Savage Reckoning

by C. Hoyt Caldwell

  “Who are you?” she asked.

  He lifted his jacket so she could see the badge clipped to his belt. “I’m the police, sweetie.”

  “Where’s Step?”

  “You mind putting that gun down?”

  She grasped the firearm tighter instead. “Step. Tell me where he is.”

  Armstrong’s partner shrugged his shoulder. “I don’t know, the barn I guess. I don’t even know who the fuck you’re talking about. Now, will you please put that gun down?”

  She considered his request and then shook her head. “Don’t trust cops. You put your gun down.”

  The state police officer shook his head. “Can’t do it. You even know how to shoot that thing?”

  “It ain’t a Rubik’s Cube. I just pull this trigger and—” She let out a high-pitched bark when the gun went off after only the slightest tug on the trigger.

  Armstrong’s partner howled as pellets hit him in the face. He fell backward, tossing his gun behind him. He patted frantically at the searing pain in and around his eyes and nose.

  Bones dropped the gun and covered her open mouth with both hands.

  “You shot me in the face!” Armstrong’s partner wailed. “In the fucking face!”

  Bones struggled to gather herself. She slowly maneuvered around the fallen state police officer and quick-stepped it to the gun he’d tossed behind him. Firearm in hand, she gave him one last horrified look and then raced out the front door of the small house.

  Chapter 82

  All heads in the barn turned toward the sound of the gunshot. A worried look formed on Armstrong’s face.

  Step immediately thought of Bones. He’d nearly forgotten all about the skinny menace.

  “This party’s getting a little out of hand,” Boss said.

  “Who’s out there?” Step asked.

  “Nothing to concern yourself with,” Armstrong said nervously. “My partner’s just taking care of a little business.”

  “What business?” Step asked.

  “Your friend,” Dani said. “The girl…”

  Step turned his gun on Armstrong.

  “Hold on!” Boss shouted. “Just stop!” The volume of his voice almost rattled the rafters.

  Step’s body stiffened as he started to lose all sense of himself.

  “There is still a deal on the table that turns us all out of here on our merry ways,” Boss said.

  “I ain’t interested in no deals without Bones,” Step said.

  “Who the fuck is Bones?” Boss asked. He rolled his eyes when he realized who Step was referring to. “That whore you fuck? The one that was beat near dead in that run-down house?” He shook his head in disgust. “She’s here?”

  “She better be,” Step said.

  “What the shit, Step? You really are a fuckup. I send you up here to do a closeout and you bring a date?”

  “It ain’t like that.”

  “I don’t give a shit what it’s like. She’s a kink in the mix we don’t need, and I ain’t gonna concern myself about her. She’ll be dead in three months anyway. If Armstrong’s partner took her out, he did her a goddamned favor.”

  Step started to lose strength in his knees. The thought of Bones being dead scrambled every thought in his head. Not because he loved her or needed her in his life, but because she was another man’s daughter. If Bones was dead, another father had failed like he had failed his own daughter.

  Boss softened his tone. “Let’s get on with this and get out of here, Step. You got a chance to save that little girl down there. That’s what you want, right? That ain’t happening if you fire that gun and blow us all to shit.”

  “What little girl?” a fragile voice asked from the barn entrance.

  Bones stood in the open doorway holding the state police officer’s gun with her finger as far from the trigger as she could get it.

  “Holy shit,” Boss said.

  Step held back a smile.

  “My partner. Where is he?” Armstrong asked.

  Bones looked at her with tired eyes. “Shot him. By accident.”

  “You killed him?” Armstrong growled.

  Bones shook her head. “He ain’t dead. Got him with buckshot. He might be blind.”

  Boss clapped. “There, it’s all worked out so far. Ain’t nobody dead…no one that anyone gives a shit about, anyway. So, let’s get on with the deal.” He stepped toward the tunnel. “Let me go down there and get Kenny and the girl out of there.”

  “You move another inch and I’ll shoot the shit out of you,” Step said.

  “Then you go,” Boss said, “or the cop lady. I don’t give a fuck who, let’s just get this over with.”

