FROST SECURITY: Richard

by Glenna Sinclair

  “It’s okay,” I said, squeezing her tight. “It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay. They have Sheila anyways, so I’m kind of glad they showed up. Maybe we can rescue you her? You think?”

  Outside, a man called up to the cabin again. Probably whoever had yelled earlier, before they started shooting into the cabin. “If you don’t want the girl,” Richard yelled suddenly, his voice loud but still distant to my deadened eardrums, “what the fuck do you want?”

  “What?” she asked. “How are we-”

  “I don’t know,” I said, cutting her off quickly, sniffling loudly again. “But we have to get her. She’s my best friend, Lacy. We’ve gotta help her. We have to find a way.”

  Lacy crossed her arms over her body, held herself close as she shivered. “I don’t know, Jessica. Richard told us to stay back here. He said we need to get into the woods if things went south. He told me, Jessica. I don’t-”

  “And I’m telling you,” I said, grabbing her by the shoulders and looking her square in the face. “That we have to get Sheila. Okay? We’re not leaving without her, no matter what.”

  She glanced away, down at her shoes. “Fine,” she whispered. “She’s your friend, I get it. We’ll stay, alright?”

  I nodded, pressed my lips together into a thin line. “Good.”

  Now, all we had to do was figure out how the hell we were going to set her free.

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  Richard

  I crouched low, my back pressed against the outside wall. All the bullets had gone wide of their mark by a huge margin, shooting up the ceiling and the top windows of the living room, raining down glass and ceiling plaster on my head. They’d either fired high just to try and scare me, or the Skull and Bonesmen were all just truly awful shots. I was betting on the former, though.

  “You figured out we mean business yet, Murdoch?” Wyatt shouted from the front. “We’ll turn that little cabin of yours into swiss cheese, asshole, pump it so full of bullets we can’t help but hit that little girl we followed out here. You want that? You want her blood on your hands, all mixed up with the blood you’re already gonna have from little Miss Sheila out here? Cause, if even if you make it out, blood like that don’t come off your hands, man, no matter how much you scrub.”

  I breathed hard, tried to weigh my options as I sat there with my back against the wall, looking over the destruction they’d already inflicted on my cabin. I mean, shit, it looked like this place had been used for a punk rock or tmetal show. I’d seen places in Kabul that looked better after a suicide bomber hit it.

  The cabinets in the kitchen were blown open, the dishes and glasses shattered and sprayed all over the kitchen. The TV had been knocked clear of the wall, falling right on its edge and splitting the screen from its housing. Even the refrigerator hung open, having taken a solid blast from a rifle, popping it open and so it swung against the kitchen island.

  I shook my head again, images of what they might do to Sheila out there if I didn’t myself over to them soon. My hands tightened around the shotgun, my knuckles going white.

  “Next thing you hear, Murdoch,” Wyatt crooned to me, “is gonna be little Miss Sheila screaming your name. But it ain’t gonna be in a fun way. You see, we’re gonna take our time with her out here in the gravel. Ain’t got much longer to make your decision ‘fore I can’t hold my boys back any longer.” The men chuckled like some sort of Greek chorus of the damned, their voices evil as they began to imagine and relish the things they’d do to the poor woman.

  What I needed to do, was to keep them from putting their hands on Sheila, to stall them so they couldn’t put any of their promises into actual action. And, ideally, I could keep them busy till the rest of the pack showed up. And what better way to keep them busy, than to keep them talking?

  “Fine,” I yelled back. “What do you want from me? Why me, Axelrod? Cause I whipped your ass back in Enchanted Rock?”

  “Cause you sucker punched me, you motherfucker,” he snarled, still lying about how everything went down. “Then, when Bo challenged you to a fight earlier today, one of your buddies showed up and wrecked their bikes. Seems to us you can’t handle a fair fight, is all, so we wanted to make sure you got one this time around.”

  “That’s what you want?” I asked with a laugh. “A fair fucking fight? That why you brought a dozen of your men up here to protect your sorry ass from me?”

  “That ain’t what it is!” Wyatt screamed. “It’s about respect, boy! About us teaching it to the sorry likes of you!”

