Gunpowder Lips

“Who’s Melody?”

Luther stumbled in the process of removing his boots, looking over his shoulder at his wife. “Pardon?”

“Somebody named Melody called and invited us for dinner tonight. She said she’s an old friend of yours.” Hailey cocked an eyebrow suspiciously. “A good old friend?”

Well, he shouldn’t have told her where they were staying. Though Melody probably would have figured it out on her own. “Yeah, she had a thing for me before I left. She was too young for me…Didn’t work out.”

Luther wasn’t sure exactly when he became such a pathological liar, but it must have been after he met Hailey.

“Ah.” Hailey went back to painting her nails, shrugging. “I told her we’d come. Can she cook?”

“Why would you do that?” snapped Luther before he could stop himself.

She gave him that narrow-eyed look he hated. “Don’t talk to me like that, Luther. There’s only a McDonald’s and some grungy diner in this hole, so I would much rather take my chances with a home cooked meal. Do you have a problem with me meeting this girl?”

“No, I do not.” Luther continued speaking harshly despite her warning. He threw his hat on the sticky coffee table and glared at his wife. “But I thought we were supposed to discuss things with each other. Or at least that’s what the counselor I paid five hundred dollars said.”

Hailey blinked at her nails. She always ignored him when he made a crack about the counseling she’d insisted they undergo. “Well, I don’t recall getting to discuss this move.”

“That’s different and you know it.” Luther said as he sat down in a creaky wooden chair. “I had no control over that and -- NO,” Luther paused and clenched his eyes shut. “We aren’t talking about that anymore. We’re talking about going to Melody’s for dinner. I don’t mind, but I thought you’d be less willing to leave.”

The woman scoffed, blowing on the drying red polish. “I want nothing more than to get out of this hovel. Your friend Dirty Bob or whoever he is keeps calling to ask if I need anything, and he doesn’t seem to know what Lysol or Comet are.”

“Muddy Bill is only trying to be friendly.” Luther flicked a large crumb that definitely didn’t belong to them from the table. “If you give this town a chance, Hailey, you‘d find it‘s filled with good people.”

(Near a deep gorge on the outskirts of Arbor)

Keith Fowler was a big man.

Ever since puberty hit he’d been muscular and strong no matter what he ate, and he had testosterone levels that got him kicked out of school frequently and weekly, if not daily, visits to the hole in prison. He’d had tattoos before he went in the joint, a large star on his pectoral and a furious bull snorting on the back of his right shoulder. But now his arms were coated in them, different blackish blue drawings, some crude and some well-done. There were naked women and skulls galore, his entire right forearm looking like it was going up in charcoal flames.

To say the least he was threatening, his cold eyes and unshaven square face combined with all that muscle and ink giving him an air of murder that he readily lived up to.

Keith chuckled and turned his head to spit on the ground, popping his blood-smudged knuckles. The man whose chest he had one knee pushed into groaned as blood dribbled from his nose and the side of his mouth.

“Ya know I hate bein’ violent, Georgie.” sneered Keith, and the two hulking men behind him guffawed, because Keith loved being violent. “But we had an agreement. And I think ya understood yer end of the deal.”

George shook his head, wincing as he tried to bring his hands up to beg and remembered they’d been smashed by the wheels of Keith’s huge truck. “I-I can git ya the money by Tuesday. Jus’ a l-lil’ more time, Keith, I swear!”

“Ya had three years, Georgie.” Keith sighed like he was disappointed, but delight sparkled in his brown eyes. “An’ I know ya spent everythin’ ya owed me on liquor an’ whores. Yer a sadly predictable man, George.”

Tears pricked at the man’s eyes, and he was all too aware that his head was hanging over the edge of a twenty foot drop. “N-no, I didn’t, Keith! Marian needed neck s-surgery, er I would have it all today! All I gotta do is call my brother in Louisville and I k-kin have it in two days! Please, Keith, please!”

“Yer story certainly is touching.” Keith set his scruffy face in thought and rested his elbow on his knee, causing more pressure on George’s lungs. The man beneath him wheezed, trembling in a mixture of pain and fear. “Lucky fer you, I’m in a fergivin’ mood. If I don’t have my money by Tuesday night I’m gonna cut your liver out and feed it tuh the junkyard dogs. Do ya understand me properly, George?”

George laughed breathlessly, sobbing in relief. “Ah, thank ya, Keith!”

