The Negotiation

by Tyler Anne Snell

  Livid.

  Rachel saw it in his eyes.

  “This time is different,” she said. “This time will end differently.”

  Dane nodded, feeling the weight of the gun in his hand. “This time—”

  Someone cried out behind them. It was a woman. Dane was barely able to keep Rachel behind him as he moved around the corner of the shed to look at the back of the house.

  Marcus Highland had walked out the back door and was staring right at them. The only reason Dane didn’t shoot him right then and there was the young woman he was holding by the root of her hair.

  “Marnie,” Rachel yelled out.

  She was bloodied but alive.

  Marcus smiled and pressed the gun to her temple. “I think it’s about time we finally talk face-to-face, Captain.”

  Chapter Twenty

  “Let her go.”

  Dane’s aim was squarely on Marcus while the grinning man’s was undeniably on Marnie. Rachel met her friend’s gaze. She was in pain. That was clear. Her hands were bound at her side. She couldn’t get hold of the hair Marcus was pulling.

  “Let her go,” Rachel repeated. “Please. You don’t need to pull her hair to hold a gun to her head.”

  It was a crude point to make. It was also accurate. Marcus snorted but opened his hand. Marnie cried out as she fell against the ground. She rolled onto her side but kept quiet.

  Rachel’s heart squeezed at the sight.

  “What’s your plan, Marcus?” Dane asked. His voice wasn’t chilly. It was downright arctic. “What do you want?”

  A gunshot sounded in the distance. Marcus and Dane didn’t flinch. Rachel and Marnie did.

  “My plan is to finish what I started back then. Back before you ordered me to be shot.”

  “And what’s that? Trying to get the Saviors of the South back into the news? Trying to grab some fame?”

  Marcus let out another laugh. It actually shook his stomach.

  “The Saviors of the South was a joke,” he said. “I wanted vengeance, but I needed help. And some people will do anything for a cause they believe in.” He shrugged. “So I made a cause, gave it a name and gave it a voice.”

  “And then you killed those men and it wasn’t enough?”

  Marcus’s mirth started to wind down. “I didn’t expect you to come as soon as you did. It kept me from leaving.”

  “It kept you from getting Lonnie,” Rachel proclaimed.

  “I had a backup plan for being shot, for playing dead, for disappearing and living a life, the life my brother deserved, but—” He sucked on his teeth for a second. Like he was expressing mild annoyance at the weather or something as mundane as a traffic jam. “But I didn’t expect you to come that early. I couldn’t grab him. So I got my good, useless buddy to take him in. Keep him safe until I could finish what I started. Do right by his father. Make you all pay while showing the rest of the county y’all so-call protect that they’re no safer with you than in the prisons you put them in.”

  “You should have done right by Lonnie,” she snapped back. “You should have raised him, not erased yourself because you’d rather cause more pain than deal with your own.”

  Marcus didn’t like that. He sneered at her. “You’re so naive. That’s why I wanted you, too. When I realized you were teaching Lonnie, it was like being given a second chance to repeat the past. But to do it right. The people might have changed, but our purpose didn’t.” He looked at Dane. “I can punish the corrupted sheriff’s department by killing their captain.” His eyes trailed to Rachel. “And we both know which part you’ll play.”

  Anger so bright it nearly blinded her flashed behind Rachel’s eyes.

  “David,” she breathed. “You want to kill me because I’m innocent. Like my husband was. You want to kill me because you can.”

  “It’s poetic, in a way,” he confirmed. “They’ll feel bad because they couldn’t save your husband and then they couldn’t save you.”

  Rachel didn’t need to know Dane that well to pick up on the fact that he was reaching a breaking point. Every part of him seemed to be keyed up, ready.

  Which was why she placed her hand on his back.

  She hoped it calmed him. At least, enough for him to remember there was more to the situation than revenge.

