Chapter 14

Cynthia had the boy/man stop at one of the pumps at the convenience mart on the way to the hotel. "I'll go pay if you fill the car with gas. Could you check the oil too? I'll get us some snacks. Do you like beer?"

"Yes ma'am, I do."

"Good. How are you fixed for cigarettes?"

"I'm out."

"What's your brand?"

His mother smoked Marlboro Light's when she had the money for them and anything cheap when she didn't. "Marlboro Lights is what I prefer."

She had no intention of taking this boy to the motel, or letting him be seen by anyone else. By the time the boy had filled the car with gas and cleaned the windows, Cynthia was back to the car.

She asked him to pull to the back of the store's lot. "Do you have the number of your school? By the way, what 'is' your name?" She pulled out a prepaid cell phone as he told her his name and pressed the numbers as he called them out.

"Hello, this is Curtis Milligan's mother. Curtis has a doctor's appointment in Reno today and will miss school. Yes, I'll send you a note on Monday. The tests will take today and Saturday."

When she put a hand on Curt's knee, he jumped. "You've never been with a woman have you?"

"Uh, no ma'am, I've never even kissed a girl."

"Now, Curtis, I have an idea. I don't think it's right for your first time to be a wham, bang, fast, meaningless thing."

She could see the disappointment in his face when he thought he was going to lose the opportunity to lose his virginity. She was almost there. Let out the line and pull it back in a little tighter.

"I don't think it would be fair for you to have just a few minutes, get your rocks off and then end the adventure."

"But you said ... I mean, I thought you were ... I mean, didn't you tell me that..."

Set the hook! Reel him in. He was hers. It was almost too easy.

"Curt, honey, you don't want to just jump in bed and then leave, do you?"

"Yes, I do." He was excited now.

"You don't understand what you'd be missing if you did that."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you find me attractive?"

"Oh yes."

"Do you like my tits?"

"My God, there're wonderful."

"Wouldn't you like to spend time playing with my body and spending some time learning about how to get girls to like you?"

"Hell yes!"

Get the net ready to land him.

"My husband didn't think I was worth the effort, so he left with this young thing who worked for him and he threw me out."

"NO!"

Got him, now he goes on the stringer.

"I have to confess, I need you to help break the pain. Can you make me feel like I'm attractive to men again?"

"What can I do for you?"

"A friend of mine has a cottage up in the hills around Carson City. Spend the weekend with me and I'll bring you back home Sunday afternoon."

"My Mom would never let me do that."

"Haven't you ever spent the night at a friend's house?"

"Yeah, but I'd need more notice."

"What if your mom agreed to you having a weekend with a friend? Would you help me?"

"Sure I would."

"Is your mom home now?"

"She should be, she works third shift and goes to bed around eleven."

"What's your phone number?"

"555-1212."

A second later, Cynthia spoke into the cell phone. "Ms Milligan, this is Sally Jones. My son Sammy is a friend of your son. The boys just called me in a panic. They have been planning a pool party for a few weeks now, and Curtis got the date wrong. It's tomorrow night.

"I know, and they call us girls air heads. The problem is that we need Curtis to help set up for the party. I know it is really short notice, but could we have Curtis spend the weekend with Sammy? The two boys are the same size, so we won't even have to bother you before work.

I'll take care of everything and have him back after church on Sunday. Oh, it's no trouble, I feel responsible for not reminding the boys sooner. I'll pick them up after school, and take them for party supplies.

"Yes, you may. It may be easier to get me on my cell phone. 555-4345." Cynthia hung up as the recording of the nice lady was explaining about the weather front dropping out of the mountains during the weekend.

"There, you're all taken care of. Ready to have a good time?"

I really didn't understand what got up Billie's ass about the ranch deal. I mean it wasn't happening to her. It wasn't her trust fund. It was mine, but she sure acted like she was getting screwed. Sander saw my confused expression and patted me on the back.

"JD, let's go for a walk."

We walked through the house and into the heat of the front yard. I wondered what he was going on about when he placed a hand on my shoulder and turned me to him. "Billie and I talked about your situation last night. She's kind of upset."

"No shit, Sander, she's downright pissed. What did I do to make her so angry?"

"JD, you are turning out to be a good friend to both of us. She's not angry at you. She's angry for you. When Billie was William at Oklahoma State, her family was the victim of a land deal in Arkansas. Big developer talked them into putting all their money into a project that the current governor was involved in.