“Quit snifflin’. Yer a grown man.” Keith stood up, wiping his bloody hands on George’s jacket with a look of disgust. “Earl and Bubba will be at yer place Tuesday at nine to collect. Ya’d better have it.”

As Keith turned to leave George furrowed his eyebrows. “Do ya think I could have ‘till midnight?”

The large back and shoulders of Keith Fowler froze, tense as he turned his ear back to George. “Sorry, could ya repeat that?”

“It’s just it takes a bit for money to git wired an’ all, so I was askin’f I could have ‘till midnight on Tuesday…Keith?”

An agonized shriek broke the silence, Keith having swiveled around and jumped so he could land with both feet on George’s knee. It cracked into an unnatural position easily under all of Keith‘s weight. He leaned down and grabbed George by his hair, glaring furiously into his streaming eyes.

“Mah mercy ain’t got conditions.” he hissed before straightening up.

George didn’t have time to start begging for his life again before Keith rolled him onto his side and kicked him hard, sending him tumbling over the edge of the hill. George screamed on the way down, but the sound stopped abruptly when his body hit a large rock and then dropped limply into the stream. Keith gazed down at him for a moment, wondering if he should shoot him for good measure, but George’s back was surely broken from that fall. If he was still alive he’d drown soon enough.

“That was a nice pick-me-up, but now I’m out two grand.” grumbled Keith as he moved back towards his henchman, who watched with satisfied smirks. “Guess I kin see how much money Melody got from ‘er daddy.”

The shorter man with a flat nose and a scar on his lips looked confused. “Ain’t she done with ya, Keith?”

As he climbed into the driver’s seat of his truck Keith laughed. “Melody’s always had spunk. She’s jus’ pissed. Soon as she sees me she’ll come runnin’ back.”

“Er maybe she went back tuh Luther Dubose.” grunted Bubba as he hefted his large girth into the back seat.

Keith chuckled darkly, deciding against reacting violently because Bubba was impressive backup. “Dubose is a pussy. I’d love to see him try anything with Melody…I’ll shoot his dick off.”

The two other men in the truck laughed. “Ah heard ‘e shot a crack kingpin in Boise two years ago. Ya think e’s a good shot?”

“Dun matter.” Keith itched his nose with the back of his heavily tattooed arm as he pulled out of the mucky bank. “Like I said…He ain’t no threat.”

(Melody Caldwell’s home)

“This is seriously delicious, Melody. You’re a gifted chef.”

The auburn-haired woman across the table beamed as she took a drink of wine. “Thank you, Hailey. I’m glad you like it.”

Luther watched stiffly as his wife put her last bite in her mouth, smiling at Melody more genuinely than she’d smiled at him for weeks. Maybe months. “I’m honestly not sure if I’ve had salmon this moist…At least since I was a kid.”

“Well, I can’t take credit for it. It’s my grandmother’s recipe, and she actually got it from Luther’s great-grandmother.” Melody flickered her eyes to Luther as she sipped her wine again, raising an eyebrow only minutely. “Ain’t that right, Luther?”

Hailey was waiting for an answer so he cleared his throat. “That’s true. Great Gramma Lynette was a whiz in the kitchen.”

“Small world, huh?” Melody grinned at Hailey again, making Luther’s hand twitch with nerves under the table.

Hailey took a drink before crossing her arms, shaking her head. “It’s amazing. This is a very close-knit community, isn’t it?”

“Oh, definitely. We’re closer n’ two rabbits in a burrow in Arbor.” if Luther wasn’t mistaken Melody winked at him discreetly. “It’s really a shame Luther didn’t bring you back sooner to meet everybody.”

“He told me he doesn’t have any family here.” shrugged Hailey. “All my family is in Idaho, so we didn’t see much point in traveling.”

Melody’s eyebrows furrowed, and she set her glass down to glare at Luther. “That’s strange. Mrs. Dubose is definitely still alive and kickin’. As well as his brother Jeremiah.”

“Luther!” cried Hailey, incredulous. Luther forced himself to stop returning Melody’s glare so he could face his wife. “You told me you had no family. You have a brother and your mom here?”

“It’s not like we’re real close or anything.” Luther attempted to defend himself to the two angry women staring him down at the quaint dining room table. “We haven’t talked since I left home.”

“They’re still yer family.” Melody spoke before Hailey could, frowning at him. “I’m disappointed in you, Luther.”

