by Dale Mayer
“It’s almost like they ran out of gas,” Zack said, with a smug tone.
Galen looked at him. “Did you puncture the gas tank?”
“Well, I tried, but I didn’t get much chance,” he said. “I did put some stuff in the gas tank though, but that can take a long time to sift through.”
“Looks like it might have finally worked.”
“Now we’ll have to watch it,” he said, “because we’re the sitting ducks.”
“Yes, we can expect them to be armed and dangerous.” Galen pulled up behind them, keeping a good distance, and Zack immediately got out and ducked below his open door. No sign of life was in the vehicle stopped in front of them. Zack got back into the passenger’s side. “Keep close.”
Galen drove slowly closer, keeping himself hunched down behind the dash, so he could just barely see, and he ran his vehicle right into theirs.
“What the hell will that do?” he heard Zack say.
Galen kept driving forward, kept pushing the other truck into the ditch and off to the side, slamming into a tree at the bottom. As soon as that happened, Galen hopped out, his vehicle now at the top of the ditch, the engine still running, and the emergency brake on. Both of the guys jumped down to the vehicle below. Galen held his gun against the open window to see one man swearing and cussing at him, blood gushing from a head wound. On the other side was Rebecca, screaming obscenities at both of them, but she also looked banged up.
Galen found it hard to be sympathetic. “The vehicle isn’t badly damaged,” he said. “I’m surprised she didn’t run, leaving you holding the bag.”
“I have a gun,” the older man said, pulling up his other hand, pointing the gun at Galen.
“Yeah? So do I,” Galen said with a laugh. “So what do I care. What will you do about it?”
“This,” he snapped. And pointed it at Galen, his finger pulling back to fire.
Galen was faster and slammed the gun into the man’s wrist, knocking the gun from his hand. He screamed at the same time Galen opened the door and pulled him out, shoving him to the ground, holding the gun to his head. On the other side, Rebecca smashed Zack on the side of his head over and over as she fought with him. Zack managed to bring the screaming, outraged woman over to the side of the vehicle. Galen stood up and told Zack to duck. As Zack leaned his head back as far as he could, Galen reached out and smacked Rebecca hard on the side of the head. She went limp and sagged to the ground. He turned to look at Zack and said, “If you can’t handle her, I will.”
“I got this,” Zack said, swearing. “I’m just not used to hitting women.”
“You shouldn’t ever be used to hitting women,” Galen said. “But, when the time comes, you have to be ready to do whatever needs to be done with the likes of Rebecca.” With her now secured and on the ground, Galen took a look at the stranger’s wrist. It was injured but not too badly. Although it was bleeding a decent amount. He ripped off a piece of the stranger’s T-shirt and bound his wound up tight. “Hold on to that to stop the bleeding.”
The driver clamped his hand down tight.
Galen sat back and studied the stranger. The cloud cover had added a dark heaviness to the night. He couldn’t see the driver’s face clearly at all. “Are you the one who just shot two men?”
The older male just glared at him.
Galen held up his cell phone and, using a flashlight app, checked the driver’s face and whistled. “Look at that. We’ve got James here and now in Germany.” At the look of surprise on the driver’s face, Galen nodded. “Did you really think we don’t have a full idea of what the hell is going on here?”
“Nobody could,” he said. “It’s bloody useless doing anything with her.”
“So do you know her well?” he asked. “You shouldn’t have gotten involved in the first place.”
The older man nodded slowly. “That’s the truth, isn’t it?”
“Screwing your brother’s wife is never cool,” he said. “Especially when you end up killing him to get the unfaithful wife for yourself.
The older man just glared at him.
“Are you saying that’s not what happened?”
“We were both dating her at the same time,” he said. “I’m a lot older than Joe. I guess she figured he was a better bet.”
“Maybe not,” Galen said. “I think she just likes to play the left against the right. Have you kept seeing her all these years?”
The old man groaned and then nodded slowly.