  “Then you’ll just take Lonnie and leave town?” she ventured. “You’ll disappear to someplace far away and raise him? Take him to school? Take him to ball games? Teach him how to drive? You’ll be done with vengeance and violence and live a happy, normal life? What about Lonnie? What if he doesn’t want that?”

  “If you think he’d choose to stay here, you’re kidding yourself. Any life with me will be better than the life he has now,” Marcus said. He was getting agitated again. “From what I’ve heard he’s already angry at the world. Doesn’t have friends. Even the teachers give him grief. He’s already a lost cause. I can only make him better.”

  Rachel had been trying to keep Dane from going off on the man, but she reached her breaking point before she realized what was happening. Dane snagged the back of her shirt with his free hand as she started to run around him, fire in her eyes.

  “Did you ever think sticking him with someone who doesn’t love him for all these years might have had something to do with his outlook on life?” she roared. “No! You just treat all of this like it’s some kind of game!”

  “Rachel—” Dane complained as she tried to wriggle out of his hold. Marcus’s eyes had gone wide like they had in the shed. She wasn’t done, though.

  “And don’t you ever call him a lost cause,” she yelled. “You don’t even know him!”

  Rachel was ready to kick it into high gear and destroy the man who had destroyed her family before he could spread his poison to his nephew, but another gunshot from the front of the house exploded. This time it wasn’t alone. It sounded like the front lawn had been turned into a war zone.

  Marcus and Dane once again stayed their ground. They didn’t flinch, but there was definitely some concern. Rachel just hoped whoever was on their side was winning the fight.

  And that Lonnie was nowhere near it.

  Marcus’s expression went blank. When he spoke, it was to Dane.

  “You can still save one person,” he said. He shook the gun over Marnie’s head. “Tell me where Lonnie is and I’ll make sure my men don’t kill her. One soul is better than none.”

  Rachel froze. She hoped her face didn’t give away her surprise.

  If Marcus didn’t know where Lonnie was, then who had him?

  She glanced at Dane. His expression also gave nothing away. The gunshots ceased in the distance.

  “Give me the girl now and I’ll tell my men not to kill you,” Dane countered.

  “You’re bluffing,” Marcus said. Though a noticeable tremble shook his hand. He was getting antsy.

  “I’ll tell you what I’m not doing,” Dane said. “And that’s negotiating. We’re past that.”

  Rachel’s breath caught as the world around them seemed to get knocked out of focus.

  In hindsight, she’d realize that everyone there knew Marcus was never going to give Marnie up. Just like he’d never planned on letting David live. He was a man who craved violence and wanted to inflict as much pain as possible. There was never any hope that he would do anything differently now than he had done seven years ago.

  Yet, when he swung his gun around and pointed it right at her, Rachel was nothing but shocked. Then Marcus pulled the trigger.

  Marnie screamed.

  Another sound exploded through the yard and echoed through the trees around them.

  Rachel waited, for the second time that week, for the pain that came with being shot. But all she felt was something heavy push her to the ground. Then she was staring at Dane’s back.

  “Dane?” she breathed. It
was a whisper. Confused and quiet. “Dane?”

  Then the picture around her focused.

  Across from them Marcus had dropped to his knees. He was holding his chest with one hand, blood already staining his shirt, and trying to crawl to where his gun had fallen with the other. Rachel looked down at the ground in front of her. Dane was also slow to get to his feet. She didn’t understand why until he tried to stand but could only rock backward.

  Rachel reached out and caught his back and shoulders against her chest. She looped her hands around him in a one-sided embrace. She looked over his shoulder. That was when she saw the blood at his stomach.

  “Oh my God, Dane!”

  That was when she realized what had happened.

  He’d taken a bullet for her.

  “Get...get the gun, Rach,” he wheezed, pointing. His service weapon was a foot too far away.

  If Marcus got to his first, they’d all be dead.

  Rachel tried to move out from under Dane, but his muscle mass and injury worked against them. Rachel tried to swallow her rising panic.

  “Rach, I—” Dane started. It tore at her how pained the sound was. Her trying to push herself out from under him wasn’t helping. Marnie tried to get to her feet to help distract Marcus, but he was already putting his hand around the butt of his gun.