  I laughed again. “Respect? Wyatt, you wouldn’t know respect if it fucked your momma and knocked her up with you. You’re a lousy piece of shit, and a lousy liar.”

  “Think I’m a fucking liar?” he asked, really getting worked up now, his voice almost cracking as he screamed. “You think I’m a motherfucking liar?”

  “I think you tried to sucker punch me on the fucking street earlier today, and I whipped your ass anyways. That’s exactly what I think.”

  “How about this? You think I’m a fucking liar?” The hammer on his revolver clicked as he drew it back, locked it into place. “You wanna see if I don’t keep my fucking word? Huh?”

  My mouth went dry suddenly, as I realized I may have pushed him too far. Apparently, Wyatt Axelrod and the Bonesmen with him were only so interested in speaking. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath. “You made your point!” I yelled out to him. “I’ll come out. But, since you’re so fond of your word, I want you to make me two promises.”

  Wyatt laughed, and I heard the hammer release.

  “First,” I called, “I need a minute to get my shit together in here. Then, I ain’t coming out till Sheila’s inside the house.”

  “Sounds fair,” Wyatt said, to a smattering of giggles and chortles from his buddies. “You come out and you fight. You lose, that’s it, end of story. You win, that’s it, too. We leave in peace either way, long as you as ain’t gonna try and pull no more dirty shit like you did earlier.”

  But, as I was about to head into the back bedroom to tell Jessica and Lacy what I was doing, I heard them. My pack. Their howls echoing through the mountains, urgent calls that let me know they were on their way, and not to worry. They’d have my back in just a couple minutes.

  “Just wanna say goodbye is all,” I called. “Five minutes? Can you at least give me that?”

  “You got five, boy-o,” Wyatt called. “Any longer and the party gets started without you.”

  Chapter Forty

  Jessica

  The man outside yelled again. “Five minutes?” Richard called back. “Can you at least give me that?” A muffled reply, and Sheila's scream as I heard Richard moving in the living room and coming back towards us, into the hallway. He opened the bedroom. “Jessica?” he asked. “Lacy? You back here still?”

  “We’re here,” Lacy said as we both began to scramble out from beneath the bed. As we got to our feet, I looked around at the wreckage.

  Stuffing and down covered every surface. The blankets were ruined, the bed destroyed. Two fist-sized holes were blown out of the wood paneling, and the rear window was shattered.

  “Why haven’t you left yet?” Richard hissed as he came to me, gripped my by both arms. “What the fuck are you doing?”

  “The bullets!” Lacy said from beside me.

  I looked up into his frightened eyes. What I saw there, though, wasn’t fear for himself. No, it was fear for me and Lacy, what might happen to us if we stayed here. “And you and Sheila,” I said, putting my arms around him, pulling myself close to his chest.

  Richard stiffened up at first as I pulled myself against him, but then relaxed, put his arms around me, the big shotgun of his heavy against my back. “I know,” he whispered, stroking a hand down my bird’s nest of bedheaded hair. “I’m going to get her out, okay? Wyatt wants me, not you.”

  I pulled back from him, the shotgun painfully thumping against my back as I put him at arm’s length. “What?” I cried. “Wh
at the fuck is all this shit?”

  “He thinks I besmirched his honor or something,” he drawled. “He took Sheila because he wanted to force me out into the open, I think, make me come along peacefully.”

  I looked into his eyes again. I saw the determination there. “You’re . . . you’re going to do it, aren’t you? You’re going to trade yourself to those fucking monsters?”

  He touched my cheek, brushed his fingerprints just barely over my skin, so lightly he might as well have not been touching me. “I have to,” he said, wiping a tear from my cheek with his thumb, smiling sadly. “I can’t even repeat to you what they threatened to do to her if I don’t, Jessica. But, don’t worry, I’ll be fine. He says he just wants a fight.”

  “What?” I asked, confused. I shook my head, pulled back from him. “Who do you think you are, Richard? Superman? Those men are going to fucking kill you, and you know it. This won't be a fair fight.”

