Even Rural seemed interested in the family conflict playing out here.
“I used Mom and Dad’s key, of course,” she said. “They’re not home anyway.”
“You used their key. I get it, but why? You’ve never been here before.” Maybe if Addie kept the gunman distracted, Tucker could find a way to get the gun away from Rural without anyone getting shot. But her sister was involved, … so all bets were off.
“I came a few times when you first moved in,” she said. “It’s awfully tiny though.” Her sneer and bravado were back again. She looked at the gunman. “Don’t you think so?”
He shrugged and said, “It’s okay.”
Bernie couldn’t believe it. “Are you serious?”
“You just walk into my house when I’m not home? So you can what? So you can criticize it?”
“Why not?” she said. “It’s not like you were answering your phone.”
Addie shook her head, her hands on her hips. “What did you need this time? Somebody to run get you a coffee?”
At that, the gunman snorted.
Her sister looked at her and frowned. “No,” she said, “I needed cream.”
“Well, if you can manage to get here, you’re capable of getting your own cream,” she said in exasperation.
“Oh, and our parents called,” she said. “They’re coming home this weekend.”
“Great. What’s that got to do with me?”
“I told them what had happened about the dog and that you were angry at me.”
“I’m always angry at you. Nothing’s changed there. You tried to kill a dog that did nothing to you. You treated it horribly. You abused it constantly,” she said. “The best thing for that dog was to get away from you.”
“That’s not true,” she snapped, glaring at the dog. “I hate it.”
“Too damn bad,” Tucker said beside Addie. “You have no rights to this dog now. It’s mine.”
She sneered at him, then spoke to Addie. “What’d you do? Pick up a hero while you’re out? Men like that are easy,” she said. “The trick is to get one with staying power.”
“You’re hardly one to talk,” she said. “If you can’t use and abuse, you don’t give a damn.”
Her sister looked at her in surprise.
Tired and fed up, hoping Tucker had a plan for the gunman, Addie snapped at her sister. “What are you here for?” she repeated. “And give my key back.”
“I don’t know what you’re going on about,” she said. “I just came for a visit.”
“No, you didn’t. You probably contacted your friend at the pound, and he told you that I had something to do with the dog’s release.”
“You had no fucking right,” her sister said in her mean dictator voice, her face twisting with fury. “That damn dog needs to die.” She looked over at the gunman. “I’ll give you one hundred bucks to kill it right now.”
He shook his head, looked at the dog, and said, “I still don’t get what’s wrong with the dog.”
“She doesn’t like my sister,” Addie said in a dry tone. “That’s all my sister cares about—herself. She wants it killed for that reason alone. She would torture the dog when it was sleeping and hit it with a chair.”
Rural looked at Addie in shock and then looked at her sister. “Seriously?”
“I was hoping it would die,” Bernie said.
“She used to starve it. Or she’d pour cleansers in her dog food,” Addie continued. “There’s nothing good about my sister’s behavior to this dog—or to people for that matter.”
“It sounds like the only one who should be getting a bullet is her,” Rural said with a sneer, waving his weapon in Bernie’s face.
Bernie bounded to her feet and walked up to the gunman, pushing him against the wall. “Don’t you talk to me like that,” she snapped.
He quickly pushed her back. “Hey, bitch. That’s not too smart, since I’m the one with the loaded gun.”
“I don’t give a shit,” she said, poking her finger into the gunman’s chest.
He backhanded her with his free hand, the noise echoing, hanging in the air, as Bernie stumbled, grabbing at anything to keep from falling.
Bernie seemed affronted. “Don’t you talk to me,” she said, pouting now. “You have no idea how bad it’s been. That dog hated me ever since I first got it. I begged my parents to get the dog, and then, when we get it, the dog hates me. So I decided it would pay,” she said, now her hurt turning into anger. “It’s not my fault. I wanted to make sure it suffered. So I filed a complaint. It should have been put to death yesterday, except for these two.” She turned, looked at her sister and Tucker. Gave a clipped nod and snapped at the gunman, “Actually I’ll pay $300,” she said, “to shoot them all.”
Tucker stared at the sister and wondered about the severity of her psychoses. He had his phone in his hand in his pocket and had turned it on to video as soon as he saw the two intruders. Even though the video would only show the inside of his pocket, his phone would at least record their words.
“Wow,” Tucker said, “you take the cake. It’s totally about you, isn’t it? Nothing matters as long as you get what you want, huh?”
“That’s the way life is,” she said with a disdainful look at her fingers. “There are users and losers.”
“No,” he said, “that’s not the way life is. You’re not supposed to sit here and just take everything you want in life. You’re supposed to help others.”
“No,” she said in a languid tone, and she walked past the gunman, completely nonchalant about the gun in his hand.
Tucker was stunned because, given an opportunity, he would have removed the gun and, therefore, the threat from the guy altogether, but Bernie, who had the opportunity, didn’t even care. She didn’t even consider it. Didn’t even think about it, not for her own self-preservation or for anybody else’s. He figured she wasn’t like Rural, expecting suicide-by-cop earlier, although this would be suicide-by-intruder instead. Nope. Tucker figured she never had to do anything for herself, including saving herself from … herself and armed intruders.
He shook his head. “You’re unbelievable,” he murmured.
She smiled at him and said, “Thank you.”
“Unbelievably evil.”
She huffed and sat back down on her chair. The gunman waved the gun at her and said, “Now stay there.” She just looked up at him and flicked her fingers, as if to say, Piss off, and ignored him. The gunman looked over at the two of them. “I feel sorry for you,” he said. “She’s a total bitch.”
“She’s always been like that,” Addie said, her voice tired. “When my parents get back, she’ll wrap them around her fingers and make their lives miserable too.”
“They’re not miserable,” she said. “They love me and will do anything for me.”
“But you don’t do anything for them,” Addie said, hating the truth of her words. “Even worse, you make their life something they don’t want. Why do you think they take off on trips all the time?”