by Catie Rhodes
How homey. Just a couple of abusive assholes enjoying some bacon and eggs. “Are we going to kill them?” It wouldn’t be my first killing. After the way King treated Hannah, it wouldn't even be the most difficult. But Corman was supposedly Wade’s best friend. King had helped him beat a murder charge. I asked the question to see how far Wade would go.
“If they get in the way.” Wade’s eyes rested on the wall behind me, empty of their usual warmth.
There was nothing left to talk about. We sat in silence as the sun began to peek over the horizon. My phone dinged with a text message.
It was from Tubby: “You about ready?”
I passed the question on to Wade. He pushed the napkin at me, and I folded it into my jeans pocket.
I texted a yes back to Tubby.
Wade spoke as soon as the phone made its message sent sound. “Tell him we’ll meet him at the Big Star Truck Stop. We can leave your truck there.” He cleared the coffee cups off the table, slipped his leather jacket on, and grabbed his vest off the floor. He held it between his thumb and forefinger like it was tainted. I guess it was for him.
I started typing in Wade’s directive, but the phone dinged with another text message. “He said he’ll be here in ten minutes.”
Wade gave me an angry scowl. “You told that freak of nature where I live?”
I made a face right back at him, not sure why I felt defensive about Tubby. “Hell no. He already knew.”
Wade shook his head. “That guy’s creepy.”
I didn’t want to defend Tubby, but I didn’t want to talk bad about him. Tubby’s and my official declaration of friendship had changed my feelings about him. I hoped with all my heart I wasn’t betting money on the wrong horse. But I couldn’t talk to Wade about Tubby. Time to change the subject. “Thank you for helping me. I know I don’t tell you enough, but you’re one of my favorite people.”
Wade knelt in front of me, folded me in his arms, and squeezed tight. I pressed my face against his chest and inhaled. His smell comforted me no matter what was going down. He let go of me. “Let’s meet him out there. We still need to take your truck somewhere other than here.”
6
We left my truck at the nearest convenience store, and I rode the rest of the way to the Six Gun Compound with Tubby. Tubby’s Chevy Caprice looked like he’d bought it at a police auction. There were holes in the console where something, probably a laptop stand, had been bolted. The car also carried a certain odor, the kind no cleaning product would ever quite mask. The heater didn’t work either. That sucked because it was one of those cold, dank spring mornings.
I sat huddled on the bench seat, my arms wrapped around my chest for warmth. “Can’t you afford a nicer car?”
Tubby grinned at me. “Can’t be traced back to me. Plus, Bullfrog said it runs fast.”
And it did. The speedometer hovered near the one hundred mark as Tubby struggled to keep up with Wade’s Harley. Wade pulled onto the soft shoulder, slowing fast and putting both feet down quickly. Tubby whipped the ex-cop car off the road, jammed on the brakes, and slid to a stop behind Wade’s motorcycle. “Bullfrog forgot to tell me the brakes don’t work.”
I got out of the car without answering and hurried to stand next to Wade. “What now?”
He’d been staring into the woods hiding the compound from the highway, but now he faced me. Excitement lit up his dark eyes, but I thought I saw fear there too. The Six Gun Revolutionaries killed their enemies. No questions asked. Traitors probably got worse. He waited to speak until Tubby joined us. “You got your map?”
I unfolded the napkin Wade had used to illustrate the layout of the Six Gun Revolutionaries’ fifty-acre compound.
Wade laid one finger at the main entrance. “We’re about five hundred yards south from this point. It’s right down this road. I’ll use the keypad to let myself inside. Trench Coat’ll get the alert and see me on the surveillance camera, but he won’t know what I’ve got in the saddlebags.” I didn’t know what Wade had in the saddlebags. He wouldn’t let me watch him load them. He’d made me wait in the car with Tubby. “Where are the two of you supposed to go?”
Tubby crowded close, pointing, but I spoke up. “Back entrance.” I dug in my pocket and held up a key. “No keypad. I’ll unlock it with this.”
Tubby let out an impatient snort and bumped my leg with his. “But first we kill the surveillance.”
Wade nodded. “If they’re watching, they’ll come find you, and that’ll be that.” He swallowed hard. “But I’m thinking if we time it just right, they’ll be focused on me coming in and miss you.”
