“Really,” Kyle said again. “What’s going on?”
“Look, Kyle.” Emily had never done a breakup before, and she wished she could just play a couple songs to get the point across to him, but that wasn’t going to cut it. “We don’t work. You know it and I know it. And I think it’s time we both accept it.”
“But we can make it work,” Kyle said quickly. “I can be better. You can be better. Right?”
Emily frowned and shook her head. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“Oh, you know,” Kyle stuttered. “We could go out more. You could, I don’t know, be less . . . uptight about things.”
“If by things you mean your pot smoking, then—”
“It’s barely a drug,” Kyle said quickly. “Everyone does it.”
“I don’t care, Kyle.”
“If you’d just chill out a little . . .”
“That’s the thing.” Emily took a deep breath. “I shouldn’t have to chill out. I’m fine the way I am. And you should find a girl who does want to chill out, just like you. I’m not that girl, and I’ll never be that girl. I don’t want to be that girl. And I think when you really consider everything, when you think about it, you’ll realize that I’m right.”
Kyle was quiet for a moment, then he sighed. “I guess you’re right. But don’t you think you could’ve waited before finding some other guy to flaunt in front of me.” He motioned in the direction Chris had walked. “I mean, he looks like some kind of biker dude you found at a bar.”
“Pool hall.”
“Huh?”
“Nothing. It’s just been a crazy day.”
Kyle crossed his arms, his eyes narrowed at her, but then he nodded. “Okay. Okay, I guess this is the right thing. But we can still be friends, right? I mean, even if this”—he motioned between them—“isn’t working out, you’re still a cool chick.”
“And you’re a cool dude,” Emily said honestly. “Of course we can be friends.”
“Hug it out?”
Emily leaned in and gave Kyle a tight hug. For a second she worried that it’d be a mistake, but he backed away without incident.
“Dude.”
Emily frowned. “Look, we can be friends, but when you start calling me dude, then—”
“No, no, not you,” Kyle said. “I’m talking about the mad fucking muscle that just strolled in here.”
Emily turned around and gawked when she saw who he was referring to. Ruff and Scrappy were at the party, moving through the house with Big Dog right behind them. They’d already spotted her and were coming her way, and she barely had time to comprehend what was happening before they were standing in front of her. Big Dog was grinning.
“Well, hello, Liz,” he sneered.
“Emily?” Kyle sounded confused, but he also stepped forward, moving slightly in front of her. “There a problem here?”
“Oh, Emily.” Big Dog nodded enthusiastically. “So nice to finally know your name.”
“Hey, dickwad,” Kyle said as he stepped up to Big Dog and puffed out his chest. “I don’t know who the hell you are, but you can fuck off.” He immediately took a step back when Big Dog pulled out a gun and held it right at his chest. “Oh . . .”
“I suggest you reevaluate your tone,” Big Dog said slowly. “I’d hate to make a mess on this fancy-ass tile you’ve got here.”
“Look, just leave him alone,” Emily said, surprised by the strength in her own voice. She’d expected herself to be scared, and she had been for a moment, but after the day she’d had, she was tired of the nonsense. “What do you want?”
“What do I want?” Big Dog laughed. “What do I want?” He pushed Kyle aside and grabbed Emily by the arm. She tried to brace herself, but stumbled and fell toward Big Dog, who spun her around into Scrappy.
Emily felt Scrappy wrap his tree trunk of an arm across her, pinning her against his torso. She couldn’t move her arms.
“I’ll tell you what I want from you, Emily.” Big Dog leaned in so close she could feel his warm breath against her cheek, and clearly see the capillaries lacing the edge of the scar across his face. “What I want is the one hundred fifty thousand dollars you stole from me today.”
Kyle made a move toward them, but Ruff stepped forward and shook his head. Kyle shrank back.
“What’s he talking about, Em?”
“I didn’t steal anything from you,” Emily said. Her voice was shaky now. She’d only had a gun pointed at her once before, and that was several hours prior at Rick’s. That gun she found out later had not been loaded. This gun was loaded, or was likely to be loaded. It wasn’t something she wanted to test. “Liz and Chestnut—the real Liz and Chestnut—have the money. We gave it back to them. They’re probably trying to get it to you right now.” She really hoped she hadn’t just sold out the couple by saying that.
“Oh, did you?” Big Dog had a strange smile on his face. “That’s really very interesting, Emily, because I just caught up with Liz and Chestnut myself, and they informed me that you and your little friends tricked them.”
“That had to be before we gave it back.” Emily hated the desperate tone in her voice. “We gave them the money. They have it. It wasn’t that long ago. Just call them and ask about it. They’ll tell you what happened.”
Big Dog’s eyes flashed fire, but his voice was cold as ice. “If you think for one moment that I’m leaving here without my money, you’re wrong. I will pull your fingers off with pliers one by one until you hand it over, and then—”
Emily never heard what Big Dog had planned after he removed her fingers because Kyle lunged around Ruff and tried to swing at Big Dog. His swinging was wild enough to make Scrappy loosen his grip, which gave Emily the chance to pull away, but not before she slammed a foot down on his, crushing his toes with the heel of her boot.
Emily grabbed for Kyle’s arm, but as she did, Big Dog regained his footing, and as Ruff was trying to subdue Kyle, Emily saw Big Dog raise the gun by its barrel and bring the butt down hard on Kyle’s head. Kyle wilted into Ruff.
By now they’d drawn enough attention that everyone was watching, though no one was doing anything, and it was pretty obvious that they had no idea what to do. Especially once Big Dog had the gun raised and pointed at Emily once again.