Even Steven by John Gilstrap Read Free Book Online

me what happened to Justin!”
    “Jesus, April, put that away!” He tried to cover himself up with his arms and hands. “Look at me. They beat the shit out of me.”
    “Then it had to be for a reason. I want to know the reason.”
    “I don’t know—”
    She raised the gun even higher and moved in closer, to a range where even she couldn’t miss.
    “Okay, okay,” he said, cowering in the La-Z-Boy. “I think they were working for Logan. Logan’s guys took Justin.”
    Suddenly, the room seemed short of oxygen. April had to breathe hard to keep from passing out. “Why? Why of all the children in the world would Patrick Logan want my little boy?”
    “I—I d-don’t know.”
    “Don’t lie to me!” Honest to God, she was ready to shoot him. Her finger tightened on the trigger.
    “Jesus, April! God, okay, okay, I’ll tell you, you crazy bitch. God. I owe him some money.”
    It just got worse and worse. “You owe Patrick Logan money? You borrowed money from that drug-peddling son of a bitch? Are you crazy?”
    “I didn’t borrow money from nobody,” William said, somehow inflating a little as he spoke the words, as if there were more respectable business dealings with a man who killed people for sport. “I rolled a guy last week who turned out to be one of Logan’s mules. He wants the money back, and he took Justin as insurance that I’ll get it for him.”
    “How much?”
    “About a thousand dollars.”
    April brought her hands to her head and squeezed, gun and all. “A thousand dollars! A thousand dollars? What, did you think that someone walking down the street just happened to have a thousand dollars in his pocket? You had to know it was Logan’s money. Or Ortega’s or somebody who runs drugs.”
    William shrugged again. One more time, and April swore that she’d shoot the son of a bitch just for the thrill. “I guess I wasn’t thinking.”
    “You weren’t thinking. That’s what you have to say? You weren’t thinking?” Jesus, a thousand dollars was more money than April had ever seen in one place in her entire life. A thousand bucks could buy a life, for God’s sake. “Give it back. Give it back, and we’ll get Justin back. Is that what he said? He’ll give him back if we pay up?”
    “It’s not that simple. I don’t have it anymore.”
    “How can you not have it? You spent a thousand dollars in a week?”
    Another goddamn shrug. “Well, there’s interest, too.”
    This was too much. April couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “I don’t give a shit about interest! How can you spend that much money in a single week?”
    “It just went. I don’t know, I bought a couple of rounds at Wilson’s, and I guess my luck wasn’t so good at cards there one night.”
    “Jesus Christ,” she growled. “My God, William, you lost my son over booze and cards? Are you out of your mind?”
    Something in her tone transformed William’s demeanor. Like flipping a switch, he became angry. “Hey, it’s not like I’m proud of it, okay? It’s not like I offered him up for sale. They took him, April. And they kicked the shit out of me in the process. Thanks for noticing, by the way.”
    What? What? Surely he didn’t think she gave a shit about his bruises. If they’d have killed him on the spot, that would have been just fine with her. Saved her the trouble of doing it herself. This was not happening. Not as hard as she worked to keep things together. Who did Logan and those assholes think they were, stealing her child? What would possess them to think that they could get away with such a thing?
    Without a word, April turned on her heel and headed for the kitchen.
    “Where are you going?” William said quickly, pulling himself out of his chair and hurrying after her.
    “I’m calling the police.”
    “No, you can’t.”
    “The hell I can’t. I don’t give a shit if you go to jail.”
    William grabbed her roughly by the arm and spun her around to face him. “That’s not it. They