by Dale Mayer
“You bring my partner here,” the gunman said, “or I’ll start killing people.”
“If you kill anybody,” Galen said, his voice calm, “you won’t live to see morning.”
“Says you. I’m the one with the gun.”
“Yeah? Well at least ten guys on this place are coming toward you right now. All of them with guns,” he said. “So you better use yours wisely. Otherwise you’ll get a bullet through the forehead, and nobody’ll give a shit out here. We’ll use one of these dark old ravines to deep-six your body, and nobody will ever find you. And, yeah, I’ve got your partner,” he said. “Don’t worry. I’ll be there in a few minutes. Count on it.”
And, with that, he hung up. He picked up the guy, tossed him into the backseat of his getaway vehicle, giving him one more punch to the head to make sure he stayed out. Turning the guy’s vehicle around, Galen drove slowly back to where he had parked earlier with Zack. Then he dragged out the unconscious man, threw him over his shoulder, and hoofed it down to the cabins.
As soon as he got there, the door opened, and Gemma took one look at him. “Are you okay?” she cried out, as she sat up, still on the floor, seated by Becky, patting the girl, calming her.
He nodded and dumped the second man onto the floor in front of the gunman, who still held his own handgun. In the same calm movement, Galen ripped the gun away from him. “You shouldn’t fucking touch these.” Reaching up, he brought the barrel of the gun down hard on the bewildered gunman’s head.
With an odd look on his face, the man went down next to his buddy.
Galen promptly searched him, finding a second gun which he also pocketed. Galen looked over at Gemma. “The question is, are you and Becky okay?”
Looking at the two men on the ground, she looked up at him, now standing. “Remind me never to piss you off.”
“Sweetheart, you can piss me off all you want,” he said. “I would never hit you.”
She smiled, walked into his arms, and held him close.
He looked down to see Becky staring at them from the floor, obviously shocked at the sudden turn of events.
He opened his arms and said, “It’s okay, sweetheart. Come here.”
She raced toward them and wrapped her arms around both of them. Then he turned his gaze to the bitch of a mother. “Well, hello, Rebecca.”
She stared at him in shock, then down at the two men on the ground. Immediately her tone of voice changed. “Well, thank God, you got those two men,” she cried out, rushing toward him. But his arms didn’t open for her. She halted a few steps from them. “Of course I had to say what I said,” she told her sister. “You have no idea how they treated me.”
“Yeah, I do, Rebecca,” Gemma said tiredly. “Give it a break, will you?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I set up electronics at Joe’s cabin.”
“What are you talking about? What electronics?”
“You know that we installed cameras at Joe’s house. But we also installed them at Joe’s cabin, when you went to lie down,” Gemma said, hating what was happening. “So we have damn-near everything recorded from the cabin, where you just came from with your so-called kidnappers. Plus, Galen and Zack were there and heard damn-near everything from outside the windows.”
Rebecca turned to look at them. “This is ridiculous. You can’t actually think that I would hurt Becky.”
“I have no idea what you would do,” Galen noted. “I don’t know you, but I’ve seen enough to know I don’t need or want to know any more about you,” Galen said. “What I’ve heard out of your mouth is ridiculous as it is. You’re not my kind of people.”
She sneered. “You’re male. I’m female—that makes me your kind of people. But don’t worry, I don’t want anything to do with you either. You’re a loser.”
“Absolutely,” he said. “By your standards, I probably am. That makes me a winner by mine.” And, with that, he looked down, smiled at Becky, and said, “It’ll be okay.”
She nodded and turned to look up at her mom. “What did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything,” her mom snapped. “Remember who you’re talking to.”
Chapter 15
Gemma winced at that. “Man, if I had a dollar for every time our mother said that to us …”
“Absolutely,” Rebecca said. “And I’m raising my daughter just the same way.”
“Why would you do that?” Gemma asked. “You know how much she hated me.”
“Of course I do,” she said. “But Becky won’t be like you, I won’t allow it. No matter how hard you try.”
“And what exactly is that? She likes animals. She likes being out in the country. What do you mean by, not like me?”
“She’ll behave and be a good girl. She’ll marry well, and she’ll do her mother proud.”
“Not likely,” she said. “That’s your agenda, not hers. She should be able to make her life as she wants it and to be happy living it,” Gemma protested.
“Which is precisely why you never got along with Mom and Dad. They wanted you to be somebody.”
“Like you? How’s that working for you so far?” Galen asked.
She just glared and turned her back on him. Walking over to the couch, she threw herself down and said, “Now what?”
Tim chose that moment to step inside. “Well, I’m kind of hoping that now that these two have been caught, you’ll leave our people to the peace and quiet they crave,” he said to Rebecca, then his gaze softened as it rested on Galen and Gemma and Becky.
With a sigh, Gemma walked over and gave him a gentle hug. “Thank you for stepping up for us,” she said. “And you’re right. We don’t want to cause you any more trouble than we already have.”
“Oh, yay,” Rebecca said. “Does this mean we can finally leave Hicksville?”
Tim looked at her, then looked at Gemma. “You were so right to come here all those summers.”
“I know,” she said, giving him a gentle smile. “My sister would never understand because she’s very much like my mother.”
