would have, Jem. I’d have taken that hole in a heartbeat if it meant he got out unscathed.”
Jem frowned. “Well, not sure he’s the empathetic type anymore. You know he promised her you’d be okay?”
Now Thames felt cold as he shot a look of disbelief at him. “What?”
“Yeah, he promised her you’d be okay in prison. That no harm would come to you, and…I’m not trying to dredge shit up so soon, but I can tell that didn’t happen, did it?”
Thames didn’t answer.
His heart thumped wildly in his chest at the sudden fury that came over him. How could Locke have lied to Charlotte so deliberately?
He promised her he’d be okay?
How in the fuck could he have guaranteed that?
As far as Thames was concerned, Locke had never even reached out.
Now he felt sick. His heart beat harder, and his head hurt as he tried to digest Jem’s words.
Noticing his demeanour, Jem didn’t help matters when he hardened his tone and said with finality, “Who does that, right? I’ve never understood Locke’s motives. I just know he’s got a lot of secrets. I also know a guy that has this much power” – he pointed to the restaurant – “does not need our pity. When it comes down to it, Max Locke is not that boy we remember anymore. And that’s not all.”
Jem drove again, this time to the unsavoury part of Blackwater. Still silent, Thames scanned the desperate street, catching sight of drug deals and homeless people huddled under dirty blankets.
Jem slowed to a stop just outside a grimy looking motel. Out front was a group of grubby looking guys, some bizarrely armed with axes and machetes. They stood around, smoking, beers in hand, looking pleasant.
“The crime’s been pushed to this spot right here,” Jem explained. “To this fucking street. All the businesses here have been abandoned and boarded up. Don’t you remember this place, Conor? This is where we used to ride our bikes to go for ice cream.”
A spark of familiarity ran through Thames. “This is Hawthorne street. Henry Tiller owned the businesses all along this road.”
Henry Tiller had been a cheery looking fella, and very rich. He’d always dressed well, was part of the church scene and donated a shit ton of money to the underprivileged kids of Blackwater.
“Some years ago, Locke drove him out of business.”
“Why?” Thames demanded, confused.
Jem shrugged, offering no response.
A knock sounded on Thames’ window. He turned in time to see a woman’s face peering back at him. Jem let out a soft chuckle and rolled the window down.
“Hey, honey, you looking for a good time?” the woman asked, staring straight at Thames with wanton eyes.
Thames glimpsed her quickly, taking in her tiny little dress – she must have been frozen – and overdone make up. Her hair was greasy, her eyes hung low. She was a hooker, and Thames felt oddly distressed just looking at her. She was young. Too young for this shit.
“No,” he said quietly.
She looked over at Jem. “How about you?”
Before Jem could respond, a man yelled from the motel, “You got no business here, Tiana! Get the fuck off this turf, bitch.”
The girl’s face morphed to savage anger. She stepped around the car and screamed, “Fuck you, Kyle! I don’t see your fucking name on this spot.”
“You fucking whore!”
Thames watched as one of the men armed with an axe came barrelling to them. He had his axe pointing at the girl. “Don’t make me fuck you up, bitch!”
She flipped him off, not one fuck given, and meandered down the street and away from them. The grubby looking man with the axe turned to them. “Bitch knows she doesn’t belong here. We don’t condone that sort of business here.”
Jem looked amused. “We weren’t looking for that sort of fun, either, pal.”
Now appearing curious, the man glanced from Jem to Thames and said, “You here for a hit? Anything you want, I can get it for you.”
“Maybe some other time.”
Jem drove off down the street, passing the girl along the way, chuckling at Thames. “Only in Blackwater are the drug dealers so righteous, huh? Not condoning prostitution and giving poor Tiana a hard time. Kinda sad for Tiana.”
“Why is that?”
With a grin that didn’t reach his eyes, Jem said, “Tiana is Henry Tiller’s daughter. Tiller, who was prosperous and giving to his community, wound up in prison for crimes people swear he did not commit. He ended up getting knifed to death a month later by some radical gang that’s