Royal stopped the SUV and Hammer stepped out. “I still think you’re making a mistake.”

 

Royal grinned. They’d drawn straws last night over dinner to stop the discussion. Hammer had drawn the short straw, so he had to stand by the entrance nearest the building to watch for Tony’s arrival, and if the shit hit the fan, he would be the only one not enjoying a stay in a twelve by twelve room, courtesy of the state of North Carolina.

 

“Everyone had an equal chance,” Royal pointed out.

 

Hammer gave him the bird then shut the door as Royal chuckled. It was only minutes after noon but they wanted to be in position well before Tony arrived.

 

Royal drove to the far reaches of the lot and parked the Chevy so they could see the entrance. This entrance was the one Tony would likely use by virtue of it being the first one a driver would pass. Most customers entered here, so this is where Royal, Goon and Blade were set up to watch. When he arrived, they would tail him to his parking spot, bag him, then have frank discussion about the errors of his thinking.

 

“You’re sure he’ll show?” Goon asked as they settled in to wait.

 

“He’ll show. He was practically panting he was so excited Stella was going to meet him.”

 

“Does he know you’re banging his girl?” Blade teased.

 

Royal grinned. “I’m not sure I would call her his girl. I think she pretty well cut his nuts off when he wanted her to leave with him.”

 

“Yeah, yeah, we know,” Goon snickered. “Once they get a taste of the Royal, they’re ruined forever.” He waited until Royal looked at him in the review view. “Until they get a taste of me, of course.”

 

Blade nodded toward the backseat. “That’s why he can’t keep an old lady.”

 

“It’s because I wear their ass out. After a while I’m just too much man for them to handle.”

 

“Funny, that’s not what Ayra told me,” Royal grinned, referring to one of his former old ladies. “Seems to me she said something like ‘He’s too little of a man for me to handle,’ but I could have heard her wrong. Her mouth was full at the time.”

 

Both Blade and Goon chuckled. It was well known among the Iron Kings that Royal could get all the pussy he could handle, though he’d started toning it down in the last year or so.

 

“You and this chick you’re seeing getting it worked out?” Blade asked.

 

“I hope so.”

 

“You dated her before, right?”

 

“Yeah. Two years. I left her when I became a prospect.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Stupid.”

 

“You love her?”

 

“Yeah. I guess I never stopped.”

 

Blade nodded then looked out the side window a moment before he looked back. “Then all kidding aside, I hope it works out for you. Having an old lady to keep your back warm, that’s something special.”

 

“How long have you two been married?” Goon asked Blade.

 

“Twelve years.”

 

He shook his head. “I like having an old lady, but I don’t know about that marriage shit. That’s a lot of commitment. We’re usually are at each other’s throats in six months.”

 

Blade nodded. “Trust me, when you find the right one, you won’t think of it as a commitment.”

 

Royal nodded in understanding. He’d fucked more women than he cared to remember. None of them he cared about for more than a place to stick his cock, except one. He would gladly make her his old lady if she only gave him the chance.

 

“Yeah, more like a prison sentence,” Goon said with a grin.

 

The three brothers continued the banter while keeping an eye on the entrance. “Is that him?” Royal asked as a white contractor truck made the turn and drove along the road in front of them before turning into the Lowes parking lot.

 

“Looks like him.” Blade agreed as Royal started the truck. “Shit! He’s coming this way!”

 

“Down!” Royal ordered, switching off the Suburban as the three men scrunched low in their seats.

 

Tony pulled to a stop three spaces over and sat in his truck, engine idling, probably to keep the air conditioner running. If he didn’t switch off the truck that would make their job even harder.

 

“Fuck!” Goon said as he lay on his side in the back seat. “What’s he doing out here?”

 

“I guess he had the same idea we did,” Royal said as he motored the seat back to give himself a little more room under the wheel to relieve the pain on his knees.

 

“Now what do we do?” Blade asked, looking over at Royal. “The minute we open the doors he’s going to see us.”

 

Royal nodded in agreement. He and Goon might be able to squeeze out on the side opposite from Tony’s truck, but Blade was stuck. “Shit,” he grunted as he struggled to pull his ringing phone from his pocket. By the time he finally had it out, it had stopped ringing. He looked at the screen and pressed redial.

 

“Tony just called me,” Stella said almost instantly. “He said he was there and wanted to know where I was.”

 

“Yeah, I know. He’s parked right beside us. What did you tell him?”

 

“I told him I was almost there. Was that wrong?”

 

“No, that’s fine. I just have to figure out how to handle this without spooking him.”

 

“Do you want me to call him back and tell him I’m there, to see if he’ll move?”

 

“No, that will only raise suspicions.”

 

“Okay. Remembering your promise.”

 

“I haven’t forgotten,” he said.

 

“Good luck.”

 

He snickered. “Yeah, thanks. We look like dumbasses all scrunched up in the floor of the truck.”

 

She giggled. “I have to go. A customer is coming. Call me when it’s over.”

 

Before he could respond, the phone beeped as the call ended. He took a deep breath. “Okay, Goon, you and I are going to see if we can squeeze out without him noticing. Blade, stay where you are until we make our move.”

 

“This is killing my back!”

 

Royal began to snicker. “You should try it over here under the wheel.”

 

“I’m good,” Goon added helpfully from the back.

