The girl was awake now. Her world was fuzzy and uneven, but she knew she was in a place she didn’t want to be. The pieces of her abduction came to her in painful chunks of memory. The smell of her father’s butcher shop was the most prominent recollection. She wretched at the thought of it. A chubby man raced to her side out of the darkness.
“You okay there, little thing?” Kenny asked.
The girl recoiled at the sight of him.
“I ain’t here to hurt you, I promise. I’m here to take you back to your momma.” He slowed and held up his hands to try to ease her fears, forgetting the fact he was holding a gun.
She gasped and eyed the weapon.
Confused, Kenny stepped back. “I swear to the heavens I ain’t got a bad thought toward you in my head…” He unconsciously gripped the handle of the gun and then realized what had the girl so frightened. “No, no, this ain’t for you.” He moved to his left and slowly placed the gun on a bench against the wall. “There. See?”
She appeared to relax just the slightest. Kenny moved in closer to her, trying his best to appear friendly. “I’m just waiting on my friend. He’s gone up top to take care of some things, and then we’re gonna skedaddle. I can promise you that. Yes, I can.”
The little girl fought back a flood of tears.
“Don’t fret, Sarah. I swear Ima get you home. Ima do it…” Kenny let out a gasp when she reached for him and pulled herself to him. His heart ached as he felt her trembling. “You go on there, little thing. Cry it out. This whole thing’s just about over.” He hugged her tight and patted her back. His mind shifted to the others that had been here before her. They had been just as frightened and alone as Sarah. He wondered how long they held on to hope that they would be rescued. He muttered to himself, “Ima kill Boss.”
Kenny stiffened, lurched forward awkwardly, and wheezed out a breath. The small girl flinched and nearly fell off the metal table. The chubby closeout king felt a stinging sensation in his back, just inside his right shoulder blade. He attempted to turn, but stumbled to his knees instead. The stinging intensified, and he felt the pain spider out across his back.
“You kilt my baby,” the old woman said, holding a heavy metal chain. She was about to hit Kenny with it again when she spotted his gun and quickly scooped it up.
Instead of denying what she’d accused him of, Kenny asked who her baby was.
“My daughter.”
“I ain’t never killed a baby,” Kenny said, sucking in heavy air.
“She’s my grown baby.”
Kenny tried to take a breath and felt a tinge of panic when it didn’t feel like he was taking in air. He coughed. Wheezing, he said, “I ain’t never killed a grown baby, neither.”
The old woman tried to pull the trigger, but the gun wouldn’t go off.
“Thing jams up,” Kenny said. He tried to breathe again, but it felt as if he couldn’t pull in any air. “Something don’t feel right.” He collapsed to the cold concrete floor.
She rushed him, swinging the chain wildly. It hit the metal table before striking Kenny square on the nose, aggravating the injury Boss had given him. “Ima bring the power of my Lord Jesus Christ on you! Ima send you to hell, where you belong!”
Kenny held up his arm and took two hits to his elbow from the chain before he heard a loud pop followed by a ringing in his ears. A gun had been fired, and the way his luck had been going, he assumed he had been shot. He attempted to pull himself up to protect the girl, but as soon as he grabbed the edge of the table he released it as an unbearable pain shot up his arm.
“Wha’cha do?” the woman asked. “I got Jesus’s work to do…I can’t be shot.” She fell to the floor.
Bones stepped around her. Smoke rose off the barrel of the gun in her shaking hand.
Kenny watched her approach and smiled, allowing blood from his nose to stain his teeth red. “Pretty Bones,” he said. “I am sure glad to lay eyes on you. That old lady near beat me to death with that chain. Good Lord.”
Bones knelt beside him. “I don’t like this place.”
“It ain’t my favorite, neither.” He fought to sit up, cradling his arm against his belly. “I got a bunch of stuff on me that’s broke.”
“Can you walk? ’Cause Step sent me down here to get you.”
“He’s alive?”
“Alive and pissed, as usual.”
“Who else is up there?”
“A lady cop, some other woman, Boss. Everyone’s pointing guns at one another.”
Nodding, Kenny said, “Sounds about right,” and then shifted his frame until he could push himself up with his good arm and stand. Bones attempted to help him, but he yelped in pain when she touched him.
On his feet, he smiled and turned to the table. “Where’s the girl?”
“What girl?” Bones asked.
“The Campbell girl. Little Sarah. She was right here on this table…”
The sound of crying came from the armored truck.
“Sarah,” Kenny called out. “You in there?”
“What the hell is a little girl doing down in this place?”
Kenny ignored Bones and slowly moved toward the truck. “Sarah? C’mon out, sweetie. Let’s get on home to your momma.” He pulled the door open to the truck and nearly fell to the floor as the little girl leapt up and clamped her arms around his neck. Pain lit up every nerve in his body, but he didn’t dare drop her. Instead, he wrapped his good arm around her and hugged her tight.