  “Not Deputy Savage,” Armstrong said. “She don’t leave my sight.”

  Step scanned every face before turning to Bones. “I need you to do something. You do it right, and I’ll give you your stuff.”

  Chapter 83

  The girl was awake now. Her world was fuzzy and uneven, but she knew she was in a place she didn’t want to be. The pieces of her abduction came to her in painful chunks of memory. The smell of her father’s butcher shop was the most prominent recollection. She wretched at the thought of it. A chubby man raced to her side out of the darkness.

  “You okay there, little thing?” Kenny asked.

  The girl recoiled at the sight of him.

  “I ain’t here to hurt you, I promise. I’m here to take you back to your momma.” He slowed and held up his hands to try to ease her fears, forgetting the fact he was holding a gun.

  She gasped and eyed the weapon.

  Confused, Kenny stepped back. “I swear to the heavens I ain’t got a bad thought toward you in my head…” He unconsciously gripped the handle of the gun and then realized what had the girl so frightened. “No, no, this ain’t for you.” He moved to his left and slowly placed the gun on a bench against the wall. “There. See?”

  She appeared to relax just the slightest. Kenny moved in closer to her, trying his best to appear friendly. “I’m just waiting on my friend. He’s gone up top to take care of some things, and then we’re gonna skedaddle. I can promise you that. Yes, I can.”

  The little girl fought back a flood of tears.

  “Don’t fret, Sarah. I swear Ima get you home. Ima do it…” Kenny let out a gasp when she reached for him and pulled herself to him. His heart ached as he felt her trembling. “You go on there, little thing. Cry it out. This whole thing’s just about over.” He hugged her tight and patted her back. His mind shifted to the others that had been here before her. They had been just as frightened and alone as Sarah. He wondered how long they held on to hope that they would be rescued. He muttered to himself, “Ima kill Boss.”

  Kenny stiffened, lurched forward awkwardly, and wheezed out a breath. The small girl flinched and nearly fell off the metal table. The chubby closeout king felt a stinging sensation in his back, just inside his right shoulder blade. He attempted to turn, but stumbled to his knees instead. The stinging intensified, and he felt the pain spider out across his back.

  “You kilt my baby,” the old woman said, holding a heavy metal chain. She was about to hit Kenny with it again when she spotted his gun and quickly scooped it up.

  Instead of denying what she’d accused him of, Kenny asked who her baby was.

  “My daughter.”

  “I ain’t never killed a baby,” Kenny said, sucking in heavy air.

  “She’s my grown baby.”

  Kenny tried to take a breath and felt a tinge of panic when it didn’t feel like he was taking in air. He coughed. Wheezing, he said, “I ain’t never killed a grown baby, neither.”

  The old woman tried to pull the trigger, but the gun wouldn’t go off.

  “Thing jams up,” Kenny said. He tried to breathe again, but it felt as if he couldn’t pull in any air. “Something don’t feel right.” He collapsed to the cold concrete floor.

  She rushed him, swinging the chain wildly. It hit the metal table before striking Kenny sq
uare on the nose, aggravating the injury Boss had given him. “Ima bring the power of my Lord Jesus Christ on you! Ima send you to hell, where you belong!”

  Kenny held up his arm and took two hits to his elbow from the chain before he heard a loud pop followed by a ringing in his ears. A gun had been fired, and the way his luck had been going, he assumed he had been shot. He attempted to pull himself up to protect the girl, but as soon as he grabbed the edge of the table he released it as an unbearable pain shot up his arm.

  “Wha’cha do?” the woman asked. “I got Jesus’s work to do…I can’t be shot.” She fell to the floor.

  Bones stepped around her. Smoke rose off the barrel of the gun in her shaking hand.

  Kenny watched her approach and smiled, allowing blood from his nose to stain his teeth red. “Pretty Bones,” he said. “I am sure glad to lay eyes on you. That old lady near beat me to death with that chain. Good Lord.”

  Bones knelt beside him. “I don’t like this place.”

  “It ain’t my favorite, neither.” He fought to sit up, cradling his arm against his belly. “I got a bunch of stuff on me that’s broke.”

