Slip and Slide Page 18

  Thayne leaned close. “So if I ordered for example, peach moonshine, I’ll get jumped in the parking lot?”

  Jarrett snickered, making those deep dimples appear and his light eyes twinkle. “Probably safer than if you asked for a peach Bellini but are you willing to risk it?”

  Thayne chuckled just as the bartender walked up. He was a huge man and he was cleaning a shot glass with a bar towel.

  “What can I get for y’all?”

  “My friend here has never tried moonshine,” Jarrett drawled, letting his accent come out in full force. “Thought since he’s visitin’… it might be the perfect time to change all that. Give him the good stuff, not that tourist trade shit.”

  The bartender smiled beneath his long mustache as he raised a bushy eyebrow. “That’ll be two then?”

  “Yes, thanks,” Thayne answered. “And a green salad with chicken,” he said, reading off the bar menu.

  “Fair ‘nuff,” the bartender replied, turning to Jarrett. “You?”

  “T-bone, medium rare, and a baked potato, with all the trimmings.”

  “Comin’ right up.” The bartender reached under the bar and poured something, finally producing two mason jars filled a quarter of the way with clear liquid. He set one in front of each of them before moving away to put in their food orders.

  Jarrett picked up the mason jar, holding it up to toast Thayne. “We drink to those who love us… we drink to those who don’t. We drink to those who fuck us… and fuck to those who won’t.”

  Thayne laughed as he watched Jarrett take a long drink of the moonshine as he shot the whole thing down. His eyes squinted, then closed, and then he sucked in both cheeks before opening his mouth and letting out a satisfied “Ahh…”

  “Good?”

  Jarrett’s eyes fluttered open. “It’ll put hair on your chest, that’s for sure,” he drawled.

  Thayne lifted the jar and took a deep sniff of the moonshine. There wasn’t much scent to it, similar to vodka. For some reason, he’d thought it would smell like motor oil. He had no idea why. He lifted his glass, toasting Jarrett like his partner had.

  “Here’s to the ideal woman… who could ask for more? She’s deaf and dumb, oversexed… and owns a liquor store.” He threw back the moonshine as Jarrett burst into laughter. Thayne instantly felt the hot burn of diesel fuel pour down the back of his throat. He gasped and when he was able to cough out a breath, he felt like he could breathe fire.

  Jarrett clapped him on the back as he sputtered and the bartender appeared in front of his watery eyes. He was grinning like crazy, his mustache twitching.

  “That was fun ta watch. Entertain me with another?” the bartender asked with a deep drawl.

  Jarrett nodded his head. “Yep. One more before dinner.”

  Thayne turned his head, still gasping, and looked at his partner. “You didn’t tell me this stuff packs this much of a wallop.”

  “The next one will go down easier,” Jarrett promised. His eyes were dancing as he snickered.

  The bartender came over and set down two more mason jars. Thayne’s head was buzzing already but he was not going to let Jarrett best him in this game he was playing. He watched as Jarrett picked up the mason jar and toasted him again.

  “One shot, two shots, three shots, four… if she’s ugly, shoot some more.”

  Thayne laughed as Jarrett shot back the moonshine and then slammed the thick glass mason jar back on the bar. Watching him drink was almost as much fun as drinking with him.

  “Okay, the last one,” Thayne said. He picked up his mason jar and held it up to toast Jarrett. “No matter how fine, that ass is to hit… remember somebody, is sick of his shit.” He shot back the moonshine and set down the mason jar. Jarrett was right. This time the moonshine went down a lot easier. Thayne watched his lover dissolve into laughter. He looked stunning with deep dimples in his cheeks and his eyes twinkling. Jarrett’s laughter was contagious and soon Thayne was laughing along with him.

  They were still chuckling a few minutes later when the bartender brought their food over and set it down in front of them. Thayne’s salad looked amazing, topped with southern fried chicken and drizzled with a balsamic vinaigrette. Jarrett’s steak was huge and the baked potato that accompanied it was served on a separate plate because they were both too big to share a single plate. They tucked into their food and ate with gusto. They ate quickly, filling the empty places in their stomachs that the workout they’d given each other in their bed had left. That, along with the moonshine they’d consumed, had given them quite an appetite. Once they’d finished their meals and bartender had taken away their empty plates, they sat back patting their bellies.

