Winnie moved slow and on tiptoe to where Eddie slept. He never stirred, not even when she plucked the tiny key from the palm of his hand.
I obeyed when she motioned for me to come near.
“We’re getting out of here,” she whispered. “Once I get this door open, I want you to run. Don’t even think about me. Just run. Hear?”
“I don’t know if I can get home,” I said, voice shaking.
“When you get out, run to the left.” She pointed. “And keep going. Don’t stop. Crawl if you gotta.”
I nodded, hoping my trembling and weak legs would get me up the ten steps and across the field.
Winnie went up ahead of me. I stood on the fifth step, waiting, praying, begging God to save us.
The key scraped into the lock, turning with a gritty, crunching sound. It clicked open, and she eased the lock off and pushed the door up.
Strong wind whipped around, grabbing the door from her hand and slamming it open with a loud bang against the hard ground.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Eddie yelled. He aimed the gun at Winnie. “You get back down here.”
Winnie dropped the lock and put her open hands up next to her ears. She stepped down, pushing against me so I would move, too.
“Just let her go, Eddie,” she said. “Please.”
“I can’t do that, can I?” He nodded his head toward the back of the cellar. “Get.”
We did as he said. I feared that any fast move would make him shoot one or the other of us. I kept my mouth shut.
“Let Pearl go home,” Winnie said. “You can keep me. Do whatever you want to me. If you need money, I can get some for you.”
“Why would I need money?” he asked.
“You could get out of town. Go to California. Get a good job. You could start all over.” She licked her lips. “Just let her go, would ya?”
“Now you wanna be like a mother to her?” He glared at her.
“She ain’t done nothing to harm you. She’s the only one innocent in this whole mess.”
“I need her, don’t you see? Without her, I got no revenge against Tom Spence. Long as I got her, he’s gonna come right to me.” His face pinched up and turned bright red. “I got to get him back for what he done to Jimmy.”
“Eddie …”
“I would’ve thought you wanted that, too, Winnie. Weren’t you the one blubbering over how much you loved Jimmy?”
“I just want this all to be over with. I been living under the weight of Jimmy too long.”
“The sheriff’s gonna come for her.” He pointed the gun at me. “And when he does, I’m gonna make him pay for what he done to my brother.”
“If you do that, you won’t be any better than Jimmy,” Winnie said, her voice soft. “And I do believe you’re still good somewhere in there.”
“It’s too late.”
“Eddie, please.”
Winnie took a step toward Eddie with hands reaching for him. The gunshot tore through the air, making me fall to the floor. Then I couldn’t move. Not an inch.
All I could do was scream.