  “Can you walk? ’Cause Step sent me down here to get you.”

  “He’s alive?”

  “Alive and pissed, as usual.”

  “Who else is up there?”

  “A lady cop, some other woman, Boss. Everyone’s pointing guns at one another.”

  Nodding, Kenny said, “Sounds about right,” and then shifted his frame until he could push himself up with his good arm and stand. Bones attempted to help him, but he yelped in pain when she touched him.

  On his feet, he smiled and turned to the table. “Where’s the girl?”

  “What girl?” Bones asked.

  “The Campbell girl. Little Sarah. She was right here on this table…”

  The sound of crying came from the armored truck.

  “Sarah,” Kenny called out. “You in there?”

  “What the hell is a little girl doing down in this place?”

  Kenny ignored Bones and slowly moved toward the truck. “Sarah? C’mon out, sweetie. Let’s get on home to your momma.” He pulled the door open to the truck and nearly fell to the floor as the little girl leapt up and clamped her arms around his neck. Pain lit up every nerve in his body, but he didn’t dare drop her. Instead, he wrapped his good arm around her and hugged her tight.

  Chapter 84

  Armstrong used the deputy as a human shield. She planted the barrel of her gun in the back of Dani’s head while she watched Kenny emerge from the tunnel with the little girl in his arms. The chubby closeout king was grimacing and snorting back a mountain of pain.

  When Bones made her way out of the tunnel, Boss smiled and said, “Oh look, the gang’s all here.”

  Bones ignored the tension in the air and approached Step. “Where’s my stuff?”

  Motioning to Dani and Armstrong, Step said to Boss, “Your partner don’t seem willing to let go of things.”

  Boss growled. “Let her go, Armstrong.”

  Armstrong took a step back, pulling Dani along with her. “No way.”

  “Give me my stuff!” Bones tugged on Step’s arm.

  “Goddamn it!” Step shouted. “Later!”

  “Armstrong,” Boss said, “I ain’t gonna tell you again. This has all been worked out. We’re all gonna walk out of here drawing in air. Everyone wins.”

  “My partner took a load of buckshot to the face. How am I supposed to explain that?”

  “Line of duty. Got in a tussle with some backwoods boys,” Boss said. “Besides, if it was the old man’s gun, it wasn’t nothing but rock salt. His pride is more damaged than anything. The whore got the best of him.”

  Bones turned to him. “Wha’cha call me?”

  “Easy now, Bones,” Step said, grabbing for her.

  She moved out of his reach and raised her gun. “Call me that again.”

  Boss groaned. “Tell me you ain’t dumb enough to shoot that thing in here?”

  Without warning she popped off a round, hitting the back tire of the tractor.

  Boss dove to the ground, covering his head with his hands. Kenny twirled around with the girl in his arms and nearly collapsed from the pain. Step fired three quick shots into the fuel tank, sending gasoline gushing out onto the wood plank floor.

  Armstrong yanked the deputy out the back door of the barn.

  The tension slowly eased in Boss’s body, and he looked up from his prone position. “It didn’t explode.”

  Step snickered. “I guess you watch too many movies.”

  Boss looked down and watched the fuel leak spread out on the floor and inch its way toward him. He made a move to stand, but stopped when Step ordered him to. “You’re fine right where you are.”

  Kenny was finding it more and more difficult to hold on to Sarah. “Dani?”

  Step looked to the back door. “Shit.”

  The fuel began to soak Boss’s feet.

  Bones screamed and stomped her feet. “I want my stuff!”

  Boss could feel his thighs getting soaked. “Jesus Christ, just shoot her already!” he shouted.

  Step spoke to Bones in a cool, calm tone. “It’s in the truck. Look in the glove compartment.”

  She stared at him. “You ain’t lying?”

  “It’s there, I promise.” He held out his hand. “Give me the gun.”

  She hesitated and then obliged. Walking backward, she made her way out of the barn and then turned toward the house.

  Boss started to stand, but Step stopped him once again.

  Protesting, Boss said, “I’m getting soaked.”