  “I have a food baby,” Jarrett said.

  Thayne glanced at his partner to see him run his fingers over the tiniest of bulges visible under the olive-green shirt he wore. Jarrett looked about four months pregnant as he stuck out his stomach full of the massive steak he’d finished. Thayne began to chuckle again but stopped when Jarrett suddenly looked over his shoulder and then caught his attention, nudging his elbow.

  Thayne turned his head to find a couple of the miners they’d noticed earlier out at the Red Hills Mine, sitting at a table nearby. The miners had been standing with McBride when he’d approached them and insulted Jarrett. They were glancing back and forth between themselves, looking as if they were trying to decide whether to walk over to them or not. Finally, they stood up and began coming over. Jarrett and Thayne straightened as they strolled up.

  “Y’all are federal agents? Out here to find out what caused the blast down in the mine?”

  “Yep. That’s why we’re here,” Jarrett said to the two men.

  “Should ask Boggs why he ain’t allowin’ Haney to spend any of the federal safety funds the last owners got after the accident in 2011.”

  “There was another accident?” Thayne asked.

  The men both nodded and the smaller of the two spoke up again. “Yep. A partial cave-in. We’d complained a hell of a lot about the cracks in the timber before it happened.”

  “Was anyone hurt?” Jarrett asked.

  The men both snorted and grinned but their smiles were not nice ones. In fact, they both looked pissed. “Naw, but just barely. John Magnusson and Big Earl Weaver got trapped but we dug ‘em out. They didn’t do a damned thing to replace the rotting timber afterward and we all hear the Saginaw Collective got half a million dollars to fix all the safety violations the mine keeps gettin’ cited for. If’n the mine got the upgraded ventilation, this explosion would ‘a never happened. Damn shame, that,” the miner said.

  “The Saginaw Collective was the owner when the accident happened? The prior owner?” Jarrett asked. Thayne recognized the anger in his partner’s voice immediately, even with the lingering effects of the moonshine that still coursed through him.

  “Yep. Goin’ on five years ago. Saginaw never fixed anythin’ at all. Rumors was they was leavin’ that to Boggs, the new CEO, to fix. We was worried at first but how do you say—placated—when they told us they was finally gonna get things done. Boggs and the Red Hills Mining Collective had a meetin’ with us when the mine was sold and when we brought it up in the meetin’, they told us they and the UMW would be makin’ sure everythin’ got fixed. Then they left us down there in the same damn dangerous workin’ conditions without proper ventilation the same as Saginaw did. Nothin’ changed. Intercom don’t work but half the time, and that explosion that killed our boys and injured Harlan, could ‘a been avoided if they did what they promised but they was too cheap to do anythin’.”

  “It were straight up murder,” his friend added, looking side to side as he leaned closer. “But y’all didn’t hear that from us.”

  If it was true, the miner’s accusations could send Boggs and others involved to jail. Not properly using federal funds m
eant for safety upgrades after an accident was criminal, and Thayne could only wonder who’d made the decision not to fix the ventilation which could have carried the carbon monoxide and methane out of the mine. Surely it would have helped to prevent the explosion which had killed the four miners and seriously wounded Harlan Sizemore. If true, it was stupid beyond all belief, but Haney had not mentioned anything about federal safety funds when they’d been out at the mine that morning. He wondered whether Boggs and his corporate lawyers thought that greasing someone’s palm with bribes was a better use for some of the money. If true, the state’s attorney general was the one responsible for prosecuting crimes against the mine owner. They needed to be notified.

