60

I felt the light on my back as I ran. I managed to get down before the first rifle shot rang out. A bullet nearly grazed my ear and pinged into the door of the Cadillac.

I rolled away from the light, toward some trees. Two more shots and the door to the cabin swung open. I looked for Ronnie. He was coming my way, crouched over, the 9mm in one hand. He hit the ground next to me and lay on his belly. I swung around and aimed at the flashlight one of the brothers was holding. I fired. Ronnie fired twice. The light went out.

The night was silent except for the long echoes of the gunfire, gradually diminishing in waves of eerie dissonance.

“You think we hit him?” Ronnie said.

“I doubt it. Otherwise he would have dropped the light instead of turning it off.”

“Good point.”

I turned my head to get a look at the house, but it was gone now, as dark as the rest of the night. Someone had come out of it moments before. We had attackers on both sides of us we couldn’t see.

Footsteps on gravel. Coming from two, no, three directions. One up the hill, in the direction of the cabin. A second from downhill, to my right. That was the brother with the light. The third was the closest of all, just off to our left.

I nudged Ronnie and whispered to him. “Watch your left. I’ve got the right side.”

“What about behind us?”

I didn’t answer. What could I say? There were only two of us, after all.

My feeling was that the brother with the light would turn it on again at some point. Otherwise, they were as blind as we were. As long as that was the case, we were all handicapped.

Something moved to my right. I pivoted slowly, irritating the wounds on my stomach as I slid it over the dirt. I held my .45 in both hands. I’d never been what you’d call a crack shot, but I’d also never thought that part mattered much. Most people could hit a target within thirty feet. The problem was most people had a hard time doing it when the target was more than just a target. When it was an actual person. For better or worse, I’d always been able to shut that part of my brain down. Hell, I’d say it was for the better, because if I hadn’t been able to do that, I’d probably have been dead by now.

The thing I couldn’t do, the thing I’d never been able to do, anyway, was shoot an unarmed man. I remembered the opportunity I’d had to do just that last fall when Jeb Walsh had stood in front of me at gunpoint. God, if I’d just pulled the trigger, would we even be here right now? I had to think we wouldn’t be.

The life you save may be your own.

Except when the life you save is some asshole who can’t help getting his dirty fingerprints all over the damned county.

I felt the light before I saw it. Right on top of me. I rolled over, aiming the gun up, firing wildly. I rolled into Ronnie, who cursed and squeezed off a shot too.

The ground exploded beside my shoulder, and we were both showered in dirt. The light went crooked and aimed toward the sky, making a full moon in the branches of the trees.

Someone groaned. I got to my feet.

Ronnie clutched at my ankles, trying to pull me down. “What are you doing?” he hissed.

“Going to get that light. Cover me.”

I was almost there when I realized it might be a trick. The light still lay aimed at the tree branches, and I could see the dark casing of the flashlight, still in the man’s hand. I raised my gun for what I hoped would be kill shot when the light shifted, flashing in my eyes, causing me to lose the target.

Someone fired. In my blinded state, I couldn’t tell where the shot had come from. But I didn’t feel hit. And the light fell away. The groan was different this time. The groan was misery, the kind from the depths of hell that pricks you inside and makes you regret everything all at once.

Except being alive to feel regret. Not that.

I blinked several times, trying to get the spots out of my vision, but they lingered. A hand fell on my back. I jumped, screaming out, and Ronnie hushed me.

“We got to get down on the—”

Shots came from two different directions. We fell, rolled onto one of the brothers. I heaved his body over top of us to use as a shield.

“You hit?” I asked.

“Yeah, I think maybe I am,” Ronnie said.

“Shit. Where?” I’d no more gotten the question out than the headlights came on. A car was coming toward us, its high beams freezing us where we lay.

“What now?” Ronnie said.

“Where are you shot?”

“Leg. No, hip. Maybe thigh. Everything hurts.”

“Can you stand?”

“Nah. That ain’t happening.”

“Okay.” I swallowed hard. The car was still coming toward us. If I timed it just right …

I stayed still, waiting, hoping the driver—Blevins or one of the brothers or even Savanna—would assume us all dead and stop the vehicle.

The headlights stayed on us as the car crept steadily forward. I’d have to act soon.

My fingers tightened on my .45 caliber, and I thought again about last fall, the chance I’d had to take Walsh out. Would it really have kept me from this moment? Maybe. Or maybe I would be in prison right now. Still, when it came down to death and prison, there was no real decision to be made …

I waited until I heard the engine rev before shrugging the dead Hill brother off me and standing up. I couldn’t see because of the high beams, but I held the gun steady and squeezed the trigger until it was empty. The car swerved just before hitting me, hitting us. I watched as it slid down the hill and into a bank of trees before coming to a stop.

Before I could head down to check it out, I heard another vehicle start up. I spun toward the cabin in time to see a small car darting away. Its headlights illuminated a man—the other brother. He stood there, passive, unafraid, just standing there, as the car slowed and the driver said something to him.

My gun was empty, so I went to Ronnie and asked for his. He handed it to me, grunting from the pain, but by the time I got the gun up, the brother was gone and the car was moving again. I squeezed off two shots, but I didn’t think either one of them hit anything. The taillights vanished around the bend.

As far as I could tell, we were alone. I looked up at the cabin. The single light burned inside again. Somehow I doubted we’d find Rufus there.