  Step pulled out his pack of Porter 100s from his shirt pocket and shook it until a filter tip stuck out of the top. “Stop your whining.” He stuck the cigarette in his mouth, placed the pack back where it came from, and then pulled a lighter out of his pocket. “You wanna tell me about my wife again? I don’t think I quite got all that.”

  Boss eyed the lighter. “Fuck.”

  The cigarette lit, Step took a deep drag, held it in his lungs for as long as he could stand, and then blew out a steady stream of smoke. “That about sums up the situation. We’re all fucked. Although, I’ve been fucked a whole hell of a lot longer than you. You let me kick around in misery for a good long while, Boss.” Step approached the man soaked in fuel. “What I want to know is, did you enjoy it?” he asked as he squatted, lighter in one hand, gun in the other.

  Boss lay motionless.

  “Answer me.”

  “It was business,” Boss said, sounding more nervous than he ever had in his life.

  Step turned to Kenny. “Business, he says. Can you believe that?”

  Kenny wanted Boss dead as much as his partner, but something in Step’s eyes unsettled him. “Don’t do nothing yet. Not in front of the girl.”

  Step sighed. “Get on out of here. Take her home. I got this.”

  Kenny didn’t move.

  “Go on.”

  “Can’t,” Kenny said.

  “Damn it, Kenny. Just get.”

  “The old lady took a chain to me down there. Pretty sure she broke a bone or two. Little girl here don’t weigh nothing at all, but it’s near killing me holding on to her.”

  “What’re you saying?”

  “I’m saying you’re gonna have to take her.”

  “You’re full of shit, Kenny.”

  “I ain’t, I swear. I’m struggling to get a good breath. I’ve had broken ribs before, and that’s what I’m dealing with right about now. I’d bet money on it.”

  Step grumbled to himself and stood. “Boss’s got to be dealt with.”

  “Come get the girl. Take her home, Step. I’ll deal with that pile of puke.”

  Step hesitated, his gun aimed at Boss. He slowly made his way to Kenny. “Suppose you owe him, too.”

  “And then some,” Kenny said, doing his best to pry Sarah loose.

  “I’ll take her to the truck,” Step said, yanki
ng the little girl free. “Then I’ll come back.”

  Kenny shook his head and took the gun from Step, never moving it off the target. “You ain’t thinking straight. Get the girl out of here, make sure she’s safe. I’ll take care of Boss and see what I can do about finding that pretty lady deputy.”

  The skinny closeout king stuck the lighter in Kenny’s left hand before he headed for the front door of the barn. He stopped when Kenny called out his name. “I think you were right about one thing.”

  “What?”

  “That whole trigger business. Only it ain’t just women that wanna forget. I’d give just about anything to find a gal that’d find my forget-shit trigger. I got a mess of stuff I ain’t got no desire to remember.”

  Step simply nodded at Kenny before he made his way to the truck.

  Chapter 85

  Randle eased the car behind the cruiser in the woods and cut the ignition.

  Friar leaned forward and read the decal across the trunk. “That’s Otis’s car, all right. They went off road with it something considerable. Why you suppose they did that?”

  Randle checked his gun and ammo. “Only one way to find out.”

  “I ain’t too keen on participating in that one way, Terry.”

  Randle looked at him, cockeyed. “We’re cops, Deputy. That’s what we do.” Even he had a hard time believing what he was saying, given his past propensity to avoid police work.

  “I ain’t a cop all the way out here. No, sir. This is out of my jurisdiction by a good bit.”

  Randle pointed to the cruiser. “Then we’re here to check up on a friend. Make sure she’s okay.”

  “Friend? You ain’t had a good word to say about her since she joined up with the force.”

  Randle grabbed Friar by the shirt collar. “I promised Otis I’d make sure she was safe.”

  Friar hesitated before asking, “They killed him, didn’t they? Those state police didn’t come to help us out. Otherwise we wouldn’t’ve run like we did.”

  Randle released him. “We didn’t run from nothing, we run to something.” He pointed to the cruiser. “Now, you gonna gear up and join me, or are you gonna piss your baby pants here in this car by your lonesome?”