William pointed to the window on the other side of the fireplace. It was open and the screen had been pushed out. Roselita pushed the curtains out of the way with the pistol and cussed under her breath. She swung the gun around. “Where did she go?”
“Take it easy, Roselita. Don’t hurt him.”
“I’m not going to hurt him, Dane. Find something for me to use to cut you free.” She looked at William and tried to sound calm. “Where did she go, William? She may be the only one who can get us out of here safe.”
William didn’t look frightened. He didn’t look anything. He shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said. “She said she’d be back. She told me to come with her but I didn’t want to.”
“You didn’t—” That confused Roselita and Dane both. The kid had had a chance to escape but didn’t? “Why?” Dane asked.
“Because you’re the good guys. That’s what you said.”
Roselita laughed, but it was dry and humorless. She motioned for William. “Let’s go. C’mon. Get up.” The boy was compliant. He stood and walked to the door. Roselita followed Dane back through the main living room, past the massive china cabinet, and out the front door. She grabbed William by his sleeve and guided him out onto the porch as well. “Where the hell is she?”
“I’m right here, bitch.” Ned brought the hardwood grip of Dane’s Redhawk .44 down on Roselita’s neck like a sledgehammer. She dropped her own gun and collapsed as it spun off the porch into the azaleas. Again, William didn’t move or act surprised.
“She probably wasn’t talking about me, was she?” Ned flipped open a pocket knife and cut the zip tie off Dane’s wrists.
“Jesus Christ.” Dane looked down at Roselita out cold on the porch. “Where have you been, Ned?”
“I’m sorry, Dane. I freaked. I should never have called you. All this shit is my fault. I never—”
“Not the time to talk about it.” Dane narrowed his eyes at the gun Ned was holding. “Is that mine?”
Ned looked down at the Redhawk. “Yeah, I took it out of your glove box. That okay?”
Dane swiveled around and saw his truck parked out past the clearing. “Well, fuck me. Are the keys in it?”
“No.”
“Shit.”
“They’re right here.” He reached into his pocket and handed Dane the keys. “They were gonna dump it in the quarry. I’m glad you had a piece in there, or I would’ve showed up empty-handed.”
Dane squeezed the keys and almost laughed. “C’mon.” He grabbed William’s arm and headed toward the steps.
“Go, I got this piece of shit.” Ned pointed the Redhawk down at Roselita’s head and held his other hand in front of his face to block the spatter of blood.
“No,” Dane yelled and snatched the gun. “Leave her be.”
“Are you kidding? This bitch sold you out, Dane. She was going to kill you.”
“But she didn’t. Leave her for now and let’s get William somewhere safe. I’ll come back for her.”
Ned looked confused. “Back for her? What?”
“No time to explain. Come on.” By the time Dane got to the driver’s door he was seeing white bursts in his vision. He had a concussion, maybe. His head hurt like hell. He swung the door open and motioned for William to get in. The boy began to crawl in when Ned called out for Lydia.
“Where is she?”
“I left her here in the truck,” Ned said, and yelled her name again. He was frantic. He screamed her name a third time.
“She’s right here, Mr. Lemon. Now all of you slowly back away from the truck.” Dahmer stood at the tree line, holding Lydia by her neck. He used her body to block his and held a pistol to her head.
“I’m sorry,” she said. She tried to say something else, but Dahmer squeezed the words from her throat.
* * *
“Come on out, you big ugly motherfucker,” Eddie said, and racked another cartridge into the rifle and walked slowly through the barn. He’d shot the big man full on, center mass. The bastard should be lying on the ground with a hole in him, but he wasn’t. The back end of the barn, where all the fighting pens were, was blacked out and there were a thousand places for him to hide, but no one knew the barn better than the man who built it, so Eddie carefully cased each pen. He kicked open each cedar door one by one and swung the rifle in. Each time he came up empty. The third door he kicked open allowed him to see his uncle. Casper had left earlier—to gather a few more men from up the mountain. They were supposed to wait until the other Fed showed up and then swarm the house and take them all out, but he never even made it off the property. Casper lay in the dirt in an unnatural position. His arms broken, his throat carved open. His glass eye missing, leaving a black hole in the left side of his face. Flies had already begun to gather and buzzed around the body like it was three-day-old roadkill. His blood had already dried into the dirt and congealed into pools of strawberry jelly. Eddie’s stomach roiled before the anger took over. “I’m going to kill you slow, you gook motherfucker.” He turned and felt the baston as Fenn shoved it through his abdomen.
“You will do nothing,” Fenn said. He pulled Eddie close to him and twisted the length of bamboo in a way that made him slide slowly to his knees. Fenn pulled the baston out and Eddie dropped backward, next to his uncle. Fenn crouched down and looked in his eyes. It hurt him to move. It was the second time the vest had saved his life, but it still hurt like hell. Watching the light fading from Eddie’s eyes eased the big man’s pain. “At least you die with your family. You have that to take with you.” He waited a minute longer as Eddie began to spew up large bursts of blood. “I’m gonna—kill—you—” he managed to say between coughs.
“In another life, my friend.” Fenn stood. He wiped the baston off on Eddie’s jeans, and then walked out of the barn toward the house.
* * *
“Let her go,” Ned yelled as Dahmer stepped cautiously out of the woods. Dahmer was careful to keep Lydia positioned between him and Dane, the only one carrying a gun—the only threat he needed to worry about.
“Give me the boy and I will let her go. A simple exchange. There’s no reason for anyone else to die. This wasn’t supposed to happen, Kirby.” Lydia struggled against him, but Dahmer only tightened his grip. He was so tall, so thin, that he practically had to hold her on the tips of her toes to shield him.
“You have my word, Kirby. The woman for the boy.”
Dane had already dropped to his knees behind the fender well. He hoisted the Redhawk over the hood. “Go fuck yourself, Dahmer. You don’t have a play here. You hurt her and you die next. So the only real trade is you let her go and I don’t blow your head off.”
Dahmer took another carefully placed step. “That’s one possible outcome. Another one is I kill her and then I kill him.” He nodded at Ned, who stood with his hands in the air in front of the truck. “You’ll lose two people you care about to protect someone you just met. It’s been a while since you’ve had to fire that cannon. Are you sure you want to take that chance?”