“Well, you’ll have a lot of years in jail to sit there and think about the choices you made in your life.”
“Maybe not,” he said. “We’re not out of this yet.”
“Sure you are,” Galen said. “We’ve already sent photos through satellite to our headquarters. They’ve contacted the police. Believe me. We’ll be adding kidnapping and murder charges, so good luck with that.”
“I didn’t kill anybody,” he said. “Certainly not my brother.”
“You killed Rebecca’s two goons back at the cabin. Maybe you didn’t kill your brother, but you ordered the killing, and that’ll go on you just the same.”
“No. I didn’t kill anyone. And I didn’t order any killing at all,” he protested. “I just responded to a SOS from Rebecca, saying she was in deep trouble and needed me.”
At that, Galen sat back on his heels, looked at her, and gave a sharp laugh. “You know what? That just might work. Because it will be—at least partially—the truth.”
“It’s more than partially the truth,” he said. “Unfortunately, just like my brother, I’ve been hooked on her ever since the beginning.”
Galen raised an eyebrow, looked at Zack, who stared at the old man in disgust. “See Zack? Not just you,” he said.
Zack shot him a hard look. “At least I’ve been away from her shit show for the last eight years,” he said.
“And I thought it was just Joe and I,” James said sadly. “I don’t even know why I’m here. I’m old enough to know better. Really.”
“To rescue her. Remember? But then again, she had already killed Joe.”
He looked at him in horror. “She killed my brother?”
“Of course, but I’m sure she told you somebody else did it.”
“Absolutely she did. She said it was a botched burglary attempt.”
“Of course,” Galen said. “Except for the fact that she was seen, by two eyewitnesses. And by the hired gun’s statement alone, when he balked and didn’t want to shoot Joe, she grabbed the gun and shot Joe herself.”
The old man just stared at him in shock.
“And if you don’t believe me, James,” he said, “maybe you’ll believe your niece, since Becky saw the whole thing.”
“My daughter saw it?”
“Your daughter?” Galen shook his head at that. “I hope you’ve had a DNA test done over that because Joe was positive she was his, and I know a couple other guys were at play around the same time. Becky could be anyone’s daughter at this point. But, back to the murder issue, yes, young Becky saw her mother shoot her father,” he said. “And believe me. She’s pretty torn up about it. Because her mother also kept lying, saying she didn’t do it and that Becky obviously didn’t see what she thought she saw.”
“Yeah, that’s Rebecca,” James said, looking down at the woman, still unconscious. “I don’t have a clue what hold this Lolita has on me, and every other man around her, but it’s a damn destructive one.”
“Well, if you hadn’t killed her two goons, you might be able to rebuild a life for yourself at some point in time, but I wouldn’t count on it.”
“Is that even possible?” he asked, filled with remorse. “I feel like an old fool.” He shook his head and added, “But I swear that I didn’t shoot anybody.”
“Like I said, it depends on if you had anything to do with the killing. If you did, well, no, you can’t rebuild your life. If you didn’t kill anybody, I’d give it a maybe. She, on the other hand, is going to jail for murdering he
r husband.”
Just then another vehicle slowed down on the side of the road above them. Zack immediately disappeared into the trees, and Galen whispered down at James, “I wouldn’t trust anybody, if I were you, so keep your mouth shut.” And, with that, he melted into the background. The vehicle pulled up to the side and called out, “Hey, Dad, is that you?”
“Yeah, it is,” he said. “Victor, is that you?”
“Yeah. Hey, Dad. Are you okay?”
Galen looked on, in absolute shock and horror, as out came a strapping young man from a large station wagon. He scrambled down the loose bank to where his father sat on the ground. “What the hell happened to you?”
“She happened,” he said, nodding toward Rebecca, still unconscious on the ground.
“Oh, my God. Is she okay?” he asked softly, as he quickly moved to her side. “How could this happen? Poor baby. Especially after what those assholes did to her …”
Even Galen could hear the absolute love-swept tone in his voice. With his heart sinking, he realized that yet another player was in this game.
