Then she saw the blood on the floor. “Jesus!” she said. “What the hell did you do in here?”
“I didn’t do anything. You remember that.”
“Well, blood’s all over the floor, so obviously you did something,” she snapped.
“One of my team decided to backstab me,” he said, with a growl. “That’s what happens to betrayers.”
“Right,” she said. “Can’t blame you there. I feel the same way.”
He seemed somewhat mollified. “Get him to wake up,” he snapped, “before I come charging in with all kinds of ways to make him wake up.”
She reached over and gently shook Gregg’s shoulder. “Gregg, are you there?” He just moaned. “Jesus,” she said. “Did you guys pistol whip him or something?”
“Or something, but it wasn’t me. He just got here. Remember?”
She glared at him, not sure where the hell Garret was but trusting that the guys had her back. She said, “So now what? You have all the money for yourself?”
“Hell no,” he said. “Two more guys are outside.”
She stared at him in astonishment. “What? I didn’t see any guys outside.”
He nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I’m wondering about too.”
He looked at her intently, but she just shook her head. “I didn’t see anybody,” she said.
He started to swear. “Goddammit, if those two little pissants took off, I’ll come after them and make them darn sorry for leaving me like that.”
“Maybe they saw you kill that guy, the backstabber, and they didn’t want any part of it.”
He stood here, his eyes closed, his hands on his hips, as if thinking it through, and then nodded. “And that’s probably exactly what happened.” He brightened at that. “But then again, I don’t have to pay them, so that’s all good.”
“Did you even get a paycheck?” she said, with a half smile.
“No, they’re on their way. Right now. So payday is coming.”
She stared at him in shock.
He nodded. “You didn’t think you would get out of this unscathed, did you?”
“Well, I’d hoped so,” she said, sagging onto the couch. Just as she wondered what she should do, Gregg gently squeezed her hand. She let out a slow deep breath and squeezed his fingers back. What she needed to know for certain was what this big guy knew or to be sure that he didn’t have any clue.
She looked at the bully. “And when they come, then what?”
“Then you and him will get hauled out of here, and I’ll get paid, and I’m leaving,” he said. “Before any more shit goes wrong.”
“And the blood and wherever the bodies are that you’ve got stashed here?”
He snorted. “I can’t go out and deal with them right now,” he said. “So I’ll make it a part of the deal, for them to take care of.”
“If you say so,” she said, frowning. “But what if they won’t pay you, when they see the mess you made?”
He just glared at her, but she could see that she’d gotten him thinking.
“Shit,” he said. Just then came the sound of a vehicle coming up the road.
She looked at him. “Well, guess you’ll find out soon enough because it looks like we’ve got company.”
“Oh, yeah, we got company all right,” he said, with a big smirk. “And you’ll finally get what’s coming to you.”
She glared at him. “I haven’t done anything to you. I don’t know why you’ve got such hate for me.”
“I hate all bitches,” he said. “Ones with brains are the worst.”
She looked at him, smiled, and said, “Thank you, that was an obvious compliment. I knew you didn’t hate me.”
“It wasn’t meant that way,” he snapped.
She shrunk. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll take it anyway.”
Just then the vehicle pulled up into the driveway, and the lights shone on the house. He walked toward the front door, then stopped and looked at her hesitantly.
“Where am I going?” she asked. “I already came back.”
“No, I can’t believe that. Not the way things are going tonight.” He walked back over beside her and hit her hard in the side of the head. She collapsed onto the couch without another word.
*
Swearing heavily at that little scenario, Garret waited until the big guy headed out the front door. Then he raced into the living room. He said to Gregg, “Wake the hell up.” Then Garret picked up Astra and carried her out to the back porch, returning once more to the front room.
Gregg said, “I’m here. I’m here.”
Garret shoved the handgun Astra had kept in the back of her waistband, under her jacket, to Gregg. “Now that she’s safely out of the way, we need to get all of them.”
Gregg, keeping up with the headlights still shining in the front, stood, a little wobbly at first, then said, “Come on. Let’s go.”
They immediately stood on either side of the front door, hidden by the old thick ornate curtains covering the windows on each side.
Outside, yelling was going on.
“I guess they found the bodies,” Garret noted.
“What the fuck, man,” the one guy said. “We can’t deal with these bodies.”
“It’s not my fucking fault,” the big guy said. “The first one was his bullshit because he didn’t want to share, and he wanted whiny guy to just shut the hell up. Then the fucker pulled a gun on me, so I had to take him out. What the hell? Do you think I would stand here and get myself shot?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “This is all bullshit.”
“Maybe so, but, if you want your prisoners, come get them,” he snapped. “They’re on the couch. The girl too.”
“The girlfriend?”
“No, the girlfriend’s sister.”
“Well then, we’re not paying you full price. You didn’t fully deliver,” he said.
“You’re paying me full price,” he said. “I had the girlfriend. I went through too much for this.”
“We wanted the girlfriend, not the sister,” he said. “Anybody with brains would know that.”
“Well, with these two prisoners, you can get the other one.”
But, as far as Garret and Gregg could see, the one guy was backing up toward the car. “No, you clean up this shit first.”
“You get the hell in here and get your prisoners,” the big guy roared. “Otherwise I’ll release Gregg and the girl. And then you can deal with whatever.”
The new arrival had a conversation with somebody on the driver’s side. “Fine, I’m coming in to get him,” he said. “But I want you to step out first. No way you’ll shoot me, like you shot your brother.”
“Oh, no. No way,” he said. “You owe me some money. Until I get my money, I’m not giving you nothing.”
“You told me to come get him,” he said, exasperated.
“Well, I’ve already seen too much tonight,” he said. “This can go down easy, or it can go down seriously ugly.”