  “Look,” he whispered, gripping my arms more firmly than before, “the rest of my team are on their way here, Jessica, and they’ll arrive soon. I know they will. But, in the meantime, I need you to take care of Sheila when they hand her over. The three of you need to get to safety. Can you do that for me? Huh, Jessica?”

  “But, Richard, I . . .” I trailed off, glanced to Lacy, who looked like death herself, all the blood drained from her already pallid complexion. “I just found you. I can’t lose you now.”

  He smiled grimly. “Don’t worry,” he promised. “You won’t. Just, you two take Sheila away from here when I go. I don’t want you to caught in the crossfire when the guys arrive and get down to business.”

  He turned to go, but before he could leave I grabbed him by the shoulder and tried to pull him back around to face me. As he turned, I threw my arms around his neck again, kissed him hard.

  His lips were so soft, so insistent as he pulled me into his arms. I felt the shotgun in his hands lifted away, probably by Lacy, and we both sighed and groaned as we kissed one last time. Because that’s what it felt like, I knew, for both of us. The last time.

  I didn’t want to admit that I was losing him so soon, after just finding an amazing man like him. And I knew he didn’t want to admit that he was going to his death. But, there wasn’t any other way to look at it. He was a dead man walking. How could he make it out of this alive? And, God, the reason he was dying? Trading himself for my best friend, a woman he’d only met in passing? This was all my fault. If I hadn’t gone to Frost Security with my problems, hired them to deal with it, Richard never would have been dragged into this. He’d still have a life ahead of him.

  I realized as he we finally pulled away from each other that I was crying again, more softly this time than before, the tears slowly and gently rolling down my cheeks.

  He smiled down at me, brushed another tear away with his thumb. “I’m going to be okay,” he said evenly. “Don’t worry about me. Just get yourselves to safety. Okay? Lacy? You’ll listen this time, right?”

  “Sure thing, boss,” Lacy said, a little tremor running through her voice. “Once we get Sheila, we’re out the back, like you said.”

  He nodded again, kissed me on top of my head. “Murdoch!” Wyatt called from outside, then something indistinct afterwards. Richard uncoiled his arms from around me and took the shotgun back from Lacy.

  “Gotta go,” Richard said, his voice deadly serious. “Remember.”

  “We know,” I said, the tears still leaking from the corners of my eyes.

  And then he was gone, leaving me and Lacy just standing there in the bedroom. Alone.

  “He’ll be fine,” Lacy tried to assure me.

  “Bullshit,” I spat.

  “Believe me,” she said, pausing for a moment like she was searching for what to say next. “Richard’s special. All the guys are. I’ve heard of him getting out of worse situations than this.”

  I whirled on her. “Don’t. Just don’t. I’m tired of having false hopes, Lacy. Just, let me cope with this my way. Your lies aren't going to make things any better.”

  She sighed and shrugged, seemed to resign herself to no longer babying me. “Okay. But, you’ll see.”

  Chapter Forty-one

  Richard

  “Let the girl go first,” I called from the cabin doorway, shotgun still in hand. “Once she’s inside, I’ll come out.”

  Wyatt had her pulled back up against him, his shirt fisted tightly in her hair so she had to stand on her tiptoes as he held her hostage. He nodded once, shoved her toward the cabin. Sheila stumbled forward, with legs and feet flailing beneath her to get purchase on the gravel. She fell to the ground, tearing her designer jeans, but quickly picked herself up and came running to me.

  “Get inside,” I said as she came thumping up onto the porch, her eyes frantic like a scared dear.

  “I’m so sorry,” she whispered as she came up to me.

  I stepped aside and let her pass. “It’s alright,” I mumbled. “Jessica’s in back. My partner’s going to get you both out of here, I promise. You just need to listen to Lacy, okay?”

  She nodded, her lower lip trembling like the waterworks were about to start as she stopped next to me. I wouldn’t have blamed her if they did. Instead, she threw her arms around me and hugged tightly, trying to crush the wind from my body. “I’m so sorry, Richard! Don’t go out there! They’re going to kill you!”

  I chuckled dryly as I disengaged myself from her. “It’s okay,” I replied. “I know what I’m doing. I’ve got friends on the way.”