 

“Swell,” Royal sneered, then handed Blade his phone. “Call Hammer. Have him start working this way. Goon, let’s go.” He opened the door and slithered out then eased the door shut, staying low and out of sight, Goon doing the same. When Goon reached behind him, Royal touched him on the shoulder. “No guns,” he said quietly. “That will only make things worse.”

 

Royal and Goon crouched beside the SUV until they saw Hammer, walking across the parking lot like he belonged. When he reached the car nearest them, he looked down like he was looking for keys, then disappeared beside the car. He was at least fifty yard away, but he couldn’t get any closer because there were no other cars this far out.

 

“Okay, we’re going to play it just like we planned. I’m going around first and open Tony’s door. You help me drag his ass out of the truck and get him into ours. We’re going to have to be fast. One advantage this far out is we don’t have to worry about anyone noticing from the store. You watch and tell me when there’s a break in traffic. I’ll go on your word, and you come right behind me.”

 

Royal crouched at the corner of the Chevy, waiting for Goon’s all clear. “Go!”

 

Royal sprinted around the back of the SUV with Goon on his heels, Blade opening the door the moment they passed. Royal yanked the door open, and reached in to turn off the engine and release Tony’s seatbelt. They had the element of surprise and he was going to use it for all it was worth.

 

Tony instinctually grabbed Royal’s arm as he reached into the interior, twisting it way from the steering wheel. Goon reached in beside Royal, and grabbed Tony by the shirt, pulling him hard toward the door. The engine roared as Tony floored the throttle in his struggle against Royal and Goon. The belt came loose and Tony lurched toward the door, then grabbed the wheel in a death grip. Giving up on switching the engine off, Royal grabbed Tony’s shirt to help Goon pull him out. Tony released the wheel long enough to take a swing at him. The punch missed, and without his right hand on the wheel, they began to drag him out. Tony grabbed at the wheel again, hitting the gear lever in the process. The truck lunged forward under full throttle acceleration, jumping the curb and running down a small decorative tree.

 

Goon and Royal tumbled to the ground at the truck roared away. Blade dashed toward Tony’s truck as it slid to a stop in the grass strip between the parking lot and the road. He’d just reached the side of the truck when Tony must have recovered from his surprise, because the Ford roared, its rear tires spitting grass and dirt as he floored the truck again, bounding over the curb and into the road.

 

Royal was already getting behind the wheel when Goon and Blade piled into the SUV. Hammer was running hard to join them, but they didn’t have time to wait on him. Royal started the Suburban and the moment the engine started, he banged the truck into gear and floor the throttle, driving the SUV over the curb and through the grass onto the road as Tony had.

 

He saw Tony make the right at the end of the road at the light, but when he arrived traffic was already flowing across the intersection. He made a hole to a cacophony of horns but got caught at the next light behind a couple of cars, just as Tony made another right. Royal tried to edge around the two cars blocking him by driving up in the grass, but the concrete wall retaining wall and light pole prevented him from squeezing past. When the light finally changed he made the right and matted the throttle, but Tony was gone.

 

“Right, right, right!” Blade called, pointing frantically at his window with his hand.

 

“Do you see him?” Royal asked as the Suburban bellowed down the onramp and onto the interstate.

 

“No, but I wouldn’t risk getting caught at the light to make a left if I were in his shoes.”

 

Royal kept the throttle down until he reached the I-73, I-85, Business 85 interchange. There were so many loops and exits, all clustered together, Tony could have gone any one of a half-dozen different directions, and that was assuming he’d even come this way.

 

“Fuck!” Royal snarled, slamming the palm of his hand against the steering wheel as he lifted and the Chevy began to slow. “Goon, you okay?”

 

“I’m going to have a hell of a bruise on my shoulder, but yeah, I’m okay. You?”

 

“I think I damn near dislocated my shoulder, and having your fat ass falling on me didn’t help, but yeah, I’m okay.”

 

“Now what?”

 

Royal sighed and began working over to get off the interstate and turn around. “We go back for Hammer. We made our play to do it the easy way. Now we have to do it the hard way.”

 

“Damnit!” Goon snapped. “If the truck just hadn’t been running we would’ve had him!”

 

“He was lucky,” Blade said. “If he hadn’t hit the gear lever by accident…”

 

Royal nodded, then frowned. “Jesus Christ! Are we going to have to drive all the way back to South Carolina just to turn around?”

 

***

 

“I don’t see him,” Hammer said as he sat down in the SUV and closed the door. “You were gone so long I thought you caught him. What happened anyway?”

 

“No. We couldn’t catch him. He made a light I didn’t,” Royal explained. “By the time I cleared the light he was gone. We made our best guess on which way he went, but we didn’t see anything. After that…” He shrugged. “They don’t build exits on the interstates in North Carolina. It took us ten minutes to get to the next exit.”

 

“He must have seen you coming or something. You barely got the door open before he was gone.”

 

“He got lucky,” Royal said. “He won’t the next time.”

 

“So what’s the plan?” Hammer asked.

 

“Back to Greenfield to regroup. I didn’t bring my laptop, and we’re going to need more wheels to get a line on him.” Royal grimaced, knowing they missed their best, most likely chance to bag him. “One thing’s for damn sure: he’s going to be a lot more skittish now that he knows we’re onto him.”