Gatekeeper's Secret
Copyright© 2026 by Fick Suck
Chapter 15
“Why are you driving me to school?” Christina complained as she leaned back in the bench seat of the truck. “You’re a creep. At least you’re not creeping on me. You got a thing for older women.”
“You’re starting early in the morning to bury yourself in a grave,” Grady said, keeping his eyes on the road. “I’m driving you because your mother looks and feels like shit this morning. Around these parts, or at least among the company that I keep, we take care of each other and lend a hand when someone needs help. Besides, you’re not angry at me. Whatever’s torturing you in your head, it ain’t me.”
“You think you’re so smart, don’t you,” she snapped.
Grady checked the rear view mirror out of habit. “Christina, I’ve watched my grandparents die for the last couple of years, buried my grandpa only a couple of months ago. That’s my pain and my problem, and I don’t take out the loss and loneliness on you.”
Grady continued. “I get it. Your family did you dirty and then yanked you away from the world you knew. Now, you’re trapped in a backwater, dust-eating patch of no-where-much-going-on. I’d be pissed too. The difference between you and me is I don’t try to bite your head off.”
“I hate everything about this place!” she screamed. “Jesus freaks in the hallways, walking caricatures of football players, cheerleaders, goody-goody girls, and fake cowboys everywhere. My god, serving fries with brown gravy out of can,” she sobbed.
“I avoid most of those people too,” Grady said. “I like the fries though, but they give me gas and sometimes a nasty party in the pot the next day. I’ll give you that one, too.”
“Can anyone in that school read?” Christina snipped. “Don’t answer that question. I’m almost certain there are a few teachers who can’t read either.”
“I’m sure every place has its idiots, Christina. Where you come from, they dressed better and hid the stupidness.”
“Maybe,” she muttered. After a few moments of silence she asked, “You drove this far every day for school?”
“For years,” Grady said. “I had to fit in the rest of day while I was in town. Hang out with friends: do it before I came home. Go to the library for reading or research: after school and home before sunset. Sometimes, grandpa would agree to pick me up at the gas station on the north side of town so I could stay longer. If my friends came to my house, it was only on weekends or during school breaks.”
“I would die of loneliness,” Christina said.
“I’ve never been lonely until grandpa died,” Grady said. “I love living where I do. I’ve got to fill it with some people who feel the same way.”
“Are you and Bettina lovers?”
Grady grunted. “No, not that it’s any of your business. She’s known me since I was three years old. She’s fleeing an abusive husband and is living with her mother. She’s a card-carrying certified Electrician, and she kicks butt. She’s the old friend I trust and need.”
“I don’t have one of those,” Christina said.
“You just got here,” Grady said.
“I already made enemies.”
“Well, you let yourself be manipulated,” Grady said, wondering how far this conversation was going to go. “Kimberly is a master manipulator.”
“She should avoid me, now,” Christina said. She had her sneakers on the dashboard with her knees pressing into her chest. “I gave her a solid hit.”
“No,” Grady said. “She’s coming back for blood.”
“You know this, how?”
Grady shrugged. “I overheard something they thought was entirely private. Her daddy is the Evangelical minister in town and he’s a hell and brimstone man that breathes fire and demands obedience. He also beats the living shit out of his daughter.”
Christina put her feet down. “Really?”
Grady said nothing, letting the hum of the engine fill the void. He was not sure what else he could say, or even if he should say anything. He waited.
“Goddamn,” Christina whispered. “This is a real god damn where the sinner should go to hell. What do I do with this?”
“The one thing you will not be able to do is avoid her,” Grady said. “Provoking you is her obsession. After you punched her and laid her out, her father beat her until her ribs hurt and other stuff.”
Christina sat up, “What other stuff?”
“She said her dad nearly ripped her nipples off her chest,” Grady admitted, wondering if this was a good idea. In for a penny, in for a pound, his grandfather used to say. They continued to drive through town in silence.
As they drew near the school, Christina asked, “Does anyone else know?”
“Maybe, Ashley. The other person didn’t speak,” Grady said. “Are you going to be okay?”
“I’m fine. I can defend myself,” Christina said. “Give me your cell phone number, Grady, just in case.” He read off the digits automatically. As she climbed the steps to the school, he checked out her booty, feeling guilty the entire time.
Grady swung by hardware story with the list that Bettina had given him on the way out the door. His words with Christina haunted him up and down the aisles. Finally surrendering to the embarrassment of asking for help, Grady took his list to the front of the store. Forty-five minutes later, Grady tucked away the purchases in the foot well of the passenger seat.
At the attorney’s office, he agreed to the wording of the complaint against the building inspector and added his signature to the final document. He signed off a few more items, including a request for open records from the county. Driving to the west side of town, he stopped in the offices of the North County Cable Company, where he signed off on one item, his cameras, and rejected another item, which was a data line two miles west of the town boundary. The Paramount Group would have to pay to run their own cable, and there would be no hookup to NCCC without a substantial payment beforehand.
When the manager of the cable company mentioned that Mr. Jedidiah did not involve himself much in the running of the company, Grady answered simply, “Perhaps that was a mistake.” He ran back across the street and ordered an audit of the cable company from his accounting firm. The accountant called it a forensic audit. The entire morning gave Grady a headache as the events and responsibilities beat down on him.
To read the complete story you need to be logged in:
Log In or
Register for a Free account
(Why register?)
* Allows you 3 stories to read in 24 hours.