  Another howl, this time much closer, pierced the mountain night.

  Nope, not much longer now. Hopefully, Frank and the guys would have enough sense to let me finish this my way. The last thing I needed was one of them butting their nose in like Frank had earlier in the day, riling things up even further. I didn’t want a feud. I’d make a horrible Hatfield, and an even worse McCoy.

  “What was that?” Sheila asked, glancing back towards the rowdy group of bikers she’d just escaped. “A coyote?”

  “No,” I said flatly. “A wolf. Now go in back.”

  She gave me a weird look and just headed inside.

  As she turned into the hallway, I shifted my focus back to the crowd outside.

  “Ready for this, Murdoch?” Wyatt yelled. “Ready to get yo ass whipped all the way to kingdom come and back?”

  I set my SPAS-12 aside, leaning it up against the wall next to the rifle. Stolidly, I walked out onto the porch, my heavy boots thudding with each step like the drums of war. I passed down onto the gravel and walked to Wyatt, who stood out and away from his group of men. “So you want a fair fight? Another one?” I asked.

  He twisted his head to the side, spat a big wad. “Want you to know your place, that’s what I want.” Around him, his men cheered and jeered. I could almost guarantee that a more hateful crowd of ugly men hadn’t been assembled this close to Enchanted Rock since the days of the prospectors.

  I rolled my shoulders, loosening them up, and raised my fists in front of my face. “Better men than you tried to teach me that, Wyatt. But, come on, let’s get this over with.”

  Chapter Forty-two

  Jessica

  I pulled Sheila into me as soon as she came through the door. She broke down and sobbed into my shoulder as the shock wore off. I cradled her to me, held her face against as I stroked her hair. Behind us, Lacy had already gotten the screen off the rear window.

  “It’s okay,” I whispered. “You’re safe now, Sheila. We’re going to get you out of here, take you into the woods with us.”

  “B-b-b-but I made a mess of everything,” she sobbed, wrapping her arms tightly around me. “That guy’s sacrificing himself for me. They’re going to kill him, Jess! It’s all my fault!”

  I shushed her. “He’s going to be fine,” I said. “He’s going to fight them, and that’ll be it.”

  “No,” Sheila said as she pulled back and looked into my bleary eyes with her own bloodshot ones, “you don’t underst
and. They’re going to kill him no matter who wins.” She wiped the back of her hand across her nose. “And it’s all my fault!”

  “Ladies,” Lacy said, ignoring Sheila’s tears, “we need to go. Richard said we needed to go as soon as she got in here.”

  I looked back at Lacy. “She says they’re going to kill him no matter what! Don’t you care?”

  Lacy got a weird look on her face, like she was trying to force herself to care.

  That little bitch! “You don’t care?” I spat. “Do you? He’s your friend for fuck’s sake!”

  She shook her head, saying, “No, it’s not like that. I told you, Richard’s going to be fine!”

  “Well I’m not fucking going anywhere!” I yelled. “Not till I know Richard is safe!”

  She huffed and rolled her eyes. “Fine!” she yelled back, clearly tired of the whole argument. “Can we just go out the back, at least? If we just suddenly come out the front, someone might start shooting. And, believe me, we won’t be fine if that happens.”

  I nodded once. “Let’s go. Maybe we can come up with a way to . . . I don’t know!”

  Lacy went out the window first, since she was the only one of us armed. She hit the ground and promptly plopped onto her butt in the short, yellowed grass, but scrambled back to her feet as she dusted her rump clean. She was back outside the window in no time, arms outstretched to catch Sheila, who was next. I came after, my arms flailing a little as I landed on the ground. Both women caught me securely.

  “Still think we should listen to Richard,” Lacy mumbled as I went to grab from the stump the ax that Richard had been earlier using to chop wood.

  “Well,” I snarled as I yanked the blade from the stump, surprising even myself, “I wish that had been your attitude earlier.” I turned back to her, ax in hand.

  Lacy’s face was barely lit by the stars and the moon, but even in that poor light I could see the hurt I’d just caused her. Even Sheila looked horrified by what I’d say.