Father stared at son. “Did you shoot anybody over this?” James asked hesitantly, his voice thick and sad.
“Hell no. Well, not anybody who counted. … The two men who kidnapped her are out of the way, at least. Still some cleaning up to do. Like that damn woman involved in this mess. To think she was trying to take Rebecca’s child.” He shook his head and, in an almost reverent voice, whispered, “My God, what this angel has been through …”
That damn woman? Was Victor talking about Gemma? It sounded like it, but Galen knew she hadn’t had anything to do with this mess.
“Yeah? What is it that she’s been through?” James asked.
Galen was not liking this turn of events.
“Those guys kidnapped her,” he said with such anger in his voice that the others stopped to stare at him. “I had to save her. Jesus, she’s been through so much.”
“Yeah, she has,” James said, as he stared at his son in shock. “More than you know.”
“I got worried, so turned around to make sure you two were okay. Obviously my instincts were correct.” He dropped down, grabbing Rebecca’s hand. “How did you end up down here?” Victor asked, as he studied the unconscious woman. “How badly hurt is she?”
“Not,” James said.
Galen quietly shifted his position, in case things went south quickly. That Victor was acting as he was, gave Galen yet another ugly suspicion into a new Rebecca victim. Galen switched his gaze to the vehicle sitting on the road above them. Were Gemma and Becky in his vehicle?
“It’s a long story,” James said, sadly studying his son’s face with an odd look, as if finally seeing the same thing.
“We came to rescue her,” Victor said.
“We came because she called out for help, yes,” he said. “I don’t know that she actually needed a rescue though.”
“Don’t you start with me now,” Victor said, getting angry. He straightened up. “I told you how important she is to me.”
James gave a mocking self-depraving laugh. “No. No, you really didn’t. You were really agitated about coming to help her, and, as that suited my purpose, I was on board from the beginning,” he said. “However, the one thing I never had a chance to tell you was how important she was to me too.”
Ooops.
A long awkward silence followed as father and son stared at each other.
Now was a really good time to step forward and put a stop to this. With Zack coming up on the one side, Galen came up on the other, his gun out. “And where’s Rebecca’s daughter,” Galen asked. “Not to mention the bitch you thought was trying to take her away.”
Victor froze, them palmed his own gun. “So not innocent bystanders? If you guys had anything to do with kidnapping Rebecca,” he said, “I’ll make sure you pay.”
“Son, you don’t understand,” Galen said, as he stepped forward, his gun in his hand but his eyes watching the younger man’s trigger finger like a hawk. “That woman is not who you think she is.”
“The hell she isn’t,” he said. “She’s my lover, and she’ll be my wife.”
Galen could feel the sudden change in Zack’s awareness at the same time that James laughed brokenly.
“Oh, my God,” James said, “she really did it.”
“She really did what?” Victor asked, looking down at his father.
“She’s really been sleeping with the both of us. While she was married to my brother at the same time!” His laughter turned almost hysterical. Part of it was pain, and part of it was the horrible realization of what a fool he had been. Just then, a new element entered the situation.
From up on the roadside, a small voice called out. “Mommy?”
At that moment, Galen realized that Becky and hopefully Gemma were in that station wagon up top. The stakes had never been higher.
Chapter 17
Gemma had tried to hush Becky, but, once they’d heard the men talking and understood the gist of the conversation, they realized that Rebecca had to be there too.
Becky rolled over the back seat before Gemma could stop her and had the door open. She reached for Becky, just missing her before the little girl bolted from the vehicle. Gemma wasn’t far behind and caught up to her quickly.
Now the two of them stood at the top of the hill, and she hung on to Becky tightly. Gemma looked down into the ditch to see two men she knew and two she didn’t. And, of course, her sister lying there, obviously unconscious.
She called out to Galen, “Is she—”
“She’s just knocked out. This is James, Joe’s brother. Your driver was Victor, his son. Both of them have been sleeping with your sister.”
