Like I hadn’t said a word.
“Josh, are you really—”
“Stop calling me Josh,” Edrard said. “What are you trying to do?”
Before I could answer, someone knocked on the door. As if it were a totally normal thing to do, Zee took the gun out of her backpack, tucked it into the back of her pants, and went to answer the door.
“Hey, cuz,” said the guy she let in. He was tall like her and her uncle, but a pimply, gap-toothed kid whose eyes were too close together. Top-quality inbreeding. He shook Gentry’s hand, saying, “My man.”
“Master Dirk, well met,” Gentry said.
Then because we were there and he was looking at us, Edrard and I introduced ourselves.
“What are you doing here? Is everything okay?” Zee said.
“Yeah, but I got to thinking, if you needed another hand, I’d go. I mean, we’re family and all.”
“I think that’s a great idea,” I said. “We can go home, and Zee and Cousin Dirk can go do whatever crazy thing they want to do.”
“Thou art under no obligation, Sir Rhys. If thou wishest, thou mayest go at once.” It was maybe the first time I ever heard Gentry sound annoyed. He was so phlegmatic that even hearing him raise his voice was a surprise.
“Gentry,” Zee said. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”
He tilted his head the way he did when he was having one of his internal conversations.
“You see?” I said to Zee, but she was watching Gentry like she was waiting for him to finish a phone call. Like it was totally normal.
CHAPTER 40
Zee
I took Gentry into the bathroom, but once we were alone in there with the door closed, I felt stupid. I should have said what I wanted to say in front of everyone.
“My lady, thou art troubled,” he said.
“Yeah, I don’t think your friends want to go, and that’s probably a good thing. Maybe just Dirk and I should go.”
“Sir Rhys and Sir Edrard may do as it please them, but I am thy champion, and methinks more ready to do battle than Master Dirk.”
“I keep thinking about what you said about never hitting anybody in anger before, and I’m afraid this might turn out to be more of that,” I said.
“I am not afraid.” He’d had his head down, but he lifted it and said, “May I kiss thee?”
“Now? No. You need to seriously think about this.” It was nice to say no and have him listen, but I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.
“Nay, I hear thee, but thou speakest naught I know not already,” he said. Not to me, because he cocked his head to the right. If it had to be one or the other, I’d take the black knight over that bitch Hildegard any day. Gentry took a step closer to me, so that he was actually in my personal space. Face-to-face, looking down at him from only a couple inches away, I watched his eyelashes flutter when he blinked.
“It’s not that I don’t like kissing you, but that this is serious,” I said.
“I ken ’tis no light matter, my lady. I swore to serve thee howsoever I might, and I would kiss thee to remind thee I am bound to thee by my oath and my flesh.”
And I had let him make that reckless oath both ways. I’d opened my legs right up, and let him make some solemn vow to me that I barely understood.
“Is it okay if I touch you?” I said.
“Yea.”
I brought my hands up to his jaw, to hold him. Then I kissed him straight on, my lips against his lips. The most sincere kiss I had ever given anyone in my life. The same way he shook hands. Before we could get distracted, I let go of him and stepped back.
“Okay,” I said. “Whatever you think is best.”
“My bond to thee abideth. If thou goest, I shall go.”
“Then you’re going.”
Rhys, on the other hand, was not going. When Gentry and I came out of the bathroom, Dirk was leaning against the dresser, eating a piece of leftover pizza. Rhys and Edrard were huddled together, whispering. They broke apart when we stepped into the room.
“Please, tell me you talked some sense into him,” Rhys said.
“I am sensible of the danger,” Gentry said, but that was all.
I didn’t say anything. I laid my backpack out on the bed and started deciding what to leave and what to take. Gentry did the same.
After a minute or so, Edrard unzipped his bag, and he and Gentry started talking about what weapons to take. Dirk picked up an axe from the things Gentry had laid out on the bed.
“Holy shit. Y’all are some crazy motherfuckers. All’s I brought was this.”