Tubby let out a maniacal cackle. He must have liked that.
Wade rolled his eyes. “What then?”
I traced our route on the map. “Follow this until we get to the burned-out mobile home. Walk the rest of the way to King’s house. It’s just around the next bend, past these train cars.” I tapped the spot on the map. “Wait for your signal. What’s that going to be anyway?”
“You’ll know it when you hear it.” Wade glanced at Tubby, who nodded. The two shared some secret. Had I not been so keyed up, I’d have angled for it. But we didn’t have time. Wade turned his frown back on me. “Then what do you do?”
I took a deep breath. “Use the key you gave me to unlock the back door. Go in, get Hannah, and you’ll meet us outside. We’ll ride out together.”
Wade stared at Tubby. Something else I couldn’t interpret passed between the two men. Tubby nodded, and Wade clapped him on the shoulder hard enough to rock him on his feet.
I gripped Wade’s arm. “Thank you for doing this.”
He pushed off my hand and shook his head. Then he grabbed me in a back-popping hug. I hugged him back, wishing for the zillionth time it could be different, wanting to tell him how I loved him. At least Tubby was looking on. Otherwise, I’d have turned into a big, mushy mess.
Wade let go of me and put both hands on my face. “Show no mercy to any of these fuckers because they won’t show it to you. Do what you came to do and leave alive.” He nodded to Tubby.
“Come on.” Tubby led the way back to the car and started it. We drove a few yards and turned off on an unmarked dirt road crowded with woods on both sides. Tubby slowed the car to a crawl, both of us looking for a dirt driveway with a bunch of junk piled in it. We found it and got out to push the crap out of the way. It went fast until we found the lawn tractor with no wheels. Tubby hooked his fingers under the frame, and I pushed at the front.
“I can't believe you’re going into the compound with me.” My feet slid in the loose sand, and I almost fell face first into hunk of junk. Tubby shook his head and kept pulling, cords standing out in his neck. The lawn mower finally began to move. We got it far enough out of the way to drive around it and stopped, both of us breathing hard.
Tubby’s skinny chest heaved inside his ribbed white T-shirt. Chill bumps made the hair on his arms stand straight out. He motioned for me to follow him. “Text message Wade and tell him we’re ready to go in.”
I did, and Wade came back with an okay. I heard his motorcycle rumble to life a short distance away. We counted thirty just like he’d said. Then Tubby crept down the drive and pointed at a surveillance camera hidden the trees, pulled a can of paint out of his pocket, and handed it to me. “I’ll lift you up, and you spray the lens.” He bent and motioned for me to climb onto his back.
Using the tree for balance, I climbed until I stood on his shoulders. Tubby trembled to hold my weight but didn’t make a peep. I spray-painted the camera’s lens with florescent orange paint. Tubby let me down, and I unlocked the gate and got back into the car.
I couldn’t leave it alone. “Why are you doing this? You could have just let me and Wade go in alone.” I turned in the seat to stare at his profile.
“You even see that surveillance cam ’fore I pointed it out? How you think you gonna survive, much less get Hannah out, if I don’t help you?” He grinned at me now. “We friends, ain’
t we? I told you I don’t have many of those.”
I flushed and said no more. We reached the burned-out mobile home and got out of the car, King’s house visible through the trees. It wouldn’t be far to run once we had Hannah. The bass throttle of Wade’s motorcycle came from the other side of King’s house. I dragged my tongue over my dry lips, wishing I’d peed before we left. The motorcycle cut off. Several seconds went by. My bladder felt like I’d drank six gallons of water.
A voice I didn’t recognize yelled, “The fuck is he doing? Hey Mojo, what are you—”
A low whoosh interrupted the speaker. There was a moment of silence before a bang shook the earth beneath my feet. Then the shooting started. My throat closed. It took everything I had not to double over coughing and gagging because, all of a sudden, I couldn’t breathe.
Tubby gave me a shove in the direction of the house. “It’s time. Go!”
We crept to the back door. I unlocked it as quietly as I could. Tubby elbowed past me, a semi-automatic pistol in one hand. He went inside, gun raised. He looked around and tipped his head for me to come inside. We stood in a laundry room full of filthy clothes perfumed with a combination of beer, sweat, and cigarettes. I recognized a few garments as Hannah’s. The sounds of King’s and Corman’s surprised shouts came through the door. Another explosion shook the house.