"William told his parents not to get involved, and had them convinced to get out of the deal. A personal call from the governor, however, convinced them to not only invest their money, but they also took what they could of William's money and invested it for him. They didn't tell him because they thought he'd just try to talk them out of it.

"To make a long story short, they put a second mortgage on their home and borrowed all the money they could get their hands on. They lost everything. William found out about it when his tuition checks bounced. We were together by that time, so I paid for the rest of school.

"He got lucky and earned a full scholarship to the Oklahoma University School of Law. Before law school, he borrowed the money from me to start his transgender process. I just can't say no to my Billie.

"When she graduated we moved to Las Vegas. For two years she paid her dues as one of the grunts in a large law firm. Then I got in trouble.

"In my life, I've been many things, but before Billie, being a nice and honest person was not one of them. I was hired to kill a politician in Vegas because he was generating too much heat for the company where I worked. It was highly unusual to hire a local to do a hit, so I was skeptical of the whole project. It was also a trap. The entire job was a set up to get me out of the business. It would have been a win-win for my partners. Get rid of the political heat and end up with 100% of the business when I went down.

"The truth is that Billie had talked me out of actually doing the job. My business partners brought in another mechanic who fulfilled the contract. They made sure that evidence was planted to implicate me. I had two things going for me, Billie and an honest homicide detective. Between the two of them, not only was I set free, but they caught the shooter and the man who contracted the hit. Sort of ironic really, the political heat went away and I'm the one who ended up with 100% of the business. Unfortunately for them, my ex-partners subsequently suffered several misadventures while quests of the State of Nevada and didn't survive to complete their sentences." Sander's eyes sparkled as he added, "Of course I had nothing to do with that set of circumstances. After all, I was going legit at the time."

"What was truly unfortunate was that the law firm Billie worked in was a very stodgy, old line corporate firm who didn't want their glorious image sullied by representing the likes of me, let alone having Billie's sexual orientation besmirch their halos. So, when Billie took my case, they fired her.

That turned out to be a blessing. After winning my case and a bunch of other very successful high profile criminal defenses over the following years she earned a reputation as one of the country's most successful and, consequently expensive, criminal defense attorneys. She maintained that pressure filled life until she was able to pay off all the loans and clear up the entire set of local, under the table obligations to which her family had committed her to keep them out of prison for fraud. Interesting note to that is that after she bailed them out of serious trouble and the governor became president, they called her a freak and ostracized her. She hasn't talked to anyone from her family in years.

"Finally, the hoods she was defending and what she had to do to keep them out of prison got to her. I was sick of the whole mess too, so she dumped the fog of the law and I dumped the slime of crime and we made some investments in quality of life like the Dance Hall. Until this week, when we agreed to help you, we haven't looked back.

"We also have a serious group of friends that have become our family. Since you defended Billie, you are a part of that group. That's why she came down on you, JD. She went through this legal mess once before, and she doesn't want it to happen to you."

"Sander, I can see where it would look like the same thing she went through, but ... well, I just don't feel my family is trying to take advantage of me. Look, your family seems stable. I mean you get along with your bother and his family, don't you?"

"Yeah, Nate and his girls are a true joy, and my family has always supported my sexual orientation. The difference here is that I'm the patriarch. I control the wealth in our family, and my money games are transparent. There's no darkness to hide any funny business."

"And you think my dad is playing in the darkness?"

"Not if you tell me that he's not, but remember after all the shady dealings Billie has seen, if there is anything that is unclear, it's unclear to take advantage of someone. Laws are written in very precise language for good reason."

"I can see that. We need for Pop to explain exactly what he was thinking. I just hope Billie believes him. I don't want to have to make decisions that could alienate you and Billie."

"Let's not worry about that now, JD. I am sure everything will look good at the end of the day."

Pinkie had been strangely silent throughout my morning. He started, "Damn, I'm sure glad I chose you to hang around with, JD. Things were getting boring hanging out at the Valley of Death. I was..."

"Wait! What'd you just say"

"I said that I'm glad that I'm hanging around you."

"No, after that you said, 'The Valley of Death... '"

"Yeah?"

"Remember the message Les's friend decoded?"

"Oh, I never even thought about that. We've always called it that around here. I just never put the two together."

Before we could discuss the mater any further, Sal came out the front door. "Come on JD, you need to get dressed. We have Sheriff Office stuff to do. Not to mention, you still have a ranch to run."