Somehow that look and those words were like she’d slapped him. Luther leaned over the table slightly to snarl a reply at Melody. “If it’s quite alright with you, I want to keep my current life and my old life completely separate. I left Arbor to start over, and that’s where Hailey came in. Do you think I wanted to scare her off with an alcoholic mother and a homeless big brother?”

The hurt on Melody’s face was obvious, especially at him saying he wanted his old life to be separate, as she was an involved part of that. Hailey was quiet for a moment, then cleared her throat uncomfortably, interrupting their intense staring match.

“It’s okay, Luther.” she mumbled at her husband, then looked to Melody. “Can I help you with desert?”

Shaking herself a little, Melody nodded. She looked Luther firmly in the eyes when she spoke. “Coffee?”

“Please.” replied Luther, severe yet polite as always.

The women left the table and Luther let his shoulders relax, rolling them when he realized how tense they were. Luther was thankful they were talking quietly enough where he couldn’t hear over the muffled radio that was playing somewhere upstairs, knowing that they were probably discussing him. He sighed and pawed a hand through his hair, hatless only out of respect at the dinner table.

The last thing he wanted was those two ganging up on him. That narrowed his allies to Brody and Fred, and he didn’t like those odds.

“Aw, hell.” said Melody’s voice from the kitchen, raising in volume enough for Luther to catch it. “You should probably go in there with Luther, Hailey.”

There was a soft clink as Hailey set something down. “What? Why?”

Then Melody was ushering her back to the dining room, apologizing as she moved into the living room next. Hailey and Luther watched curiously as Melody disappeared, followed by the sound of something unlocking and the creak of old wood. Luther stood up at the unmistakable sound of a shotgun cocking.

“Melody, what are you doin’?” asked Luther sharply as she re-entered the dining room holding a sawed off shotgun loosely at her hip.

She nodded her head into the kitchen just as there was the sound of car doors opening and closing. “Keith’s here. Ya’ll can go out the back and he probably won’t bother ya.”

“I’m not goin’ anywhere.” Luther snapped as he grabbed for the pistol tucked into his coat hanging on the back of his chair. “And he hasn’t threatened you yet, so you need to put that thing away, Mel.”

“You know what he’s here for, and I have a right to defend my property.” replied Melody tersely, her chin tilting up a bit. “Hailey probably doesn’t wanna hear a gunshot, so I suggest you take her and go.”

Hailey stood up quickly, panic written all over her face. “Wait, who’s shooting who?”

Luther cursed under his breath. “Hailey, go upstairs and lock yourself in the bathroom. I’ll come get you when I’m sure it’s safe.”

“Luther, what is --”

“Just do this, Hailey. For your own safety…Please.” Luther threw in at the end to appease her.

When the sound of heavy footsteps and deep male voices came closer to the house Hailey broke her show of stubbornness and hurried into the living room and up the stairs. Luther waited until he heard the old door lock before looking sternly at Melody.

“If he sees you Keith will likely throw a fit.” she said matter-of-factly. “So get in the pantry.”

Luther raised an eyebrow in surprise. “I don’t think so, Melody.”

Sighing, the woman pointed the gun at Luther and blinked. “Get in the damn pantry or I’ll blast you full a’ lead, Luther.”

The sheriff faltered a bit, only taking a few seconds to realize she wouldn’t really shoot him. You never really knew for sure with Mel. But there were footsteps on the porch, and Melody jerked her gun towards the big pantry in the kitchen. Luther mouthed ‘only because I want to’ before striding into the pantry and shutting the doors, peering out through the small crack and continuing to hold his gun at the ready.

Relieved and grinning a little, Melody grabbed the door knob and flung it open. Keith was holding the screen door in his right hand, poised to knock with his left. He saw her and smiled, not even phased when he glanced down and saw the gun pointed at his stomach.

“Good tuh see you too, darlin’.” he said smoothly, smirking at her. “Gonna lower that thing so I kin come in?”

She cocked it again for good measure. “All I’m gonna do with this thing is shoot your balls off. Unless a’ course you back the hell off my deck.”

Keith put his hands in the air lazily, walking backwards off the porch towards where his cronies were waiting, staring suspiciously at Melody. The screen door shut with a crack, Melody opening it again so she could walk out onto her porch to continue aiming her gun at Keith.

“I only came here tuh talk tuh ya, Melody. S’been three years since I saw ya.” he eyed her up and down slowly, licking his lips. A noticed a new scar ran from the side of his nose to his chin. “Ya look mighty nice, sweetheart.”