I put one hand on the laundry room’s doorknob. Tubby gripped his pistol tighter and tensed his legs. As softly as I could, I turned the doorknob and swung the door open. We were in a dark hallway. Wade had said the kitchen was to the right and the master bedroom to the left.
Heart in my throat, I stepped into the hallway. The smell of smoke and gasoline filled the house. Men shouting, cursing, and screaming came with it. I tried not to think about how things were going for Wade. My mind supplied a few awful pictures of him lying on the ground, his blood spreading around him. No. My lungs tightened until it felt like I wasn’t even breathing. I fought for control. Tubby motioned with his head for me to go get Hannah.
I tried to walk softly, but my footsteps sounded like rumbling boulders going down the hallway. Vomit burned the back of my throat. My heart thundered so hard my vision shook. With every step, I wondered if I was going to wet my pants.
Then I stood with my hand on the doorknob to the master bedroom. A million possibilities raced through my head, all of them bad. Hannah could start screaming. She could fight. By now that awful thing had found its way back to her. It wouldn’t want me stealing its gourmet dinner, or whatever it saw Hannah as. I took a deep breath and turned the doorknob.
Hannah was sprawled across the bed, naked. Her sides moved with the rhythm of intoxicated sleep. I remembered seeing Chase this way too many times not to recognize it.
“Hannah?” I whispered. “You got to wake up.”
She didn’t even stir.
I gathered clothes that looked like hers and dropped them on the bed next to her. Then I shook her. “Hannah. Wake up now.”
She grunted and coughed. I winced away. Her breath smelled like the results of a tequila enema. I steeled myself and shook her again. One eye cracked open. When she realized it wasn’t King, her eyes widened, she sat up on the bed, clutching the sheet to her chest. “Get out.”
I shook my head. “You told me to come get you.”
“You’re lying. Mind your own business.” She hissed the words through clenched teeth and dropped the sheet. Both breasts had bruise handprints on them. She stood, naked. I dropped my gaze to the filthy carpet. I didn’t want to see this. Hannah grabbed her rumpled clothes and yanked them on, all the while ranting. “How dare you come in here like this? King’ll kill you.”
A war waged outside, perfectly audible. Hannah didn’t seem to hear. She dressed, giving me a hateful glare the whole time. “King?” she yelled.
I rushed forward and grabbed her arm. “Shh. Check your phone. You sent me a text message around eleven last night.”
She shoved me away and smirked. “I did a lot of things last night.”
Tubby appeared in the door. The fire alarm blared from the kitchen, and the smell of smoke was closer than ever. “Come on. Now.”
I didn’t want to have to drag Hannah out of here, but Tubby was right. We had to leave. I closed the distance between Hannah and me, reaching for her. “I know what’s got hold of you. Come with me. I’ll help you get rid of it.”
She giggled, belly vibrating with her laugh. I glanced in the dusty mirror attached to the dresser and gulped. The trollish wraith hunkered on Hannah’s shoulder, bigger than it had been the day before. It leaned to whisper in her ear. All my hopes of her leaving peacefully died a tragic death. I’d never reason with her like this.
I pulled on the mantle, what control I had over it anyway, and aimed fire at Hannah’s passenger, watching in the mirror. The magic knocked the ugly little thing askew. It turned its black-hole eyes on me and hissed. Hannah stiffened. She shook all over as the burn of my magic flooded through her. I tried to pull back, using all my strength. As it had been at Wade's, the magic came out a lot easier than it went in.
I strained so hard I could feel the pressure behind my eyeballs, but the magic finally went back where it belonged. My body shook from the effort, sweat dampening my back and armpits. Hannah relaxed as the fire left her. Then she opened her mouth and let out the most piercing scream I’d ever heard.
Time stood still, then it sped up beyond what I could manage. Footsteps crashed through the house. The doorknob turned. Whoever it was pounded on the door. “Why’s the door locked?”
I froze at the sound of King’s voice. While I’d worked for him, I’d seen him do a lot of scary things. I’d come here thinking I could confront him fearlessly. Now here I was, about to piss my pants, knees shaking like a kid on the way to principal’s office.
