“Yeah. But Dust Bunny just called. He’s got two unclaimed, unidentified bodies up there. I’m bringing Dingo, as one of the most recent apostates, to see if he can’t ID the decrepit things. It’s the story of a biker’s life, man. I’ve got to run. But get with Linda here if you think you want this space for your studio.”
I didn’t offer Deloy’s services, as a recent Cornucopia apostate. If Ladell Pratt was really going to go after Deloy, expose him and smear his name into the mud, the poor kid was already looking forward to enough crap. He didn’t need to look into the caved-in mummy’s face of yet another guy who used to beat him up or run him out of town on a rail. I didn’t even know what the bodies were from. A mining accident, I assumed.
I could’ve turned tail and run. I could’ve gone back to my safe house in Bountiful, high above the city. But the more I thought about Ladell Pratt’s threats, the more determined I was to join Gideon in taking him down.
Flannery O’Connor wrote that people don’t realize the cost of religion. They think belief is a giant electric blanket, when it’s really the cross to bear. That’s been my mantra for fifteen years now, and Ladell Pratt was just proving it to me. I believed he’d really take down an innocent, idealistic guy like Deloy Pingree just to exert his superiority over us. It’s much harder to have faith in moments like that than it is to throw up your hands and declare yourself an atheist. To make a leap of faith in the dark means we have to work in a realm of complete doubt and skepticism. We just need to plow ahead, not knowing.
I was a rough and tumble asshole who could be hard as flint when it came to business dealings. I wasn’t going to let some abusive, roly-poly lush scare me out of town. If Gideon’s man won the primaries next summer, we’d be fighting a downhill battle. In the meantime, I wasn’t caving. I’d already sent two Lost Boys to Brigham Young University with profits from Liberty Temple. I was a businessman in my own right back in Bountiful. I could always tell anyone who was curious that our business was strictly an escort and stripper service.
Women liked that sort of thing, I’d found. Maybe I could get all the polyg wives secretly on my side.
I wasn’t worried.
CHAPTER FIVE
OAKLYN
“Did he wear pajamas? Did you see him walking around…naked?”
I brushed off my sister with a superior air. “Of course he didn’t wear pajamas! He’s a bad to the bone kind of guy. And I took the master bedroom, so I did see him stumbling to the main bathroom around six in the morning while I made coffee.”
“So? What did he wear?” You’d think Mahalia didn’t have her own banging hot old man to rock her to sleep at night. She was absolutely voracious.
“He had on those boxer briefs type of underwear. You know what I mean.”
Mahalia’s eyes were shining. “Yeah. The kind that plumps up their giant package.”
I slapped her in mock shock, looking around The High Dive to make sure no one heard her. “Mahalia! But yeah. I saw a glimpse of a package.”
“Speaking of stumbling, have you heard from Giovanni since you hung up on him?”
I shook my head and looked at my gin and tonic. Mahalia had a soda water. “No. No doubt he’s taking advantage of my absence to go gamboling around Provo having a massive meth binge.”
“I don’t understand drug addiction. Giovanni is so handsome.” As if someone’s looks would prevent them from falling prey to a drug.
“It’s complicated. I think some of it’s genetic. But also, Giovanni’s dad is a partier. That’s part of his job as a book publisher, showing people a good time, taking them out.”
Mahalia looked blank. “But Giovanni isn’t a publisher, right? He’s not following in his dad’s footsteps.”
“Right. He just remodels houses that his dad buys for him. When he can manage to get out of bed. Hey, listen. I just went by that Avalanche Urgent Care again to talk to the nurse practitioner there. She said she’s going out on maternity leave soon.” I gave Mahalia a coy look, waiting for her to pick up on the meaning, but she didn’t. I sighed. “I might fill in for her.”
Now there was the surprised face I’d been looking for. “Oaklyn! Get out!” Just as swiftly, though, her face fell. “What about your regular job in Provo with Doctor—”
“Doctor Wise. Well, I was thinking of quitting.”
“Quitting? You mean moving here?”
“Sure. Why not? I have nothing holding me back in Provo, but here I have you. And your Save Our Baby Brides, which is going to need my medical expertise. You’ve got that sister-wife Emersyn you said wanted to escape Cornucopia.”
“And her three kids.”
“Yeah. It makes sense for me to be close by. I miss you, Mahalia. And you’ve got to admit this is one stunning place of beauty. I look out my bedroom window and I feel like Moses is going to be illuminated in a beam of light.”
“Oaklyn! You’re getting all religious on me.”
“That’s about the extent of the religion you’ll hear from me. It’s regarding nature, which I feel is the kingdom of God on earth.”