Dirk pulled a 9 mm out of his belt. Dane’s, if I was guessing. Like he had with my gun, Gentry took it apart and oiled it. While he was wiping down the bullets and reloading them, Rhys had a meltdown.
“Jesus fucking Christ! You cannot do this!” he said.
“You don’t have to go, if you don’t want to,” Edrard said.
“I swear, I’ll call the police. You walk out that door, I will call the police and tell them what you’re doing.”
“What wilt thou tell them, Sir Rhys?” Gentry didn’t even look up to say it.
“That you’re going on some half-assed rescue mission, armed with guns and swords.”
“What do you think they’ll do?” I said, as I loaded the money into my smaller backpack.
“Stop you.”
“Yeah. They’ll probably arrest us, so if that’s what you want.”
He wasn’t going to do it, but he stood there for a few minutes before he came up with his next threat: “Fine. I’ll call Gentry’s parents. Let’s see what Mr. and Mrs. Frank have to say about this plan.”
I wondered if Gentry was about to hit somebody in anger for the second time in a week, because he had his jaw clenched when he turned to Rhys.
“Thou must do as thou wilt, Sir Rhys, but I called upon thee to help me, for I believed thou wert true and brave. Call me not thy brother, if thou wouldst be my nursemaid.”
Gentry was probably the nicest guy I’d ever met, but I was relieved to find out that wasn’t all he was.
“Edrard, you’re not really going, are you?” Rhys said.
“Yeah, I’m going. Gentry is my brother and, for once, I’d like to go do something without you or Rosalinda making me feel like a bumbling idiot.”
Rhys sat down on the edge of the bed, watching Edrard and Gentry pack. Once we were finished, I did what I knew had to be done.
“Give me your phones,” I said. “We can’t take anything that can be used to prove we were there.”
“Oh, shit, for real?” Dirk said.
“I didn’t even think of that.” Edrard took out his phone and looked at it.
Gentry didn’t hesitate. He laid his phone on top of his iPad on the dresser. Whatever notes we needed were on the map. I turned my phone off and added it to the stack. Dirk shrugged and did the same. Edrard fretted and sent one last text message before he gave his up.
“We’ll stop at Walmart and buy a couple burner phones, so we can—”
“And you’re just going to leave me here?” Rhys said.
“The room is paid for tonight,” I said.
“We’ll come back and get you,” Edrard said. He looked embarrassed, but then he was Rhys’ ride.
* * *
—
WE DROVE STRAIGHT south out of town, Gentry and I in his truck, Dirk riding with Edrard. We made two stops, at a Walmart across the Arkansas state line to pick up a pair of burner phones and, once we got to Murfreesboro, to get some dinner. In the parking lot of a Sonic, we double-checked our plan. The map was at least fifteen years old, and it had been unfolded and refolded until the seams were worn white. But between it and the satellite images we’d looked at, we knew where we were going.
I was so grateful to Gentry, because I had no ide
a how to plan something that looked like military strategy. He had marked the place where we would leave the county road and take an old fire road running through some heavy woods. It was high ground above the cabin, which had been a little gray square on the satellite maps. He’d also drawn the route we would take on foot to the road that led to the cabin.
“’Tis nigh half a mile, my lady. Mayhap ’twould be best if thou waitest here,” he said, and put his finger on the map where we were going to leave the trucks.
“Wait there? Are you for real? I’m not fucking waiting there.” It was the first time I’d ever been mad at him.
“I would not for the world put thee in danger.”
“Oh, but you in danger is fine? And which one of you is going to do the talking? Because I know you’re not, Gentry.” I felt bad saying it that way, but he didn’t look offended.
“Nay.”
“Yeah, I think she better go,” Dirk said.
“’Tis nigh half a mile,” Gentry said again. “Wilt thou be able to walk it, my lady?”
“Yes,” I said, but I already knew I wouldn’t be doing it sober. My stomach felt so tight I thought I might vomit up the hamburger I’d eaten. When I took out my THC drops and offered them around, Edrard and Dirk took some. Gentry was too busy plotting to be nervous.
