The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks Page B

one. Nine years in prison hadn’t taught him how to keep it in check, either. In the past few years, it had gotten to the point where it was almost impossible to keep Ted in line, but as Abee often reflected, that wasn’t always such a bad thing. It made him an effective enforcer, ensuring that everyone involved in producing crank on their property followed his rules. Ted scared the crap out of everybody these days, family included, and that suited Abee just fine. They kept their noses out of Abee’s business and did what they were told. While he didn’t particularly care for his younger brother, Abee did find him useful.
    But now Dawson was back in town, and who the hell knew what Ted was going to do. Abee had figured that Dawson would show up on account of Tuck dying, but he hoped that Dawson would have had the sense to stay just long enough to pay his respects and leave before anyone knew he’d even come home. That’s what anyone with a lick of sense would have done, and he was sure that Dawson wassmart enough to know that Ted wanted to kill him every time he looked in the mirror and saw that crooked nose staring back at him.
    Abee didn’t give two licks what happened to Dawson, one way or the other. But he didn’t want Ted creating unnecessary trouble. It was hard enough to keep things going already, what with the Feds and the staties and the sheriff poking their noses into the family business. It wasn’t like the old days, when the law was afraid of them. These days, the cops had helicopters and dogs and infrared and snitches everywhere. Abee had to think about such things; Abee alone had to plan for such things.
    Thing was, Dawson was a lot smarter than the meth-head tweakers Ted usually dealt with. Say what you want about Dawson, but he’d beaten the crap out of both Ted and his daddy when both of them were armed, and that meant something. Dawson wasn’t afraid of Ted or Abee, and he’d be prepared. He could be ruthless when necessary, and that should have been enough to give Ted pause. But it wouldn’t, because Ted wasn’t going to be thinking straight.
    The last thing he needed was for Ted to be sent away again. He needed him, what with half the family tweaking and prone to doing stupid things. But if Abee couldn’t prevent Ted from going off the rails when he saw Dawson, Ted just might find himself standing before the judge again. The thought made his stomach burn, compounding his nausea.
    Abee leaned over, vomiting onto the asphalt. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand as Dawson finally disappeared around the corner. Ted still hadn’t come out. Abee gave a mental sigh of relief and decided not to tell him about the sighting. He shivered again, his gut on fire. Jesus, he felt like crap. Who would have thought the guy was carrying a box cutter?
    It wasn’t like Abee was trying to kill the guy—he just wanted to send a message to him and anyone else who might be getting ideas about Candy. Next time, though, Abee wasn’t going to take a chance. Once he started swinging, he wasn’t going tostop. He’d be careful—he was always careful when the law might get involved—but everyone needed to understand that his girlfriend was off-limits. Guys better not look at her or talk to her, let alone get any ideas about getting into her pants. She’d probably get huffy, but Candy needed to understand that she was his now. He really didn’t want to mess up that pretty face of hers to make a point.

    Candy wasn’t sure what to do about Abee Cole. Sure, they’d gone out a few times, and she knew he probably thought he could boss her around now. But he was a guy, and she’d figured out guys a long time ago, even bull-headed types like Abee. She might be only twenty-four years old, but she’d been on her own since seventeen, and she’d learned that as long as she wore her blond hair long and loose and stared up at guys with
that look
, she could pretty much make them do whatever she wanted. She knew