Chapter 9: What Amos Told Me

Boone's POV

I took the stairwell instead of the elevator.

I needed to hit something, and the stairs were the only thing that wouldn't call the cops.

Lena was in the ladies' room at the end of the hall, washing her face.

I stood at the bottom of the stairs with my father's letter in my fist and let myself think about what I hadn't told her.

I had told her Amos cornered me at the cemetery gate.

That was true.

I had told her he threatened a vote.

That was a lie.

What he actually said, with his hand on my shoulder and my father's grave forty feet away, was this.

"Your wife has been going to Missoula, Boone. A clinic on Fourth Street. Tuesdays, in cash, and she tells no one."

I had asked him what he meant.

"I mean a woman who hides a clinic from her husband is hiding something else. A man, son. I thought you should hear it from a friend."

I did not hit him.

I want that on the record, because it is the only decent thing I did that morning.

Then he named his price.

One ride, he said.

Joelle would hold the seat, and he would keep it quiet while I handled my own house privately.