Gemma wanted to throw up, disgusted by the way her sister had played them all and had ripped yet another family apart. She shook her head. “She wouldn’t have thought a thing of it, I’m afraid,” she said. And there was just so much sadness in her heart that she knew it was evident in her own voice. “I’m so sorry, James.”
He just looked at her and nodded slowly. “I’m an old fool.”
“Tell me that you’re lying. That you aren’t sleeping with my girlfriend,” Victor said, staring his father in horror. “That’s disgusting.”
Gemma winced, looked at him, and asked, “How old are you?”
“I’m twenty-one. Why?”
“Yeah, and how long you been sleeping with my sister?” she said.
He shrugged. “About three years. Why?”
“Well, she’s been sleeping with your father for at least eight.”
Victor stared at the old man, then back at her, lifting the handgun to point in her direction.
Galen shuddered. “No,” he said, “no more of that.”
Victor just snorted and said, “You’re not stopping me. But I’m not standing here and listening to her lies.”
“Of course not,” Rebecca said. “Why would you even listen to Gemma. You can ask me yourself.”
He turned around and everyone could see that Rebecca was slowly waking up, now sitting up on the ground, looking around at what was going on. She turned to Victor. “Just shoot them,” she said, “now already.”
He stared at her in confusion.
“These are the men who kidnapped me,” she said with wave to Galen and Zack.
“That is a lie,” Becky called out. “Galen is a good man. And she shot Daddy. I saw her.”
Victor stiffened, stared at the little girl in shock, then looked back at Rebecca and asked, “What’s going on here?”
“You were duped, just as I was duped,” James said tiredly.
By now James’s voice was getting faint, and Gemma could see the loss of blood was affecting him. He held up his hand, she guessed to stop the blood flow from his wrist wound. She figured that had probably come from Galen. But then again, maybe his own son had shot him.
As James kept talking, Victor shook his head. “No.” Victor looked down at Rebecca. “You weren�
��t sleeping with my dad, were you?”
“Of course not,” she said, her face twisting in a grimace. “He’s far too old.”
Instantly Victor nodded and smiled. “Of course. Of course she wouldn’t.”
“She’s lying,” Gemma said. “Ask Becky.”
Becky looked at the young man. “I saw him in bed with her. Yes.”
“That’s disgusting. You don’t understand anything. You’re just a child,” he said, and he pointed the gun at the little girl.
“Is that who you are?” his father said to Victor. “A little girl says something you don’t like, and you plan to kill her? How does that even begin to make sense of who you are as a man?”
“Well, he isn’t a man though, is he?” Gemma said with a tired sigh. “He’s just another one of Rebecca’s conquests.”
“Another?” Victor asked.
“She’s had dozens over the last ten years,” Gemma said. She had deliberately drawn the attention to herself, waving her hands and pointing around, so that Galen and Zack could make a move. She continued, “As her sister, I’ve watched her forever playing these games, pitting man against man, over and over again. It’s not much fun seeing all the men fall like dominoes around her, filled with her lies and her cheating ways. Joe was a good man. He didn’t deserve to have his wife cheat with his own brother and his own nephew. And she was trying to raise her daughter to be the same way.”
Becky looked up and said, “But I’m not like her. I don’t want anything to do with her. She shot Daddy.”
At that, Galen pounced on Victor. The gun went off but fired harmlessly into the ditch. He kicked it out of Victor’s hand. With one strong uppercut, he knocked out the young man, who fell beside his father. James looked down at his son and whispered, “What a sad day.”
“The sad day,” Gemma said to him quietly, “is the day that you first slept with your brother’s wife.”
He looked up at her, and she could see the truth in his eyes as he slowly nodded. “And apparently that’s a mistake I’ll pay for forever.”
“You and your son,” she said. “And unfortunately, Becky too.” She looked from father to son. “And which one of you lowlifes hit this child?”