  Whatever the case, if the money had been diverted elsewhere, heads were certainly going to roll now. Perhaps that had been why Boggs was meeting with Congressman Clifford Geary. A lot of things could have happened to that money meant for safety upgrades but Jarrett and Thayne’s hands were really tied because they hadn’t seen any of the citations issued by the MSHA inspectors yet. As interested as Thayne was in figuring out what the hell was going on, he was just as interested in the expression on Jarrett’s face. His partner was trying very hard to mask his outrage with what the miners were telling them, but Thayne was fascinated by the way his whole body had stiffened into what could only be described as a seated Marine who’d come to full attention. Fuck, I love seeing him like this.

  Jarrett slid off the barstool and held out a hand. “We’ll look into what you men said and I can promise y’all, we’ll take it to heart.”

  Thayne watched as both men’s eyes widened and then they began to nod. One even smiled and as Thayne slid off his stool and also shook their hands, he realized that maybe they finally had a lead in what was going on down here. The fact that Sales and Lafford hadn’t shared this information with them bothered Thayne and as soon as the men walked away and they sat back down, Thayne turned to Jarrett.

  “Do you think Sales and Lafford knew about the federal safety funds?”

  Jarrett frowned. “I seriously hope not. If they did and didn’t say anything about it, I hate to say it, but maybe it was a good idea for us to come to West Virginia after all.”

  “They said that they didn’t even have copies of the citations,” Thayne said. “I wonder if that’s true or if they thought they could get away with hiding something like that from us. It might explain what that politician is doing down here.”

  “Yeah, that crossed my mind. Now that this explosion has happened, he may be down here sniffing around to see what everyone knows and how far the ATF was going to take our investigation. I’m sure they didn’t like seeing us in addition to Sales and Lafford. How many damn times have we heard ‘more ATF’ coming out of someone’s mouth? I don’t like it at all, Thayne. We gotta get our hands on them citations.”

  “You really think that Boggs and the Red Hills Mining Collective aren’t going to come under scrutiny now that this accident happened and how in the hell did they think they’d get away without doing the safety upgrades they were supposed to do?”

  “Not only that,” Jarrett said, “How is it the union hasn’t made a stink about it until now?”

  “Well, Sales and Lafford did say that the union was almost toothless down here when so many men would be willing to cross picket lines because of the economy. Once they lose their jobs, they probably fear they won’t ever come back.”

  “That’s a fucked-up cryin’ shame, Thayne.” He turned away from Thayne and seemed to be searching the bar for something.

  Thayne nodded when their bartender walked over.

  “Can I get you fellas anythin’ else? We got a mean apple pie… just came out’a the oven.”

  Jarrett patted his belly and Thayne smiled remembering his crack about having a food baby. “I’m so full I could pop.” He glanced at Thayne. “Partner?”

  Thayne stared at him for a second before looking up at the bartender. He shook his head. “No. Not a thing. I’m completely stuffed. That salad was great. We’ll just take the check.”

  “One more moonshine for ya boys?”

  Thayne laughed and shook his head again. “Nope. We have to work tomorrow but thank you anyway.”

  The bartender’s mustache twitched and he reached into his pocket, pulled out a pad, and handed them a handwritten check. “Y’all are welcome to come back.”

  “Thank you.” Jarrett took out his wallet and pulled out the credit card Stanger had given them before they left Los Angeles. “We’ll pay for the alcohol with cash.”

  The bartender nodded and took the card, moving off to the cash register. He came back with a credit card slip for them to sign and they stood up, laid down some cash for their moonshine, took their receipt, and walked out of the bar. When they got outside, Thayne was brought up short by what they saw. None other than Rush McBride and the men he’d had with him were standing in the parking lot smoking. They were the same men who’d approached him in the bar.

  “You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Thayne said as soon as he saw them. Jarrett let out what sounded like a low growl and Thayne distinctively heard a curse under his breath.

  “What kind of fuckin’ fuckery is this now?” Jarrett said.

  Thayne leaned close as they continued to walk slowly toward them. “Nothing quite as fun as fuckin’ fuckery, I promise you.”

  Jarrett barked a laugh and looked at him, giving Thayne a wide grin. “Aw, you made a funny, darlin’.”