  Before Dane could finish his thought and before Marcus could finish them both, another flurry of movement rushed across the yard. However this time it came from behind them.

  “Stop!”

  Lonnie ran from the tree line and jumped in front of Dane.

  “Lonnie!” Rachel pushed herself up against Dane, scrambling to get free. She felt Dane try his best to move. He managed to sit up enough that she slid out.

  The boy ignored Rachel and stared at his uncle instead.

  “I choose them,” he yelled. “I choose them!”

  Lonnie threw his arms out wide, blocking her and Dane from Marcus’s aim. Rachel tore at the grass, trying to get her balance. Her legs didn’t seem to want to work. Her adrenaline hampered her speed more than helped.

  “Lonnie, run!” she yelled.

  But it was like she wasn’t there at all.

  Marcus kept his gun up and spoke to his nephew.

  “You choose them?” Marcus asked, sounding just as surprised as Rachel had been to see Lonnie come out of the woods.

  Finally she was able to get up. Her heart was hammering in her chest. She stumbled but managed to jump in front of Lonnie. It was her turn to throw her arms out to block him.

  Marcus looked between them.

  Rachel braced for his next shot.

  It never came.

  “You choose them,” Marcus repeated. He looked at Lonnie. “Okay.”

  Marcus Highland dropped his gun.

  He died shortly after.

  Rachel dove for Dane’s gun and turned around, ready to use it without moderation on anyone else who decided they wanted to hurt the people she loved. Thankfully, when the back door flew open a few seconds later, the man in the doorway was wearing a black cowboy hat.

  “Chance, Dane’s been shot,” she yelled, unable to revel in the relief of seeing a friendly face.

  Rachel didn’t know what Chance did next. She knelt next to Dane and lifted his head to her lap. Lonnie dropped down on the other side of him.

  “Oh, Dane!” Unable to keep the tears from rushing out with her words, Rachel issued one concrete command to the man she loved. “You’re not allowed to leave me again. You hear me? You’re not allowed.”

  Sirens sounded in the distance.

  Dane didn’t move.

  * * *

  HOSPITALS.

  Rachel had once thought there was nothing worse than being admitted into one. Now she stood corrected. Watching someone you love flat-line in one was the worst. A million times so.

  But hearing that same monitor come back to life?

  That was a relief unlike any other.

  It was that relief that only grew stronger over the next few days. After every surgery and close call passed, with Dane’s chance of survival growing.

  Now, a week later, staring at the captain from the end of his hospital bed, Rachel felt like she could finally breathe again.

  “I’m sure glad you listened to me,” she said with a smile. “I didn’t like the past few years without you and I wasn’t convinced I would like any more without you, either.”

  Dane snorted. Then cringed.

  “Easy, now, Captain,” she said. “You got shot in the stomach, you know. Might need to take things easy for a little bit.”

  Dane slowly waved his hand at her, dismissively.

  “It’s just a flesh wound,” he said, an easy smile gracing his lips despite everything.

  Rachel had worried she would never see it again.

  “Do you remember talking to me yesterday?” Since the cavalry had come in and taken them to the hospital, Rachel hadn’t left his room for more than a few minutes at a time. “You were pretty out of it with the painkillers.”

  Dane looked thoughtful for a moment.

  “Yes and no,” he said. “I remember you told me that I was shot, that I was going to be okay even though I’d been shot, and that the man who shot me was dead.”

  “So basically everything about being shot,” she teased.

  He snorted and then cringed again. She moved closer to him so she could grab his hand. He squeezed it.

  “I also remember that Marcus could have killed you,” he said, all humor aside. “And that he could have killed Lonnie, too. The same kid who ran away from Suzy at the hospital, stowed away in Chance’s SUV and then followed us. I can’t believe he did that.”

  Rachel nodded. “He told me, and I quote, ‘It was my turn to make a decision and I decided to help.’”