“We shall reach it ere the sun sets and I shall search out the place that we might come upon them unawares. ’Tis to our advantage, for the sun shall set behind us. Master Dirk, thou shalt come with us, but remain here, where the trees given cover to the road. If we needen help, we shall call for thee. Sir Edrard, as ever with thy mighty bow, thou shalt remain here, upon high ground.”
I know I gave Edrard a doubting look, and he blushed.
“I’m no good at hunting,” he said, “because I don’t like killing little animals. I’m actually a really good shot, though. At a hundred yards, I can hit a three-foot target zone with my compound bow. I’ll be good for sniper cover.”
“Yea, and so shall we use thee as proof we comen not alone,” Gentry said.
Except for when he’d tried to convince me not to go, Gentry hadn’t clenched his hand or scratched his neck. The closer we got, the calmer he was.
“So, we ready?” Dirk said.
“Yea, but hence we travel under the dragon banner,” Gentry said.
“What’s that mean?”
“No quarter. No mercy.” That was Edrard and, hearing the nervousness in his voice, I wished so hard that he’d stayed home. I wanted to wish that Gentry had stayed home, too, but I couldn’t have done it alone. And Dirk? He acted like we were in a video game.
“Hard-core, man,” he said and laughed.
CHAPTER 41
Zee
Gentry was so relaxed he didn’t even do a drive-by. On the first pass, he turned off the highway and, a few miles further on, he left the county road for the fire road, with Edrard a few car lengths back. For once, I had a job to do. I had the bolt cutters that Gentry apparently always carried in the back of his truck, and I was the one who jumped out and cut the chain on the gate. We drove in probably another half mile, until the dirt road turned into not much more than a gap between trees. When Gentry cut the engine, Edrard pulled up beside him.
Even with the THC drops, I was a nervous wreck, and Gentry must have finally felt his nerves, because he started scratching his neck. After he finished, he got out of the truck and folded the seat forward to get his weapons. My heart hammered like crazy, watching him buckle a leather harness on over his T-shirt. When he was done, that sharp, shiny sword was strapped to his back, ready to be drawn over his head. He pulled a loose blouse on to hide it, and traded out his Timberlands for the soft leather boots he’d worn at Bryn Carreg. Dressed that way, he looked like a woodsman, all in green and brown, with another knife and a small axe strapped to his belt. He squatted down and rubbed a little dirt on his bare skin to take the shine off.
While he was getting changed, Dirk and Edrard had gotten out of the other truck and walked over to us. We didn’t talk, because by then we’d gone over it enough times there was nothing to discuss. Gentry took one of the phones, tucked it into his pocket, and walked off to reconnoiter. After he was gone, Edrard got his bow and arrows ready, and I braided my hair to keep it out of the way.
Then I double-checked the money. Including what I’d started with and what Uncle Alva had given me, minus what I’d paid to the Fury, I had ninety-four thousand dollars. I wasn’t about to offer that up front, because I thought there was a good chance I’d end up haggling with them. So I’d split the cash into two piles: fifty thousand in one Sonic bag and forty-four thousand in another. I locked them both in Gentry’s truck. Finally I chambered a round on my gun, put the safety on, and tucked it into the back of my jeans. Then all we could do was wait.
It was so quiet out there; I didn’t hear any sounds of civilization. Not even road traffic. I didn’t have a watch, so I kept pulling out the phone and checking the time. Gentry had made us promise that if he wasn’t back in half an hour we would leave, but looking at Edrard, I knew we weren’t going to do that.
After twenty minutes, I started to get this gnawing dread like I had never had before in my life. Maybe because nobody had ever taken that kind of risk for me. Gentry was out there walking around in the woods, spying on guys I knew were killers. I looked at the phone again. Twenty-four minutes.
