We went to bed early that night. After talking five grand out of the mafia and making a deal to go behind their backs with Janey, I was pretty fucking exhausted. Besides, I needed to do more thinking, more planning, before this all went down.

I was up earlier than Hartley, like usual. I made coffee and pancakes again. After breakfast, we got dressed and hit the road.

We drove out to the Caldwell’s place again, though this time we weren’t going out for a fun little ATV tour. The bag with the money in it was stashed in the back, and I was hoping that the deal from the night before still stood. I believed I understood Janey, but it had been so long. Anything could happen, and I had to be ready for it.

We parked in the lot and I looked at Hartley. “What?” she asked.

“Nothing,” I grunted. “Just thinking about last night.”

“Which part?”

“The part where I licked that pussy until you couldn’t think anymore.”

She blushed and looked away. “I thought we weren’t talking about it.”

“Just hadn’t brought it up yet is all.”

“Well, I’m glad you had fun.”

I laughed. “You’re the one who had fun. I’ve been fucking hard ever since.”

“Not much I can do about that.”

“With a fucking body like that, there’s a lot you can do for this hard cock.”

She stared at me for a second and then shook her head. “Let’s just get this over with.”

“All right then. Right down to business.”

She opened her door and stepped out. I followed, grabbing the bag from the back. I let her lead the way, enjoying the view of her firm little ass swaying in her short jean shorts. It was taking all of my strength and willpower not to fucking press her up against a wall and take her like I wanted to.

But I knew better. Mixing business and pleasure wasn’t the smartest move in the world. Still, with Hartley I could barely resist wanting that pleasure. She was built for it, begging for it, and I wanted to take her and make her moan my name. Nothing got me harder than seeing that girl come while looking in my eyes.

We went up to the front door and entered into the main room again. Brock, Janey’s dumbest brother, was standing behind the front counter, reading a magazine. He looked up as I approached.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, not even pretending like he didn’t know.

“I’m here to see Janey.”

He frowned. “Why? And you know, I didn’t appreciate you lying to me the other day.”

“I didn’t lie. I just didn’t tell you who I was.”

His frown deepened. “Janey is busy.”

“Get her. Tell her I’m here to finish our deal from last night.”

“What deal?”

I sighed. “Go get your sister, Brock. I don’t have all fucking day.”

Brock straightened up at that. “Hey now. That’s no way to talk to me.”

“Listen, Brock. This has been a rough few days. I really don’t need to deal with your shit, too.”

I could feel Hartley next to me getting uncomfortable, but fuck if I was going to eat shit from this dumbass.

Brock slowly came out from behind the counter and stood directly in front of me, squaring off. “I said, Janey’s fucking busy. Come back another time.”

“Your sister is going to be very pissed when she realizes that her dumbass brother ruined a business arrangement for her.”

I stared him down, practically begging for him to come at me. I was feeling particularly annoyed today, and a little fight with Brock was probably enough to blow off some of that steam.

Unfortunately for me, though, King stepped in through the back door.

“She’s waiting for you in the barn,” King called out. “Brock, back down, man.”

I smirked at Brock. “Listen to your brother.”

I could tell he wanted to swing, and badly. Instead, he slowly backed down. He turned and walked behind the counter, grumbling to himself the whole time.

“Come on,” I said to Hartley. We went back out the front door and headed across the property toward the barn. I knew exactly where I was going, considering I’d just scouted the place recently.

The back doors were sitting slightly open. I pushed them open and stepped in, Hartley on my heels.

What I saw stopped me in my tracks.

The whole damn place was empty.

Janey was leaning up against a hay bale not far away, smoking a cigarette. She smiled at me as I looked around. I finally stared at her and cocked my head to the side.

“Those things will kill you,” I said to her.

She laughed. “That’s it? Nothing else to say?”

I shrugged. “You moved the stuff. I’m not exactly surprised.”

She laughed again, shaking her head. “I guess I should have expected that. Mister Navy SEAL can’t be surprised.” Janey looked at Hartley. “Is he always like this?”

“Yeah, he is,” Hartley grumbled.

I grinned at her. “If I were still going to try to steal that stuff from you, this would be a huge deal, but that’s not my plan.”

“Before we discuss plans, I believe you have something for me.”

I tossed her the bag. She caught it effortlessly and looked inside.

“It’s all there,” I said, “courtesy of the Dixie Mafia.”

She looked surprised. “This is Dixie money?”

“I told them it was to hire a crew to rip you off.”

A bemused smile broke out across her face. “That seems suicidal to me.”

“Well, it’s good you didn’t have to make that call then, isn’t it?”

“I guess so.”

I felt someone approach from behind, and I resisted the desire to turn around. Instead, I looked blandly at Janey.

