Boone feels like kicking the motel door in, then beating the uncouth piss out of Teddy until the good doctor needs a cosmetic surgeon for himself.
Because Teddy D-Cup, with access to literally hundreds of beautiful women, is feeding roofies to a little girl in a motel room preparatory to raping her. And now Boone knows what the good Dr. Cole was doing in the strawberry fields-shopping for a family so fucking desperate, they'd sell their daughter to him. And the mojados who worked Boone over in the reeds were taking his back.
It's a beautiful world.
Boone throws his shoulder into the door, which splinters around the bolt lock and opens. He's into the bedroom in three long strides and has Teddy by the shirtfront on the fourth. He lifts Teddy up and holds him in the air.
The girl screams and runs out the door.
“This isn't what it looks like,” Teddy says.
Christ, Boone thinks, does every fucking child molester have to say that every fucking time? No, dude, it's always what it looks like. Boone pivots and slams Teddy into the wall. Pulls him in toward his own chest and then slams him again.
Teddy yells, “I'm helping her!”
Yeah, I'll bet you are, Boone thinks. He takes his right hand off Teddy's shirt, clenches it into a tight fist, and cocks his arm, ready to blast Teddy's face into oatmeal. Except suddenly it isn't Teddy's face; it's Russ Rasmussen's. Boone's world goes red. Tilting crazily, like a bad wipeout.
“Boone!”
Through the red haze, he hears Petra, gets that she disapproves, but he doesn't care.
“Boone!”
He turns around to tell her to butt out.
Dan Silver is holding a gun to her head. Two of his boys stand behind him.
“Let him go, Boone,” Dan says.
The world comes level again, back into focus. Boone says, “He's a short eyes.”
“We'll take care of him,” Dan says. “Let him go now or I'll put two in her pretty head before I do you.”
Boone looks at Petra. Her pale skin is absolutely white, her eyes are big and full of tears, and her legs quiver. She's scared to death. Boone lowers his clenched fist but then jams his palm into Teddy's ribs before releasing his grip on the man.
Teddy slides to the floor.
“Good thing for you I showed up,” Dan says to him, “before this barbarian beat the shit out of you. I feel like the cavalry riding in. Nick of time and all that happy bullshit. You're coming with me voluntarily, aren't you, Dr. Cole?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Help him up.”
Dan's boys take Teddy by the arms and walk him out the door.
“This isn't over, Teddy,” says Boone.
Dan gestures at Petra. “You banging this, Daniels?”
Boone doesn't answer.
“No, you ain't,” Dan says. “She's much too juicy for you.”
He turns to Petra. “You get tired of slummin', you want a real man, you come see me, honey. I'll take good care of you.”
She hears herself say, “I'd rather fuck a pig.”
Dan smiles, but his face turns red. “Maybe we can work that out for you, bitch.”
“Enough,” Boone says.
“You're in no position to-”
“I said, ‘Enough,’” Boone repeats. Something in his voice tells Dan to back off before he has to shoot this guy. And this guy is Eddie's asshole buddy, something about him pulling Eddie's brat out of the drink or something. And the last thing in the world Dan needs right now is more problems with Red Eddie.
“Stay in here for a few minutes,” Dan says. “You come out, ‘Friend Of Eddie’ or not, I'll smoke you. Her, too.”
He takes a moment to leer at Petra and then walks out.
“You okay?” Boone asks Petra.
She sits down heavily on the bed and puts her head in her hands. Boone understands it. You get a gun pointed at your head, it changes you. It makes you realize how quickly you could not exist anymore. In that second, all you want is your life-desperately, fervently-and you'd give almost anything for it. And that moment of realization changes you as a person. You're never quite the same after you realize you'd do almost anything to live.
But talk about guts. “I'd rather fuck a pig”? To a guy who has a gun pointed at your head! That's a crazy, sick kind of courage. He walks over and puts his hand on her head, strokes her hair a little, and says, “It's all right. You're okay.”
“I was so afraid,” she says.
Then Boone realizes that she's crying. “You were amazing,” he says. “Really brave.”
A second later, they hear two shots.
Pop.
Pop.
What they call “execution-style.”
56
The girl runs back into the reeds, because she doesn't have anywhere else to go.
Her name is Luce.
She doesn't find anyone in the reeds. They're all gone now, so she crawls into one of the little caves, huddles there, and says the Rosary as she rubs the little crucifix. It will be a cold night, she knows, but the other girls will be back at dawn.
She wraps her arms around her knees and waits for the sun to rise again.
57
Dan Silver sits beside Teddy Cole in the backseat of the Explorer.
He grabs Teddy's right index finger and says, “Your hands are your life, aren't they, Doc?”
Teddy's chin-sculpted, Botoxed, nose-jobbed, skin-peeled, hair-transplanted, eye-tightened, face-lifted, tummy-tucked, dental-worked, lasered, and tanned face turns absolutely white with fear. He tries to speak, but the words get jammed in his throat. All he can manage is a weak, shaky nod.
“Hands of a surgeon, right?” Dan asks. “That's what you are, cosmetic surgeon to the stars? Nip/Tuck? So, what if I start breaking your fingers, one by one, starting with your thumbs? It's going to hurt like you wouldn't believe, Doc, and, afterward, no more strippers, starlets, and trophy wives for you.”
Teddy tries to hold out.
For Luce's sake, for Tammy's sake, for the sake of his own soul-if that isn't a hopeless, antiquated concept. He holds out until Dan starts counting down from ten.
He makes it to six.
“I'm only going to ask you once,” Dan says, “and I'm really hoping I don't have to ask you ten times. Where is Tammy Roddick?”
