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anything official done around here, it goes right back to the sheriff’s office. Everything.”
    â€œSo what does that leave?” I ask, my spirits sinking.
    â€œThat leaves nothing much else but us,” she says.
    â€œUs?”
    â€œYep,” she says. “Us.”
    The waitress whisks my plates off the counter and washes them.
    â€œWhat did you say your name was, hon?” she asks, drying her hands on a dishtowel.
    â€œVanisha.”
    She takes my hand and squeezes it tight, as a mother would. Although, she’s about the furthest thing from my own mother I could possibly imagine.
    â€œI’m Loretta. Best waitress in Newton County,” she says. “And more than just a pretty face.”
    She opens the closet again, trades her high heels for a pair of sneakers and takes a large leather purse off a hook. “Tell me again what them bikers looked like,” she says.
    I describe the big, burly guy with the Grim Reaper on his jacket. She nods. “That’s Shank. Who else?”
    â€œThe other guy had black hair in a ponytail and tattoos all down his arms.”
    â€œThey call him Blade. Is that it?”
    â€œThat’s all I saw.”
    Loretta walks over to the refrigerator, pulls out a jug of amber liquid and pours some into an unmarked glass bottle. She closes the bottle with a screw cap.
    â€œWhat are you going to do?” I ask.
    â€œHoney, if I know them boys, they’re half drunk and stoned already. They’ll pass out eventually. I’m just gonna help them along with a little home brew and Southern charm.”
    She pops the bottle into her purse.
    â€œSo, we’re going to put them to sleep?” I ask. It doesn’t sound like a foolproof plan.
    â€œThat’s right, honey. Neutralize the enemy. Then we can go on in and rescue your friend.”
    She pulls something else out of her purse. It looks like a pen, or a miniature flashlight. She tucks it into her hair so it’s hidden in the curls of her updo.
    â€œItty-bitty camera,” she says before I have time to ask. “I been usin’ it to spy on my girlfriend’s no-good, cheatin’ husband. Looks like it’ll come in handy again.”
    â€œWhat for?”
    â€œHoney, if we’re gonna nail the deputy, we’re gonna need some proof.”
    â€œNail the deputy?” I say.
    â€œSure. You said he was corrupt, didn’t you? Let’s go in there and get some evidence.”
    â€œI don’t want to nail the deputy. I just want to get Jeb to a hospital.”
    Loretta waves her hand. Her red fingernails flash like warning signs. “Come on now, honey. Might as well kill two birds with one stone.”

chapter sixteen
    Driving through the woods in Loretta’s truck, I can’t stop worrying about Jeb. Hang tight , I tell him in my head. We’re coming .
    I try not to doubt Loretta and her Southern-charm plan. Maybe she’s right. Maybe these guys will just drink themselves into oblivion and we can waltz in under their noses and rescue Jeb from the cave.
    What other choice do we have anyway? Gather a posse of hunters and go in there, guns blazing? That’s a sure way to get someone shot and killed.
    As we round the last switchback before our campsite, Loretta tells me to climb over the seats and hide on the floor in the back.
    â€œThere’s a blanket back there somewheres,” she says. “Git under it. We don’t want them boys to see you.”
    I cram myself onto the floor below the truck’s tiny backseat. Something hard and lumpy digs into my ribs. I pull it out from under me. It’s a locked rifle case. Somehow, it’s reassuring to know Loretta has protection. Still, how much use is a rifle, locked and stowed in the truck, if things start to go wrong? I slide it onto the backseat, then pull down the blanket and huddle beneath it on the floor.
    â€œNo matter what happens, you stay there till I come and