Gentry came walking out of the trees to the west of where he’d gone in. He was deep in conversation with the black knight. Not saying anything out loud, but nodding and gesturing. Edrard, Dirk, and I gathered around him, but it was a few more minutes before he was done. He bowed, first to the black knight, then to me.
“’Tis better than we hoped. I saw but four men. Two in the barn that standeth to the north. They aren at work upon their truck, and much distracted. Another man hath gone into the house. One sitteth upon the porch to keep watch, armed with naught but a shotgun.”
“Did you see my sister?” I said.
“Nay, my lady.” He pulled out his burner phone and thumbed it on. “But when I spied into the window, I saw this.”
“Oh my god. You looked in the windows?”
“Yea, for I would see as much as I might, and they keepen no watch upon the south.”
He’d taken the picture through a gap at the bottom of the curtains. I could make out the shape of a couch and an old TV and a rocking chair. Tossed over the back of the rocking chair was a piece of pink fabric. None of those men owned a size extra-small pink fleece jacket with fairy wings embroidered on the back, but LaReigne did. She kept it in her car, and there was no reason for it to be there unless she was, too.
Relief and fear had a little tug o’ war going in my heart. She was there, she was alive, and we were about to do something probably stupid and dangerous to get her back.
“My lady, art thou ready?”
“Yeah,” I lied.
“Master Dirk? Sir Edrard?”
“I’m ready,” Edrard said.
“Shit, yeah, let’s do this thing.” Maybe Dirk was bluffing, but he sounded surer of himself than Edrard and I did.
Gentry passed his phone to Edrard, and we all fell in line behind him. Edrard peeled off first, when we were still a hundred yards out, to take up his position on the high spot Gentry had picked out for him. I called Edrard’s phone and, when he answered, Gentry, Dirk, and I walked on with the line open.
When we reached the road that went to the cabin, we left Dirk to stand watch. The sun was at the top of the trees, and we were only forty or fifty yards from the cabin. Gentry stepped out into the middle of the road, so I did, too. Then we started walking.
At twenty yards, the man on the porch finally noticed us. He stood up and lifted the shotgun he’d had across his lap. It was only a shotgun, though, and at that distance, I wasn’t worried. When we were ten yards away, I recognized the man on t
he porch. Conrad Ligett. He yelled back into the house through the open screen door: “Scanlon! Get out here.”
Gentry and I stopped about fifteen feet from the front porch. The man named Scanlon stepped outside and, for a minute, he and Ligett just looked at us. We obviously weren’t cops, but we weren’t obviously anything else, either.
“You folks need to get on outta here,” Ligett said. “You’re trespassing and about to get yourselves shot.”
“I’m here to get my sister, LaReigne.”
“I don’t know nothing about that. Get the fuck off my land.”
“I’m not expecting anything for free. I’m willing to pay to get my sister back.” I’d practiced it in my head during the drive, but it was happening so fast I wasn’t sure I was saying what I’d planned to say. I felt like there was a time delay between my brain and my mouth.
“What makes you think your sister’s here?” Scanlon said.
“Because that fucker is here.” I pointed at Ligett. “Conrad, right? You’ve been on the news. If you’re here, I figure my sister’s here, too. I’m willing to pay you all fifty thousand dollars to get her back. It’s cash. Used bills. Unmarked. Untraceable.”
“Fifty grand?” Scanlon said. “Fuck if you have fifty grand. I bet you don’t have a hundred bucks to your name.”
“Let me show it to you.”
“Yeah, why don’t you do that?” Until then, Scanlon had had his gun down by his side, but he brought it up and pointed it at us. Gentry tensed up beside me.
I pulled the phone out of my pocket and opened the photos app. I took a dozen steps closer to the cabin porch, Gentry right next to me, and held the phone out.
As crazy as it was, we’d taken the pictures in the Sonic parking lot. I’d laid the cash on the hood of Gentry’s truck and posed with it. One pic with the fifty thousand, another with the almost ninety-five thousand, in case I needed it.
“That photo was taken today. There’s the money,” I said.
The Reckless Oath We Made Page 26