“Can you ask your brother to get out of my blind spot?”

Janey nodded and King moved farther to the left, getting into my peripheral vision.

“Thank you.”

“So tell me, Travis, why should I let you live?”

I sighed. “Why the fuck is everyone asking me that question?”

“It’s a good question. You seem like you’re more trouble than you’re worth.”

King began to drift back into my blind spot. I turned my head toward him. “Stop moving,” I said.

He glanced at Janey.

“Travis, I’m being serious.”

“So am I,” I said to her. “Your brother moves again, I’ll fucking break his knee.”

“I’d love to see you try,” King said, stepping up to me and drifting into my blind spot again.

I moved fast. I stepped sideways toward him, driving my elbow low and hard into his stomach. He stumbled backward and tried to get his hands up, but I wasn’t going high. Instead, I shifted my weight and swung a rough kick into the side of his knee.

He crumpled to the ground, grabbing his leg.

“Enough,” Janey said loudly. “Enough.”

I stood up straight. “I warned him. Twice.”

“What do you want, Travis?”

King was rolling side to side. “Relax,” I said to him. “I didn’t break it, you big baby.” I looked back at Janey. “You know what I want.”

“You want to make a deal. You paid me, which is good, but now you’ve hurt my brother. I’ll ask one more time: What do you want?”

I took a deep breath, calming down. “I want to give you the Dixie Mafia. I want to get the leaders, or at least the ones who are local, in a single room. Then I want to kill them all.”

I felt Hartley shift her weight nervously behind me. She knew the gist of the plan, but hearing it like that was probably pretty harsh.

“Interesting,” Janey said. I could see the curiosity in her eyes.

“If they die, you can grab hold of the local drug trade in Knoxville and its neighboring counties, no problem.”

“What do you want in exchange?”

“Three things. First, nobody knows we were involved in this. Second, me and Hartley walk away from this. Third, you pay off Hartley’s family debt.”

She looked amused. “That’s all?”

King slowly struggled up to his feet. “I say we kill them,” he said, giving me a pissed-off look.

I ignored him. “That’s all. Hartley’s debt is fifty grand. The drug trade is going to make you way more than that, and we both know it.”

“I’m doing a lot of work in this deal,” Janey said. “There’s a lot that could go wrong.”

“Yeah, maybe, but this is your chance to finally hit back. No more pissing them off. You can win.”

I didn’t know if she’d go for this, but I had a feeling she would.

Janey was a business woman. She was in this for the profit, and she did nothing that didn’t directly profit her. If this went down the way I planned it would, she stood to make a huge profit.

But more than that, she hated the Dixie Mafia. Janey was the type of person that wanted full control and couldn’t settle for a sidelined position. I was guessing that being so out of control in that car with Ray that night had taught her never to let someone else do the driving. She’d walked away from it once, but she might not again.

“It’s an interesting idea,” Janey said.

“You can’t be serious,” King snapped. “This guy is an animal.”

I sneered at him. “Go ahead. Say that again. I’ll break your fucking skull.”

“Jesus, enough you two,” Janey said. “King, get the fuck out.”

King glared at me, spit on the ground, and then hobbled out the back door.

Janey walked over toward us, looking at me curiously. “You don’t seem like the same guy you once were,” she said.

“I’m not,” I admitted. “And you’re not the same girl.”

“No,” she said. “We’ve both changed a lot.” She looked at Hartley. “Why is he doing this for you?”

Hartley looked surprised. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I honestly don’t.”

“You’re pretty; I’ll give you that. But this man is offering to dismantle a very dangerous and powerful gang. All for what, some peach farmer’s daughter?” Janey shook her head. “I’d never do it, no offence. Nobody is worth this much effort.”

“You don’t understand a thing about me,” I said to Janey, “but I think I understand you. Getting control of Knoxville is your dream, isn’t it?”

“Something like that,” she said, nodding.

“I got you your money. I’m for real, Janey. Come into business with me. I’ll give you Knoxville, and you’ll give us freedom.”

She stared at me for a second, considering, and finally laughed. Her face shifted from an intense and dangerous stare to her old cheerleader smile. “Okay then,” she said. “Let’s do it.”

As she reached out and shook my hand, I couldn’t help but feel like I was shaking hands with a snake.

But it didn’t matter. All I knew was that I couldn’t steal that shipment from her, not really. My next best move was to topple the mafia, at least locally, and hope that they’d be too disorganized to realize that it was me who set them up. Then once Hartley’s debt was paid, we’d be out of this, and Janey would have her power.

All in theory, of course. I needed to get the heads of the Dixie Mafia together in a single room, and I needed Janey to uphold her end of the bargain.

A lot of loose ends, a lot of possibilities for failure. But this was the best course of action.

It had to be the best, because I was committed to it.