“And when are they leaving?” he asked, looking pointedly at the two unconscious men on the ground.
Galen gave him a ghost of a smile. “As soon as we can. I’m not sure that there aren’t a few more villains in the midst of all this. I want a chance to talk to these two.”
Tim nodded. “Noon?”
Galen gave him a direct nod. “Noon it is.”
Tim smiled. “I’ll go back and try to get some sleep,” he said. “It’s only three hours ’til milking time.” He shook his head, headed back out, shaking his head again. “City folk.”
Gemma called out behind him, “I’m sorry, Tim.”
He lifted a hand, holding the rifle, and waved. “That’s why you came. I’m glad we could help. Hopefully you’ll stay out of trouble after this.”
“I hope so too.” Then she turned to look at Galen. “He was really the only source of help I knew to call when we got into trouble.”
“As I keep saying,” Rebecca said, “we weren’t in trouble. Once again you’re making something out of nothing. You’re really very tiresome, Gemma.”
“So you say, but I don’t believe you.” Galen reached down and one by one grabbed the two men and put them on the couch beside Rebecca. Both of them were still unconscious, one tilting over against Rebecca.
She bolted to her feet. “Ew! I don’t want to be touched by them.”
“You’ve had sex with both of them. What difference does it make?” Galen asked in a mocking voice.
She glared at him. “I have sex when I want to have sex, with whom I want to have sex with. But nobody’s allowed to touch me if I don’t want them to touch me.”
“Stop that talk around Becky,” Gemma demanded. Her sister obviously didn’t care about that. Walking over to Becky, she said, “How about you getting some more sleep?”
Becky looked up at Gemma, and her bottom lip trembled. In a little voice, she whispered, “Di
d Mommy kill Daddy?”
Her mother spun and looked at her and said, “I did not kill your father. I told you that.”
“And what kind of scenario makes this okay?” Gemma said. “That your daughter actually has to ask you that question?”
Rebecca glared at her. “I told her that we were leaving him.”
“And was that before Daddy died?” Gemma asked Becky.
Her eyes welling up with tears, and her bottom lip trembling, she nodded. “Then Daddy died.”
“Did you know this man who came into the house and shot Daddy?” As she spoke, she pointed out one of the unconscious men.
Becky nodded. “He’s been there lots of times.”
Rebecca snapped, “Just shut up. You’re too young to know what’s happening here.”
“At the house?”
Becky nodded.
At that, Gemma turned to look at her sister. “Seriously? You carried on an affair at home while your daughter was there?”
“She was at school. She doesn’t know anything,” Rebecca snarled. “Besides she’s too young to understand.”
“Except for when I came home from school,” Becky said, “and you were in bed with him. I asked Daddy about it too.”
Rebecca stared at her in horror. “You what? First rule is, you don’t tell Daddy anything! How dare you?”
At that, Becky’s lips trembled again.
Gemma immediately reached for her niece. “You’ve done nothing wrong, sweetie,” she said. “Don’t ever think you did.” But it was obvious that the little girl was confused.
“Maybe,” she said, looking back at her mom and then over at the unconscious men.
Gemma faced Rebecca. “I’ll never forgive you for this,” Gemma hissed, gathering Becky to her, hugging her tight.
Then Becky whispered, “Are the men dead too?”
Gemma shook her head. “No, Galen doesn’t kill people,” she said, “but these two are bad men, and now we have to deal with them.”
Becky looked up at her. “Will he kill them then?”
“No,” Gemma said, hating that this sweet little girl had gotten such a harsh view of the world. “Nobody here will kill them.”
“If you give the gun to Mommy, she would.”
Silence.
Galen let out a burst of laughter. It was a sad laugh, but it was either that or reach out and smack the woman for being such a horrible mother.
“Unfortunately, you’re probably right,” Gemma said. “But I think your mommy prefers to get other people to do her dirty work for her.”
Galen looked at Gemma and motioned her and Becky toward the bedroom.
She nodded. “Come on, sweetheart. You’re tired. It’s been a rough night, so let’s get some sleep.”
“What about the men?”
“I promise Galen won’t hurt them,” she said.
Becky took a moment to study them all, and then she nodded. “I’m really tired. I don’t like this. I want to leave now.”
“It’s all right. You’re right to feel that way,” Galen said. “Nobody should like something like this. It’s bad for everybody. So get some sleep and let us deal with it. When you wake up again, we should be through the worst of it.”
Becky nodded, reached up her arms, and he gave her a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Go get some sleep, sweetheart.”
Gemma picked up the little girl and carried her back into the bedroom. As she tucked her into bed, Becky whispered, “Will you stay?”
“Sure. I’ll stay until you go to sleep,” she said. She laid down on the bed beside her niece. Holding her close, she whispered, “It’s going to be okay.”
“No, it’s not,” she said. “Mommy shot Daddy, Aunt Gemma. I saw her.”
*
Galen was close enough to the bedroom that he heard. He spun ever-so-slowly to look at Rebecca, who stared back at him in shock.
She shook her head. “No, I didn’t. I didn’t kill my husband.”