  The look on his lover’s face nearly made Thayne’s toes curl. Yeah, I definitely love the son of a bitch.

  McBride eyeballed them as they walked up and Thayne watched the two men they’d talked to in the bar lean close and say something to him. Earlier, out at the mine, the two men had been watching McBride confront Jarrett with eager anticipation. Now that they’d actually had a chance to talk to Thayne and Jarrett, they looked a lot more reluctant to allow their friend to engage them. Thayne hoped that cooler heads would prevail, but when McBride shook his head and walked away from them, even though they tried to hold him back, it didn’t look like the idiot was going to take his friends’ advice.

  “There’s the ATF fairy,” McBride said. He stopped walking when he was about fifteen feet away. His friends stood just behind him, looking very uncomfortable. McBride threw his cigarette on the ground and stomped on it and then spat on the ground as well. He glared at Jarrett. “A man can’t even get a bite to eat without bein’ surrounded by feds and fairies.”

  Thayne couldn’t believe the gall the man had. He obviously had some serious latent anger at Jarrett from when they were in high school or he was just stupid as hell. Jarrett probably outweighed the guy by forty pounds of pure muscle and he was at least four inches taller than the bully. Jarrett’s answering laugh was not a happy one. It kind of chilled even Thayne and he loved Jarrett.

  “Feds and fairies? Sounds like a Broadway play,” Jarrett said. “Don’t think I’ve seen that one. What’s it about?”

  “Better shut the hell up, fruit!” McBride sneered and Jarrett snorted.

  “Oh, now you’re hurtin’ my feelings, Rush. And here my partner and I were out for a nice meal and some moonshine.” He turned away from McBride and glanced at Thayne. “That was a great meal wasn’t it, partner?”

  Thayne nodded. “It was a great meal and that moonshine was to die for.”

  Jarrett grinned widely at him. “Yeah, it was! It really was!” Jarrett’s voice dripped with sarcasm. Rush McBride grinned but when he looked back to find his two companions had dropped back and were turning to walk away, his face contorted with anger.

  “Hey, where you two pussies goin’? Get back here!” He bellowed.

  “They’re here to help us out, Rush,” one of them said.

  “Yeah, besides, they’re feds, man. Don’t want no part of a twenty-year-old beef
you got,” his companion said quietly. “Let him be.” The man turned and joined his partner, walking away from Jarrett and Thayne, leaving their friend facing them in the parking lot alone.

  McBride had obviously thought he was going to get more cooperation from his two companions and when he didn’t, he grew even more outraged.

  “Grow up, asshole,” Jarrett said. He turned and glanced at Thayne, then leaned close to him. “You ever heard of this Feds and Fairies? I bet it bombs on Broadway.”

  “It’s a super stupid name for a play,” Thayne said, joining Jarrett as they turned their backs on the fuming miner.

  Jarrett grinned and nodded. “Right?” He suddenly smacked Thayne’s arm. “Wait! I saw that.” He made a flick of his wrist and leaned in, widening his eyes dramatically. “Personally, I thought there’d be more dancing.”

  Thayne chuckled heartily as they walked away, leaving Rush McBride standing there all alone, sputtering like Elmer Fudd.

  ****

  They’d just gotten into their rental truck to head back to the hotel when Jarrett’s phone began to trill. He dug around in his pocket and pulled it out, handing it to Thayne because he was driving. Thayne checked the caller ID and looked up at Jarrett.

  “It’s your dad.”

  “Answer it.”

  Thayne looked at him askance and then nodded, swiping the phone. He held it up to his ear.

  “Hello, sir. This is Thayne. Jarrett’s driving.”

  “Thayne. Nice to hear your voice. Where are you boys?” he drawled.

  “We just had dinner and were headed back to the hotel.”

  “Why don’t you come out here. The boys would like to see you two again before you have to leave for California and your time here will be short.”

  Thayne’s eyes widened a little as he glanced at Jarrett who had a small smile on his face. “I’ll ask, sir. Just a minute.” He turned to Jarrett. “He wants us to come over to visit your family again.”