Anvil novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Kin Pays

Tucker's POV

The Forge had lost its sign.

Where the iron letters used to hang over the door, there were four rusted bolts and a notice from the bank.

I stood in the lot at eight at night with my hands in my pockets and read the notice twice.

Thirty days.

After that the county would put a chain on the door of the only home I had ever had.

Inside, somebody had taken half the lights out to save money.

The pool table was gone. The bar was still there, with a bottle of rye and three glasses on it.

Dutch Weller sat in his chair by the dead fireplace with a green oxygen tank at his feet.

He had been two hundred and thirty pounds when I left, and he was a hundred and sixty now.

"Don't look at me like that," he said. "Sit down."

I sat.

Rhett poured three fingers into each glass and handed me mine.

"Welcome home, brother."

"Thanks."

"You ate? There's pizza in the back."

"I ate at Lizzie's."

Dutch's eyes came up slowly.

I should have lied, but I was tired and I had told them the truth for twenty years.

"She has a daughter," I said. "Six years old. Her name's Birdie."

Nobody spoke.

"She's mine."

Rhett let out a low whistle. Dutch only closed his eyes.

"You knew," I said.

"I suspected," Dutch said. "Lizzie never told a soul."

"And Danny?"

"He wouldn't say a word to me. He told me once to let it lie."

My glass hit the arm of the chair harder than I meant it to.

Danny Hatcher had been my best friend for ten years.

He had ridden next to me for ten years and eaten at my table.

He had known about my daughter for six years and never once picked up a phone.

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