“I ain’t your sweetheart.” she hissed. “You ain’t got nothin’ to be here for except irritatin‘ me and causin‘ me trouble. I gave Abe yer ring back, and all yer stuff is in storage. Just ask yer daddy for the key.”

Keith put on a mock sad face, pouting at her. “Aw, that’s all ya think I’m after? A ring and some furniture that I stole fer our love nest? I’m a tad hurt ya threw it out so quick, but that ain’t why I’m here, Mel, baby.”

In the pantry, Luther fumed. Only he could call her that. Then he mentally slapped himself for thinking that way. He should have been thinking about his wife upstairs, but all he wanted to do was lunge out and put a bullet in Keith Fowler’s head for calling her by the nickname that was rightfully his.

“I came tuh get ya back, darlin’. I hate fightin’ witcha, ya know that.” Keith took a step forward, watching Melody’s finger twitch on the trigger.

She laughed harshly. “I’d rather have a hot iron shoved up my ass.”

“That can be arranged.” sneered Keith, taking another step back towards Melody.

Her gun never left him, her gaze and her hands steady. “You don’t scare me, Keith.”

“Why? ‘Cause Luther Dubose is back in town tuh protect ya?” spit Keith caustically, and Bubba and Earl sniggered idiotically behind him.

Melody scowled at him, eyes full of hate. “No. Because I gotta bigger gun than you do…And I don’t mean weaponry.”

From his place in the pantry Luther smirked, knowing that the look on Keith’s face would be murderous. Despite the fact Melody had probably just sealed her fate by mocking his ‘manhood’, that was a good one.

“Them er cuttin’ words, baby, but I know ya don’t mean it. Jus’ put that down and we kin talk like grown-ups. I know ya missed me an’ I wanna make ya remember what a real man feels like--”

Luther stiffened in the pantry when a gunshot rang out loud, but there were no cries of pain. Only another cocking of Melody’s shotgun.

“I suggest you get on home, Keith.” the woman hissed, trying not to smile in satisfaction as Keith took a shocked step back from where she’d shot the ground. “Before I get my aim warmed up.”

Keith slipped his eyes back up to Melody leisurely, slowly lowering his hands. “I see yer in some kinda mood, Mel. Must be menstruatin’ or somethin‘.” he paused to leer when Earl and Bubba chortled at him. “I’ll come back when yer feelin’ better.”

“You’ll get the same welcome ya got just now.” was her curt reply. “Only a little less polite.”

He tipped an invisible hat to her. “M’lady.” then whistled at his men like they were dogs. “Come on, boys.”

Melody waited before they were back in the truck and roaring off down the dark road before she went back inside, finding Luther with his gun tucked away again and leaning against her counter.

“What were you sayin’ earlier about me not bein’ able to handle myself?” she swung the gun up and blew on the barrel, smirking at Luther.

He fought his returning smile as best he could. “That wasn’t bad. Only now you’re probably on his hit list. Possibly target number one.”

“Nah, he’s got an ego fit to sink him if he fell in the lake. He still thinks I’m gonna take him back.” sighed Melody as she went back towards the living room. “He’ll learn soon enough that it’s more likely for the earth to flip on its axis…Should you go get Hailey?”

Luther jerked. “Oh, yeah.”

He took the stairs two at a time, hearing a gasp and able to see the bathroom light turn off when he reached the top.

“It’s me, Hailey.” he said, unable to see in the dark hallway. “Everything’s fine now.”

She turned the light back on and opened the door, obviously still frightened. “I heard a gunshot.”

“Nobody got hurt, don’t worry.” he promised, pushing the door open all the way.

“What was that about Luther? Who were those men?”

Luther shut his eyes briefly, resisting a weary yawn and the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. “I’ll explain when we get back to the hotel.”

“Fine.” snapped Hailey, upset all of a sudden. She flounced off down the stairs and Luther could hear her thanking Melody for the dinner and then heading outside.

Reluctantly Luther followed, finding Melody in the kitchen with her arms crossed, gun put away. “She seems a little bit pissed.”

“D‘ya think so?” grumbled Luther, snatching his hat and coat from the chair in the kitchen. “Thanks for dinner, Mel. I’ll see ya.”

“Make sure ya call before ya come. Don’t wanna shoot ya on accident.” chuckled Melody as she closed the door behind him, and Luther felt a bit better when he heard it lock.

He wasn’t sure which idea would make sleep more difficult that night: Melody alone in that house or himself alone with an angry Hailey.