I wasn’t sure Mama had that kind of power over Liam, but Ricki and Dee must have thought so, because they stood up. Mama put Donal on the floor, sat down, and lit one of their cigarettes.

“Where is he?” she said.

“Out in the lab.”

“Go get him.”

When he came to the trailer, Liam’s smile didn’t touch me and only brushed over Donal, before it burned on Mama.

“God, you look fantastic, baby,” he said.

She stood up, all glowy, waiting for him to kiss her. He leaned her against the edge of the table, and his hand found the special place between her legs. There was no rule against him touching Mama there.

Mama giggled. “Are we leaving for Myrtle Beach this morning?”

“You’re coming? What about the kids, Val?”

“They can go to Brenda’s. It looks like you’ve got plenty of people sitting around doing nothing.” Mama looked at Ricki and Dee in the doorway.

“Yeah, yeah. Dee, why don’t you take the Charger, drive them down to her sister’s?” He didn’t even look at her. With Mama there, Dee was invisible like me.

10

DEE

As Dee backed out of the drive, she realized she didn’t know where she was going. She looked in the rearview mirror at Liam’s daughter, who was cute as could be, but creepy. Even if she knew where they were going, she wouldn’t say a word to Dee. She never had.

Leaving the kids in the car, Dee walked back to the house. Liam had Val on his lap, his hand up her short skirt.

“Where am I going?” Dee said.

“To her sister’s in Tulsa.” Liam didn’t even bother to move his hand. He was so gorgeous, all that blond hair, and tan from being out on the bike.

“I know, but what’s the address?”

Her arm around Liam’s neck, Val winked at Dee. “One-Four-Three-Two-Two Fawn Hill Circle. Do you think you can find that?”

They had been friends once, and Dee felt sorry for Val. She was seriously messed up, and whatever was wrong with her, it had created a chance for Dee. If Val were okay, why would Liam waste his time on Dee?

She drove Kellen’s Charger, faster than she should have, and risked getting pulled over. An hour outside the city, the little boy started whining and crying. It made Dee glad she hadn’t done something stupid like get knocked up. Of course, that was how Val got Liam, popping out babies for him. Popping out a son … who wouldn’t stop crying.

“Can’t you make him be quiet?” Dee said.

The crying didn’t seem to bother Wavy, but it rattled Dee’s nerves so much that she got the address turned around in her head. At 13422 Fawn Hill Circle, the man who answered the door looked confused.

“Val asked me to drop the kids off,” Dee said.

“I think you’ve got the wrong address.”

She tried the neighbors and got the same thing. Cruising down the block, Dee felt helpless and panicked. If she didn’t get back by dark, the rest of the guys would have left already and she’d be stuck at the ranch while Liam partied at Myrtle Beach. With Val.

From the backseat, Wavy said, “There.”

Dee slammed on the brakes and, as she looked at the houses, Liam’s daughter opened the door and stepped out of the car. She left the door open as she crossed the street and started up the walk in front of a neat yellow house. It almost made Dee sick how neat it was. Grass trimmed, white shutters, station wagon out front. The kind of thing Dee would have ended up with if she’d listened to her mother’s advice.

Throwing the car into park, Dee hurried around to the open door to get Donal. If she could make the hand-off and get on the road, it would be okay.

“Who are you?” Val’s sister came down the sidewalk.

“Val asked me to drop the kids off.”

“What do you mean? Drop them off? For how long?”

“Probably just a week or so.”

Dee shoved the baby at Val’s sister, who finally held out her arms and took him. She looked stunned, but that was her problem. Let her be stunned.

Then Dee was flying down the interstate, feeling giddy and excited. Until she remembered that Val was riding behind Liam with her arms around him.

And what would Dee do? The same thing Ricki would do. Look around for whatever fun she could get that Liam wouldn’t find out about. That probably meant being with one of the guys. Somebody who had as much to lose as she did if they got caught. Because Liam was jealous, unless it was his idea. If he said, “Why don’t you give Vic a good time?” then that was okay. Unless he thought you’d enjoyed it too much and that’d come back to bite you.

It was still light out when Dee got back to the ranch. In the front yard, four bikes stood ready to go, with four more on a trailer behind the truck. Kellen was loading up a pair of toolboxes.

“Am I riding with you? Give me five minutes,” Dee called as she stepped out of the Charger. She needed a shower, but maybe she would just grab some makeup and clean clothes so she didn’t look like a piece of shit next to Val.

Kellen shrugged. He wasn’t retarded, but he was definitely slow. Dee thought it was that fetus alcohol thing. That’s why his eyes were slanted, too, or that was because he was an Indian. Flat-faced, too. About as homely as a mud fence.

At least he waited for her. When she came out of the trailer, he was the only one there. He jammed her pack into his saddlebag. Then he swung his leg over the bike and started it. The sound of a big engine firing up always got Dee right in her cunt and, riding behind him, who cared what Kellen looked like? She leaned into him on the highway, smoothed her hands over his belly, down to his belt buckle.