Tubby ran to the window and yanked the cord on the mini blinds. We stared at grime-covered glass with bars beyond.
“Open this door. Right now. ” King banged on it. “Am I going to have to show you who’s boss again?”
Hannah cowered at the voice. I thought about the handprints on her breasts. Now I saw even more finger marks on her arms. Sweat sprang out on my palms, and my heart slammed against my ribcage.
King kicked the door several times. “Open this motherfucker. Now.”
Tubby flinched. Hannah tried to go around us to open the door. I grabbed her arm, and she clawed at me. I defended myself as best as I could but took a good scratch to the cheek. King started kicking the door again. The frame cracked. Tubby raised his gun. The door flew open, and Tubby pulled the trigger. The blast shook the room.
King came from behind the door frame where he’d pressed himself to the wall and rushed into the room, gun already up and pointed at Tubby. Hannah tried to claw at me again. I slapped Hannah's face harder than I wanted and shoved her behind me without waiting to see her reaction. I had time to smell fear sweat, probably my own, and to hear Tubby’s panting breaths next to me. Something moved in the dark hallway behind King.
Wade’s face came into view. He raised one fist and let it fly at the back of King’s head. The impact sounded like a melon getting dropped on concrete. King Tolliver’s cold eyes closed, and he slumped to the floor. Wade took off his club vest and dropped it on the president of the Six Gun Revolutionaries.
I turned to Hannah. “Let’s go. He’ll never hurt you again.”
She launched herself at me, kicking and clawing. “You sorry piece of shit. It’s all your fault.” She began to cry in ugly gulps, still clawing at me. I wanted to double up my fist and knock the shit out of her, but still felt guilty about the slap I’d delivered earlier. Hannah took full advantage, screaming, “Bitch. Whore. Your fault. Your fault.”
Wade stepped forward, his mouth set in a grim line. He spoke to me. “I’m sorry for what I’m about to do, but we have to go now.” He slammed one huge fist into Hannah’s cheekbone. She folded like a puppet with its strings cut and dropped to the floor. I slipped the
little leather bag into her pocket.
In my sixth sense, the part of me that saw and heard the paranormal world, a howl rose. My gut said it was Hannah’s hag trying to escape. Bully for him. Wade winced as the shriek reached a high enough decibel to make the mirror in the beat-up dresser shake. He picked up Hannah and slung her over his shoulder like a bag of laundry.
“Grab King’s gun,” he said to me. “And make sure the safety’s off.”
Wade stalked from the room carrying Hannah. Tubby hurried to open the door for him. Both men cut across the backyard, heading to the spot where Tubby had parked the car. My lungs screamed as my short legs struggled to keep up. I grabbed at the stitch forming in my side.
Someone shouted on the other side of the house. Wade and I froze, eyes wide. Tubby raced for the car. Wade motioned me ahead of him, but I couldn’t leave him and stopped every few steps for him to catch up. We finally got within sight of the car. Cheerful spring sun winking off its chrome bumper blinded me. Tubby sprinted toward it, motioning frantically at me to come on.
A gunshot shattered the silence, and a low hum filled my ears. Someone cried out. My chest tightened with terror. The ringing in my ears increased in volume.
Ahead of me, Tubby glanced down at his body. Then his gaze fixed on something behind me. No. Nerves sizzling, I turned around, dreading what waited for me.
Wade sprawled on the ground, arms and legs splayed out. Hannah lay motionless on the ground a few feet from him. A guy I knew only as Trench Coat, stalked toward Wade, a double-barrel shotgun held at waist level. His bald head gleaming in the sunlight reminded me of the way the sun had reflected off Tubby’s Chevy Caprice. I stared stupidly at him, just watching him come.
Wade raised his head, black eyes full of pain. His mouth quivered. “Go.”
I took a couple of running steps toward him. Trench Coat pointed his shotgun at me and pulled the trigger. It clicked, empty. I raised my own pistol and squeezed the trigger. Trench Coat ran behind a rusted-out truck on blocks. He dug two more shotgun cartridges out of his pocket, jacked open the shotgun, and fumbled both of them into the overgrown weeds covering his boots.