CHAPTER TEN

Delilah sat in a booth by the window, staring out at the overcast sky while the waitress poured coffee into her cup.

“Sure you don’t want anything else, honey?”

“No, thank you.” She turned and watched as the waitress walked away, then her eyes flicked to the man sitting across from her. He was tearing into his chicken fried steak like he hadn’t eaten in days. Her gaze moved over him. He’d lost a lot of weight in prison. She’d barely recognized him when he’d walked out of that place.

He shoveled the food into his mouth, pausing only long enough to mutter, “Got another stop to make on the way home.”

“I thought you were anxious to visit your mother’s—”

He cut her off. “Been waitin’ sixteen years. It can wait another few hours.”

She knew better than to argue with him. He’d been mean before he went into prison. Chances were he was even meaner now. She twirled the ring on her finger. She should have divorced him while he was on the inside, but she’d been too afraid to do it, afraid he’d have his younger brother come after her.

So she’d stayed married to a man she couldn’t stand, but at least while he was incarcerated, she’d been able to live her life with relative freedom. And she’d gotten used to it. Now she didn’t know how she was going to go back to life being married to Ronnie.

Ronnie and his brother, Donnie, had been the bullies of Ponchatoula High School, the terrors of Tangipahoa Parish. She wished every day that she’d never gotten mixed up with them all those years ago.

“You get me one of them new cell phones?”

She reached in her handbag and slid it across the table.

He stared down at the thin smart phone. “Where are the buttons?”

“Phones don’t have buttons anymore.” When Ronnie went into prison back in 2001, cell phones were still the size of bricks and weighed about as much. They did little more than make calls.

“How does it work?”

She attempted to give him a crash course, but he got frustrated and shoved it back at her, ordering, “Just get Donnie on it for me!”

She did as she was told and held it out to him, then sipped her coffee and stared out the window. She could tell his eyes were on her, and it made her uncomfortable. She dreaded when they would finally be alone together, and he would want sex. She knew it would be rough and awful and something she would have to suffer through without complaint. Suddenly the long years ahead with this man weighed her down.

“You get the address for me?” he growled into the phone with no preamble or salutation for the brother he hadn’t seen except for the rare prison visits.

He snapped his fingers in her face, drawing her attention from the cars speeding past out on the highway. She turned to see him making the motion of writing. She reached into her bag and handed him a pen as he grabbed a paper napkin and scribbled down an address.

“I’m going to the restroom,” she murmured as she slid from the booth. His eyes barely flicked up to her as she stood by the table, waiting for his nod of approval. She knew better than to do anything without permission. She’d learned that the hard way the first year they’d been married.

She made her way through the diner to the ladies room. It was empty except for her. Slinging her bag on the counter, she studied her reflection. She looked thin and tired. Ronnie wasn’t the only one who had lost weight. She hadn’t been able to eat the last few weeks, worrying about this day when she’d have to pick him up from prison and her life would return to the hell it had been before.

She ran her fingers through her shoulder-length blonde ringlets. She’d changed her hairstyle many times over the years Ronnie was in prison, having only herself to please. And she liked the style. It made her feel younger than her thirty-nine years. Of course the first thing he’d said to her today was a crack about her looking like a tramp.

She was far from a tramp. Maybe she had been in high school, but she’d worked hard over the years to make a life for herself. She’d earned her GED and then an associate’s degree, and now she was a dental hygienist. Maybe it wasn’t her dream job, but she made a decent living, and the hours were good.

She wondered if Ronnie would make her quit her job. She remembered he always liked to have her under his thumb, cutting her off from everyone but him. The other option was he planned to sit on his ass and let her support him.

Either way, she knew she wasn’t going to be happy.

Maybe if she were lucky, Ronnie would do something to get himself sent back to prison, and this time perhaps his brother would get sent with him. Wouldn’t that solve all her problems?

If only life ever worked out like that.

She splashed some water on her face, touched up her lipstick quickly, and headed back out to the table, knowing better than to keep Ronnie waiting.

Before she could slide back onto the red vinyl seat, he stood and passed her the check. “Go pay, I’ll wait for you by the car.”

She dug in her purse for some cash and dropped a few dollars on the table for a tip, then headed to the register with the ticket.

Ronnie grabbed a handful of mints from a bowl on the counter and walked past her and out the door. She followed him with her eyes as she handed the waitress her ticket and the bills to cover it.

***

Two hours later, they were parked on a back road while Ronnie stared through a pair of binoculars he’d made her stop and buy. They were aimed toward a property surrounded by a tall privacy fence with woods on all sides.

The engine hummed, and the AC kept her cool as she waited patiently. Finally, she had to ask. “What are we doing here?”

“Just a little reconnaissance for some payback I owe someone.”

“Payback? For what?”

“For some shit that went down in prison. Been planning for a long time… a million ways to do it.”

“Do what?”

“Make that bastard pay.”

“Who?”

“Just a guy I used to know. I’d love to see him go down in flames, and I wouldn’t think twice about lighting the match.”

She really didn’t want to know any more details. The less she knew, the better. She only hoped she wouldn’t have to play a part in his plans, but in her heart she knew he intended to keep her close to his side. The only way that would change was if his brother, Donnie, came down to help him with whatever he had in mind.

She tried to look on the bright side. If whatever he was planning was illegal, perhaps he’d be out of her hair sooner rather than later.

Finally, he lowered the binoculars. “Okay. Let’s go see Mama.”

***

They pulled into Ponchatoula Cemetery. She drove down the quiet narrow lane and parked under a shade tree. Climbing out of the car, she wordlessly led Ronnie to the spot where his mother had been laid to rest fifteen years ago while he’d been in prison.

They’d picked up a bunch of colored daisies at a grocery store, and he now laid them against the headstone. Lorraine LaMonte, loving mother, it read. Hardly, Delilah thought. Not the woman she knew. There wasn’t a loving bone in that woman’s body. But nevertheless, her sons were devoted to her.

Ronnie squatted down and brushed some leaves and pine needles from the headstone. “Sorry I wasn’t here for your funeral, Mama. But I want you to know I’m gonna make the man responsible for me missing it pay. He’s gonna pay dearly, Mama.”