  Dane hadn’t heard that part yet. She didn’t miss the small smile that passed over his lips.

  “He’s a good kid,” he concluded. “Even when he’s trying to sacrifice himself for us.”

  Rachel laughed. “I can’t argue with that.”

  Rachel recapped what she already said the day before. The gunshots they had heard were between Chance and three of Marcus’s lackeys. He’d slashed their tires and then used the car alarm as bait. Levi had been the first one out. Chance had jumped him, knocked him out and then gone back to hiding. After that Chet, previously known as Overalls, had managed to get a shot off. Chance had been forced to shoot to kill. Then a man named Javier had gone toe-to-toe with the cowboy. Chance had won.

  “He’s a great shot,” Dane said, not at all surprised.

  They’d caravanned to the hospital. Marnie had been checked out and only had superficial cuts and bruises. Even though she’d been told to not go to the house alone, she’d forgotten June the Cat’s favorite toy. June had already been showing signs of stress at Rachel being gone, so she’d brought the cat over while she’d looked for it—unaware the house had been taken over by Marcus. Now both Marnie and June were fine and at home resting. Though Marnie had spent two nights with Rachel at the hospital, waiting for Dane to wake up.

  “How’s Lonnie doing?” Dane asked. “Wasn’t he with you yesterday?”

  Rachel nodded. “For a little bit. He wanted to stay longer, but Billy and he needed to sort some things out.” She felt a flutter of excitement in her stomach. She decided to wait until all the bad news was out of the way before she got into the good. “Right now, though, he’s actually out with Suzy at the airport.”

  Dane’s eyebrow went sky-high. “Why are they at the airport?”

  “Someone had to pick up your dad.” Rachel adopted what she hoped was a chiding expression. “Which, by the way...how am I just now hearing about some crazy guy attacking your dad a while back?”

  Dane sighed.

  “There’s a lot
we probably should catch each other up on,” he said. “It’s been a helluva year.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Dane saw the cowboy hat before he saw the man.

  “Well, if it isn’t Sleeping Beauty,” Chance greeted. “And here I was starting to get bored.”

  The man cut him a grin from the love seat against the wall. He motioned to the table next to him and then the side tables. All were covered in flowers. One even had a fruit basket. There had been two cakes, too, but those had mysteriously disappeared after Dane’s dad left for the house.

  “I didn’t bring you any flowers, but I can pop out and grab some weeds I saw coming in that looked pretty good,” he continued, grin growing. “You know, the ones that look like daisies.”

  Dane rolled his eyes and snorted.

  “Your presence is always enough, Chance,” he mockingly assured him. “Plus, you taking out three armed guys pretty much has you square in my book for life.” Dane pointed to the fruit basket. “In fact, why don’t you take that?”

  Chance changed over to the chair Rachel had frequented the past few days. He shook his head with a laugh.

  “We all know how fruit baskets are the worst,” the cowboy pointed out. “Especially when there’s not chocolate-dipped anything in it. If I wanted to eat healthy, I’d go to the grocery store myself.”

  The gesture was nice, but Dane agreed. He’d never been a fan of fruit, in his defense, but it had been a pleasant surprise to receive it and, really, all the gifts. News in Riker County traveled at the speed of light. He’d had people stopping by left and right. It had been all Rachel and the nurses could do to curb the attention. While Dane was expected to fully heal, he was still relatively fresh from the trauma of being shot. It still hurt to laugh occasionally and he was a fool if he thought he’d be doing his normal workout routine any time soon.

  To prove the point to himself, Dane reached over to grab his water. He felt the soreness stretch and took it slow.

  “So, how are you doing?” Chance asked after he was done. There was no denying there was concern there.

  “I’m glad this is over,” Dane admitted. He stopped what he was about to say and instead confided in his friend. “I feel like I can finally close the book on what happened all those years ago. Honestly, I already thought I had. I thought I’d moved on. But now...now it feels real. Now it feels done. Almost like I have a second chance.”