“Yes, you did,” a man from the couch said in a tired and worn-out voice.
It was the second guy Galen had knocked out, the gunman in the cabin, now conscious.
“I didn’t want to do it, so you took the gun from my hand and shot him right in the forehead.”
“You stupid bastard,” she said. “If you would just shut up, nobody would know anything.”
“Doesn’t matter,” he said. “The cops will be involved, and it’ll be a hell of a mess now.”
“No, it’s not,” she sneered. “You’re just lying to get yourself out of trouble, and it won’t work.”
“Oh, it’ll work,” he said. “I have copies of the emails and everything about our relationship. It’ll definitely work.”
“Not at all,” she said. “It’s my word against yours.”
“Yes,” he said, “my word against your word.” And he sneered. “What makes you think that yours is any better than ours anyway?”
At that, she realized he was pointing to the other man, still unconscious at her side.
She frowned. “You don’t know anything.”
“No?” he said. “I’m sure I don’t. I’m sure you’re full of all kinds of little tricks. I’m still trying to figure out if we were just pawns in the whole mess. I’m pretty sure we were. I just don’t know who else you’re dealing with above us.”
“Why would I be dealing with anybody above you?” she asked. A new tone had entered her voice.
Galen looked at her and smiled. “Joe’s brother, by any chance? Because this isn’t him.”
She looked at him, frowned, and said, “James isn’t here.”
“He has a big place in America, doesn’t he?”
She nodded slowly. “It’s really pretty,” she said. “I was hoping to go over there. Make a new life for my little girl.”
“I’m sure you were. All you had to do was get rid of Joe first, huh?” She lied so damn smoothly that he knew she’d been doing it all her life. And even worse, expected it to work.
“That wasn’t me,” she said. “That was these guys. And James was probably paying them. I didn’t set this up, and Becky doesn’t know what she saw.”
“If you get your new lover involved in this mess,” he said, “it won’t bode well when it comes to building a new life for yourself.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said, with yet another wave of her hand. She stepped out on the front step, and he could see the sun hadn’t yet risen.
“I wouldn’t go out there too far by yourself,” he said.
“Why not?” she said. “It’s not like I’ll run away without my daughter.”
“You really think these guys came here alone?”
“What? You think there was somebody else?” She stared at him, her eyes huge. “I don’t know anybody else who would come.”
“Well, James for one.”
“No, he’s back in America,” she protested. “Why do you keep bringing him up?”
“But is he? You’re standing there in the middle of the front door to this cabin, as if somebody could shoot you. Or maybe as a signal that you need help. I don’t trust you one bit,” he said.
“You shouldn’t,” the conscious man on the couch said. “And you’re right. It’s all making sense now. I thought it was all pretty shitty myself, but I’m just another idiot who fell for her lies.”
“What were you getting out of the deal?” Galen asked him.
“Not enough,” he said. “I was supposed to get fifty thousand, if this came off without a hitch—or five thousand if there was trouble, and I just needed running money. But I’d also been having sex with her for six months, entertaining the thought in the back of my mind that maybe there was a life here for me with her too.”
She snorted at that. “You were never part of the equation.”
“No,” he said. “Like everybody else, I was just a means to an end. Took me a while to figure it out, but I got there eventually.”
“No, not even that,” she said. “I ne
eded you to take out my husband. But you were too gutless to even do that.”
Galen listened with interest as she very clearly said it wasn’t him who had killed her husband. Had she then? And possibly doesn’t want to leave any witnesses behind? He looked over at the gunman, who nodded.
“See? Listen to her. I didn’t kill him.”
But the only way she’d be talking like that was if she has a surefire way of getting out of here. And immediately he got even more suspicious. Pulling out his phone, he slipped back to the side, where he was a little bit out of the way and sent a message to Zack. When there was no answer, he swore. Immediately he walked down the hallway to where Becky and Gemma were, and both were missing.
From the front step of the cabin, Rebecca laughed and laughed. “You’re such an idiot,” she said. “You haven’t understood how this has come down right from the beginning.”
“So, what will you do?” he asked. “Kill your sister and your daughter?”
“My sister, yes, and that’s just for being such a bitch over this whole scenario. If she had just left me at home, none of this would have happened. But not my daughter.”
“At least not today. I mean, if you’ve already killed your husband, plan to kill your only sister, who knows who else you might have to kill in the meantime or will have to kill later.”
“Won’t matter,” she said, “because you won’t be around to fix anything. Doesn’t matter what you’ve heard or what you think you’ve heard,” she said, “because you’re done here.”
“And if I’m not?”
“Oh, you are,” she said, “and so are these two.” Just then the window shattered behind him. He hit the ground running, and, by the time he got up on the other side of the cabin in the darkness, just out of the range of the window, he could see that the backs of the two thugs’ heads had been blown off. And, of Rebecca, there was no sign.
Chapter 16
Gemma stared, fury in her gaze as she cuddled her niece tightly in her arms. Becky was out cold. They’d knocked out the little girl, probably to still her crying or screaming. She looked at the bruising on the little girl’s head, worried they may have hit her too hard. Gemma had also been hit and knocked out but woke a few minutes ago. She was tied up, whereas Becky was not.
