“Just give me one second,” I said and walked back to the table with a plate of food. “You hungry?” I asked.
Tristan eyed the plate of scrambled eggs, grits, and bacon. “I’ll just leave it right here in case you decide you want to eat,” I said and placed the plate in front of him before heading for the door.
Grant was waiting outside the shed door looking tired as hell. “Check his restraints and replace his gag. We won’t be long,” Copper told him as he passed.
We’d made it no more than twenty feet from the shed when we heard a shrill scream followed by gagging and grunts of pain.
“What the fuck did you do, Judge?” Copper asked.
I grinned. “I seasoned his breakfast with a Carolina Reaper.”
Copper whistled low and shook his head while trying not to laugh. “Oh, fuck me, that’s a good one.”
“Prez,” Grant called out from behind us sounding worried. “Should I..? Is he…? Uh, I mean—”
“Let him be. If he chokes or stops breathing, call Splint,” Copper said.
“Yes, sir,” Grant nodded and closed the door to the shed.
We walked into Church to find Coal sitting with a woman who looked like she’d seen better days a long damn time ago. She was the stereotypical woman who refused to acknowledge her age and ultimately made herself look far worse by wearing animal print leggings, a tight, lowcut black shirt, gold jewelry everywhere, way too much makeup, big, poofy hair, and a horrid spray tan.
Copper extended his hand to the woman. “I’m Copper Black. And you are?”
“Mitzie Mayfield,” she huffed. “Shouldn’t you know that?”
Copper ignored her and directed his attention to the rest of us. “Brothers, this is Tristan’s mother, Mitzie Mayfield. I invited her to the clubhouse to see if she’d be willing to chat with us regarding her family’s recent activities,” Copper shared.
Mitzie sat back in her chair and made a show of adjusting her breasts while she smacked and clicked her gum. “Yeah, sure, I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, as soon as I’m compensated.”
Copper pulled out his wallet and placed five one-hundred dollar bills on the table. “Will that be enough for your troubles?”
She quickly took the money and narrowed her eyes. “Not for what you’re wanting to know.”
“How about you name your price so we can get on with it instead of wasting time with this back and forth bullshit?” I snapped.
“Fifty thousand dollars.”
I opened my mouth but shut it when Copper held his hand up. “Fine. Fifty thousand dollars,” he agreed.
“Prez,” I protested.
“Shut the fuck up, Judge. Bronze, grab a check from my office.”
Bronze returned with a check and I watched in disbelief as Copper made it out to Mitzie Mayfield for the amount she requested. He placed it in the middle of the table, but kept one finger on it while he spoke. “You can have this once we’ve heard what you have to say.”
She leaned back, crossed her legs, and continued to obnoxiously smack her gum. “Well, see, all this shit started when Roy met that whore, Spring. I mean, he always liked to have his fun on the weekends with his drugs and his whores, but I didn’t give a shit because it kept him out of my hair, you know? But that bitch, she just wouldn’t go away. Well, when I found out he’d been giving her shit for free, I put a fucking stop to it. He can fuck whoever he wants, but his money’s mine. Well, she didn’t like that, so she convinces him to start selling, so she can still get hers without paying. And she got away with it until his dumbass got arrested.”
She paused and pulled an e-cig from the depths of her cleavage. “You mind if I vape?”
Copper waved his hand dismissively. “Go ahead.”
She sucked on the contraption and blew out a plume of berry-smelling vapor. “So, I had to call my brother to get the money to get him out of jail, which was this huge thing because he didn’t want his wife to find out. Well, Roy got arrested two more times, so she did find out and threatened to stop paying for my house. So, I told Roy he needed to get out and make it look like we were getting divorced. Told him he could shack up with his little whore until my sister-in-law calmed down. We was just staying together for the sake of the kids anyway.”
It was all I could do to maintain the blank expression on my face. Was she serious? For the kids? All three kids were grown, and I knew for a fact one had moved out years ago.
“Well, the shit hit the fan when my niece died. You would’ve thought I killed her myself with the way my brother and his wife were carrying on. They cut us off from everything, even after I kicked Roy out. Said some shit like ‘If we weren’t part of the solution, we were part of the problem.’ I’m an understanding person and all, so I waited for a few days after the funeral to talk to them. Told them I wanted to be part of the ‘solution’.” She sucked in another lungful of vapor and exhaled exaggeratedly. “You know, blew some smoke up their hoity-toity asses.”
“So, they said they believed me and everything went back to normal. But then, my sister-in-law shows up at my house and tells me the only way she’ll keep paying my way is if I got Roy to get her some heroin. Said she’d make sure we didn’t get into any trouble with the cops and she’d even give us some extra cash for our troubles. But I didn’t want Roy to know about any of it because I didn’t want Spring trying to get her hands on my money, so I asked my son to do it.”