Sam.

“Do you sell these?” she demanded, picking the bottle up and shaking it.

“Take it. I can get more. I can get whatever you want.”

“Yeah. That’s the problem.” She returned the orange container to its spot. “Where’s your stash?”

He flung a shaking finger at a suitcase in the corner.

Janie groaned as she lifted the lid. Organized and in neat rows, here was everything a pill popper needed for a good time, or to feed a serious addiction.

“I want the card of your supplier. You’re too old and scared to work with a dealer. I want the doctor’s name.” Janie slammed the lid shut.

“I don’t deal directly with—”

“Give me his name,” Janie shouted, holding up the gun. “Now!”

“Okay! Okay!” A younger person would’ve needed more prodding. Sam shifted, rose painfully, and shuffled to a little cabinet on the dresser. He rifled through it, moved a wad of money to the side, and pulled out a Post-it note. He held it out in a shaking hand.

“Don’t have any money, my butt,” Janie muttered as she grabbed the note. She thought about shoving him out of the way, since that was what they did in the movies, but he’d probably break a hip and the whole situation would take a turn for the worse. It was already bad enough. Instead, she shouted at him to move, took his place, and grabbed the wad of cash.

She shook her head. “Sam, listen up.” She backed him up toward the bed, until he was forced to sit on it, then tossed the wad of cash between them. “We both know what’s going on here. We both know that if I took that”—she nodded toward the cash—“and you couldn’t pay for that suitcase over there, you’d be in a world of trouble.”

He hands grabbed the edge of the bed.

“We also know that a quick call to the cops right now, and your life is over. You wouldn’t be able to get out of here in time to save your ass.” Janie gave him a moment to let that sink in. “So here’s how it’s going to go. I’m going to leave you alone. You can keep that cash, and you can keep that suitcase.”

He stared at her with watery eyes. He really was too old to be engaging in pill-dealing shenanigans.

“You’re wondering what the catch is, aren’t you?” He didn’t quite stop himself from nodding. “Betty is dead to you.”

A frown worked into his brow. His eyes flashed anger.

“She’s got that rich son, I know. She’s got that allowance that needs spending. All she has to do is put out her hand, and her son fills it with cash. She, in turn, lines your pockets. Easy pickings, right?” Janie smiled at him. A manic, crazy smile that turned his anger back into fear. It was funny how good she was at scaring people with her crazy. “Not anymore. She is under my protection. We both know I could end you, Sam. With the money, with your supplier, with the cops—I have so many options. I mean, I know where you live, Sam. And this?” She hefted the gun.

“Where did you get that?” he struggled to say. Clearly he was intimate with the firearm.

“Uh oh. It looks like Nora is keeping secrets from you. She gave this to Betty so Betty would off herself.” Confusion crossed his face. Then anger. “Yeah. Your dear, sweet Nora was trying to put an end to the source of all that money because of personal reasons. No one told her that business isn’t personal, I guess. But that’s neither here nor there. If this gun were to kill someone, then the legal owner would be questioned. If the legal owner—someone from this trailer, I’m guessing—also had a suitcase of pills and a wad of cash lying around…well, that doesn’t look good, huh, Sam? You’re smart enough to know all this, right? She might have scratched off the serial number, but they can still trace the gun if they get an anonymous tip…”

His breath came quickly. His fingers whitened where they gripped the edge of the bed. If she hadn’t been bullying a couple old enough to be her grandparents, she might’ve thought she had a gift. As it was, she was just kind of a jerk.

But for very good reason, so she wasn’t going to beat herself up about it.

“So let me say it again, Sam. Betty is dead to you. You will never contact her again. You won’t talk about her. You won’t even spread rumors about her. And you’ll keep your wife in line where it concerns her.” Fat chance, but it was worth a shot. “Say it with me—Betty is dead to me. Say it.”

He cleared his throat. “Betty is dead to me.”

“Or your life is forfeit. Say it.”

“Or my life is”—he swallowed—“forfeit.”

“There we go. That wasn’t so hard, was it?” She pushed off the bed. “And Sam?” He stared up at her with cowed eyes. “If you try to come after me to regain the upper hand”—she held out the gun—“it’ll look like a suicide.”

The bluff was so full of hot air, she couldn’t believe she wasn’t floating to the ceiling. But he couldn’t know that there was no way in hell that she could pull that off. A thrill went through her and she had to stop herself from laughing.

His breath wheezed and he waved his hands. “No, please. Okay. I’ll do what you say, I swear. This wasn’t even really our doing. Not really. The doctor—”

Janie turned and walked out, stuffing the gun in her waistband, ignoring his babbling and seriously hoping he didn’t have a heart attack. She shoved the doctor’s information into her pocket. He needed to be reported.

Back in the living room, with Noah right behind her, she found Ethan relaxing on the couch and having a conversation with Nora. He looked up when they stopped by the door and flashed them a smile. “All done?”

“Is he an alien?” Janie asked Noah, completely in awe. The man could relax in any situation.

“I think so, yes.” Noah gripped the door handle. “Are we about done?”

“Yeah.” She raised her voice to Nora. “I had a lovely chat with your husband. He is entirely clear on what I’m willing to do to protect Betty. Entirely clear. If I were you, I’d listen to him. You do not want me to visit you again.” She jerked her head at Ethan. “Let’s roll.”

“She is a very angry, jealous woman,” Ethan said as they hustled down the sidewalk to her car. “She really hates the things Betty has, including a lovely son. Her son disowned her. I can understand why, but still, that has to be hard.”

“Where did you learn how to do all that, Janie?” Noah slid into the passenger seat.

She got into the driver’s side and started up the car before putting the gun in the glove box. She didn’t think they would be stupid enough to call the cops with a bunch of pills and cash in their house, but when it came to those two, the gates were down and the lights were flashing, but the train wasn’t coming. They weren’t exactly hardened criminals. She figured she should be on the safe side and get the hell out of there as quickly as possible.

“A lot of that was bluffing.” She turned a corner too fast and tore up a few weeds. “Some was blind luck stemming from a shot in the dark. It’s the tone and the threat that matter. The conviction. And that I learned from the game of life.”

“I used to love that game,” Ethan said from the back seat.

“I didn’t,” she muttered.

“I can take that doctor’s information.” Noah’s voice was subdued in the quiet car. “My dad’s friend is a doctor. I can take this to him and see what he says.”

“Perfect, because I have no idea how things work in normal life.”

“Oh, I think you’re doing just fine,” Ethan said. “This surprise worked out perfectly. I’m glad I was a part of it. I sincerely hope to never repeat it, but it was quite a ride.”

Once they were on the freeway, Janie breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s the main part done. Just one more errand, and then Dave can say goodbye to his baggage.”