When the Road Went Silent novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Patch

Nobody spoke.

Boone Tackett pushed back his chair.

"Sit down, girl," he said to Kayla. "You're upset."

"I'm not your girl."

"You've had a long morning."

"Boone." The old man's voice cracked across the room. "Let her talk."

Kayla was crying openly now.

She wiped her cheek with the back of her wrist and looked at Cade, not me.

"I met you at the roadhouse in November," she said. "You came in with Boone. He bought us a round. He left early and told you I got off at two."

Cade stared at her.

"He knew my name before I told it to you," she said. "He knew I liked tequila. He knew I'd never been with a man who owned something."

"Kayla," Cade said.

"A week after Christmas I got a lease. A nice apartment, third floor, paid through next June. The landlord said a company paid it, and the company is Boone's." She wiped her eyes again. "He said it was a gift from a friend of yours. He said you were lonely and I'd be doing the club a favor."

"The club," Cade repeated.

"I thought he meant you wanted me. I thought it was a secret you were too scared to say."

Cade turned his head slowly toward Boone.

"You did this."

"She's lying," Boone said.

"The lease," Kayla said. "I brought it. It's in my purse."

She pulled a creased paper from her bag and dropped it on the table.

The old man picked it up and read it.

He passed it to the next man, who passed it on.

I watched it go from hand to hand down the long scarred table until it reached Cade.

He read it.

He read it again.

His hands began to shake.

"You said she was a friend of a friend," he said hoarsely. "You said I needed a distraction. After Gene, after the funeral, you said I carried too much."

"Cade."

"You put me in her bed."

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